Going on standby

The_Bullman

after seeing the Simpsons episode where homer goes to the airport and gets the cheap flights to japan

Question-is it possible to do that in Ireland?

I am thinkin of going to america during the summer and i wonder if this is a good idea to try to get standby tickets. a mate of mine said that it shouldn't be a problem, just wear a suit or something decent(incase you get put in first class), but i don't know. He also said to try the "death in family" thing to get ahead of the bunch. Now i am not really up for going that far, but i wouldn't mind trying to get a cheap flight some way.

so has anyone got any tricks to get cheap flights?

suggestions appreciated!

NeRb666

I'm not sure where you could start, but I know there's a place in Stanstead airport that offers last minute deals, most of them seem to be package holidays that depart that day though.

In my experience (losing plane tickets, trying to get home ) it's not cheap to get a flight at the last minute in an airport

The_Bullman

*Bump

Bluehair

Sorry to disappoint The_Bullman but what you describe is as far as I'm aware a US-only thang and even at that was a fairly short-lived experiment.

I'm not aware of any of the majors (indeed any airline at all) that offers standby tickets to anyone except it's own staff. The problem is that by offering them to the public it pissed off staff hughly (it being their primary benifit and making up somewhat for low-pay) plus it hit revenue badly since walk-up fares are always going to be the highest (and the customer is stuck with paying it or not going). That combined with the rapid expansion of consolidated or 'net'-fare availability on-line means you won't get a standby ticket unless you work in the industry.

As far as getting the cheapest ticket there's a few things to keep in mind. Most important is the further ahead of time you buy the better deal you will get *always*. This is because of something called 'advanced purchase'. The best fares will usually have at least a 14-day advance purchase and often considerably more. Of course there's a set number of seats for sale at any given fare so even booking a few months in advance doesn't guarentte one of these seats.

Try to always include a Saturday night stay in your itin (can make a surprisingly large diff in fare) and avoid holiday travel like the plague (check on-line for specific holidays at both origin and dest, I got stung on Memorial Weekend a couple years ago in the States and got screwed for my Hotel room).

Also if fare is your biggest consideration you'll more often than not find better fares through on-line or street travel agents than direct with the airline. Again though the above tips apply plus you will find the fares available will be very restricted (so dont be surprised that though you might manage to get a cheap flight to the US if you miss the plane/need to change the date etc. you'll either be faced with an outright NO;buy a new ticket or if you're lucky pay a couple of hundred bucks fee on top of the original fare.)

Umm.. thats it for now If you'd like to know anything else I'll try to help

[[P.S. For your own sake don't pull 'death in the family' or any other cr@p like that. Other than the bad karma (cough ) trust me the airlines are well wise to every scam out there and it ain't worth trying to save a few bucks vs. getting done for fraud.. I've seen it happen and it ain't pretty )

bucks73

Everything Bluehair said is correct but just a point on upgrades.

Airlines upgrade passengers when they have an overbooking situation. If the economy cabin is overbooked they may offer an upgrade to passengers who have paid the highest economy fares and are also dressed well.

Because of cutbacks though, in the last couple of years airlines have preferred to offer vouchers to passengers in return for taking a later flight and easing their overbooking problem. These vouchers are usually for a fixed amount that can be used to purchase further travel with the same airline.

While airlines used to give upgrades to passengers quite a lot in the past they just can not afford to anymore.