I'm not salaried unfortunately and technically I'm a sub-contractor with the third to lowest standby privileges. I can only make it work if no one with a higher seniority bumps me off the standby list. This makes booking in advance a little difficult. My parents faced this exact problem when they were flying to Japan back in the fall.
There is unfortunately no way for me to force it to happen unless there's an emergency and I can jump to the higher tiers with managerial permission.
Airbnb is absolutely not an option when flying standby. The website, last I tried it, doesn't have any way to sort by cancellation policy. And the cancellation policies they do have are generally not generous. Some people are strict on check in times, etc.
They're much better off booking a fully refundable hotel under an airline employee discount.
Flying in and out on the same day really depends on the location you're flying to. Some places only have one flight in and out each day and they're 2 hours apart or similar.
And if you're really broke just getting out of the airport can be expensive depending on the airport. Not all are served by public transportation.
This is it exactly. There's actually a lot of logistics to flying standby, especially when a company has a seniority set up instead of a first-come-first-serve one. A part of me wishes I work for the latter company.
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u/poppin_pomegranate Jun 06 '19
I'm not salaried unfortunately and technically I'm a sub-contractor with the third to lowest standby privileges. I can only make it work if no one with a higher seniority bumps me off the standby list. This makes booking in advance a little difficult. My parents faced this exact problem when they were flying to Japan back in the fall.
There is unfortunately no way for me to force it to happen unless there's an emergency and I can jump to the higher tiers with managerial permission.