Wanderlust World Wanderlust World By now, many people know the secret that airlines will allow you to travel to your destination by flying standby on an earlier flight on the same day. So, to game the system, you have to try some additional tricks of the trade.
Enroll in the frequent-flyer program of the airline you're flying on. It is important to gain as many miles as possible in each of your frequent flier programs if you want to take advantage of them when traveling. This means eating at restaurants and shopping at stores that offer bonus miles as well as utilizing a credit card that does the same. Then, when you try to fly standby if you have achieved an "elite" status with that airline, you will be jumped ahead of other standby passengers who don't have the same status.
Book a first class or business class ticket. This method is a bit tricky, but will give you an advantage over other passengers. You'll obviously pay more for these seats than you would a coach ticket. Also, because there are few of these seats on the airline, you'll have less of a chance of getting on a flight that is deemed as "full." (Meaning of the 200 people in coach, someone is bound to miss a connection. If there are only 12 first class seats, the chances of them being filled are usually strong.) However, on the positive side, by paying more, you'll be put ahead of other people on the waiting list who purchased a coach ticket. Also, the airline will let you fly in the coach section standby if the higher classes of service are full.
Purchase a full fare ticket. Short of shelling out the big bucks for first class, another option is to buy a "full fare" coach ticket. This means you can cancel your reservation at any time without penalty. This usually costs at least twice the price of a normal coach ticket. But the advantage is, should you choose to fly standby, you'll be ahead of the people who have purchased the lower class of coach ticket.
Do your homework on all of the potential flights that you might take previous to the one you are booked on. This means finding their times and flight numbers. This is readily available on each airline's website. This way, when you arrive to check in, you can be specific to the attendant as to which flight you'd like to take. It makes the process much easier.
Get to the airport as early as possible. Technically you'll have the best shot if you get to the airport at midnight. This is because it is the technical start of the day. People are placed on the standby list on a first come first serve basis. The "early bird gets the worm" is certainly the appropriate analogy here.
Offer to change your route, but keep your destination. Sometimes airlines get exceedingly backed-up due to weather, crew or maintenance conditions. You may actually be doing them a favor by opening up a seat on a later flight, while you take an earlier set of flights that takes a different route, but still reaches your destination. You end up getting in earlier, and they have a seat for a frustrated passenger. This sort of swap is something that will need to be approved by an airport manager.