Last Minute Flights or Stand-By

Does anyone have any experience with flying last minute or Stand-by?
Is it true that you can get incredible deals if you catch last minute flights or go stand-by (if that even exists)?
Where can one find out about these deals?

I'd like to know that I can just pick-up and catch a flight anywhere around North America and Europe at any time.

By the way, I don't mean last minute holidays (like resorts or cruises). I've backpacked in the past and wouldn't even think of going to a resort.

It really depends where you go and when you go.
Canada -> Aisa. NO Last minute deal.
Canada -> USA. sometimes. charter flight has lots of last minute deal.
Canada -> Europe. Travel agency can provide more discounts. and don't forget to try charter flight.

Originally Posted by markreda

Does anyone have any experience with flying last minute or Stand-by?
Is it true that you can get incredible deals if you catch last minute flights or go stand-by (if that even exists)?
Where can one find out about these deals?

I'd like to know that I can just pick-up and catch a flight anywhere around North America and Europe at any time.

By the way, I don't mean last minute holidays (like resorts or cruises). I've backpacked in the past and wouldn't even think of going to a resort.

Regarding standby, going to the airport and waiting for a plane to start boarding and then getting a seat, from what I've heard recently is that no you can't they stopped that since to many people switched to standby and it hurt business. I also think nowadays the security requirments would kinda ban that type of travel.

Originally Posted by markreda

Does anyone have any experience with flying last minute or Stand-by?
Is it true that you can get incredible deals if you catch last minute flights or go stand-by (if that even exists)?
Where can one find out about these deals?

I'd like to know that I can just pick-up and catch a flight anywhere around North America and Europe at any time.

By the way, I don't mean last minute holidays (like resorts or cruises). I've backpacked in the past and wouldn't even think of going to a resort.

Did you ever end up trying to stand by at the airport?! me and my buddy is planning to do this in mid OCT!

These days stand by usually means people who have a ticket on that airline for an earlier or later flight, or who missed their original flight. I would not go to the airport without a ticket thinking you can score a great deal. Since you can check prices and book fights online you won't see any difference as in if the flight is available on aircanada.com it won't be cheaper just because you went to the airport.

Check the deals websites in the sticky and start watching prices now, when you see a good deal, grab it.

holy cow....this was from 2005, didn't see that

Originally Posted by markreda

Does anyone have any experience with flying last minute or Stand-by?
Is it true that you can get incredible deals if you catch last minute flights or go stand-by (if that even exists)?
Where can one find out about these deals?

I'd like to know that I can just pick-up and catch a flight anywhere around North America and Europe at any time.

By the way, I don't mean last minute holidays (like resorts or cruises). I've backpacked in the past and wouldn't even think of going to a resort.

I know what you mean except for one thing...some package deals are actually cheaper than the flights alone. For instance I once went on a package deal all inclusive to Costa Rica for about $600 last minute all in but the flight on its own was $700 + taxes. Look at the packages and just leave some of your stuff in the hotel room while you back pack around....but then again this only works for popular holiday destinations booked last minute!

There is no showing up at the airport Simpsons style and flying stand by anymore. The only people who can do that are airline employees. Stand by that has been pointed out means standing by for an earlier flight to somewhere you are already ticketed.

Originally Posted by industry_killer

There is no showing up at the airport Simpsons style and flying stand by anymore. The only people who can do that are airline employees. Stand by that has been pointed out means standing by for an earlier flight to somewhere you are already ticketed.

That is not true. There are many people traveling standby. I hear them called up to the gate on many trips I am on.

Originally Posted by Pete_Coach

That is not true. There are many people traveling standby. I hear them called up to the gate on many trips I am on.

I've seen this on overbooked domestic flights but not international and I'm not sure that it's true standby, more like passengers seeing if they can get an earlier flight.

Does anyone know that this thread is over 2yrs old?

Originally Posted by yyz2hkg

Does anyone know that this thread is over 2yrs old?

yes it was mentioned earlier.

Originally Posted by Pete_Coach

That is not true. There are many people traveling standby. I hear them called up to the gate on many trips I am on.

Yes and it is was I described, people standing by for earlier flights to the same destination they already have booked, or if the airline is nice letting the passenger still stand by after missing their orginal flight. There is no showing up at the airport and deciding you want to fly stand by with no ticket booked and hope to go somewhere. If you are not booked you are not flying.

Originally Posted by ash101

It really depends where you go and when you go.
Canada -> Aisa. NO Last minute deal.
Canada -> USA. sometimes. charter flight has lots of last minute deal.
Canada -> Europe. Travel agency can provide more discounts. and don't forget to try charter flight.

how does one look up charter flights?

Originally Posted by Pete_Coach

That is not true. There are many people traveling standby. I hear them called up to the gate on many trips I am on.

I bet 80% of those people are airline employees or their relatives, the other 20% are people who have missed their flight or showed up early and their fare class allows them to fly stand-by on another flight.
There are hundreds of thousands of airline employees in North America alone (my wife works for a US based airline that employs 25,000 people in NYC alone!), plus their benefits extend to their parents, spouses and kids, so on any given flight, you have a good chance of seeing some of those people.

Originally Posted by cuto

how does one look up charter flights?

Call travel agencies specializing in travel to the country you're interested in, they'd know about any charter flights.
Otherwise, you can try online agencies such as redtag.ca