Standby Flight Question...
 

Hey y’all! I am a PPL in college working on my IR and I have a unique opportunity... I am a part of the Trans States Aviators program and have (albeit the lowest possible) standby privileges on all United/Star Alliance flights. I previously tried to grab a standby flight from MCO to IAD and ended up booted off two flights in a row so that was a little bit disheartening...

So my question for United pilots, how do y’all figure out which airports are better/worse to fly standby through? I know you all have higher priority but I’m sure you’ve been able to notice how some flights are consistently pretty empty or easy to get standby on.

I am trying to fly from ATL to Tokyo this coming March and I have a number of options to get there... It seems like flying ATL to ORD is the best best to connect to Tokyo, but I’m just not sure because I’ve always bought my tickets and flown Delta out of Atlanta... I compared all the available flights from ATL to each connecting United hub and then looked at how many flights to Tokyo are available from each of those hubs. Unless another hub almost always has pretty empty flights to Japan, I guess Chicago is the way?

Thanks in advance!
Ryan

Getting out of MCO is impossible on any airline so I feel you there. With your trip to Tokyo, you really won't know which hub you should fly out of until a few days prior, so checking now won't do much good. So be prepared to get to any hub from ATL if taking United to Tokyo. That said, know all the flights into Japan. United has a flight from HNL to NRT and through GUM. So look at every city in Japan. Since they have a fabulous rail system, you can connect to anywhere once you get there. Don't forget to check both airports in Tokyo too, HND and NRT.

I’ve been checking both HND and NRT. Was wondering if HND flights tend to be fully as they’re closer to the city... so the way my flight benefits work is I have to have TSA reserve flight numbers for me, so basically I have to manually do each leg, so I will know ahead of time... so if UA1234 leaves ATL at 10:00 arrives ORD at 12:00 and UA4321 leaves ORD at 1:30 and arrives NRT later I’d have to book two legs, not one continuous journey... Kinda screwy. On that note it looks like ORD has the most daily flights to Japan and the most connections from ATL so I’ll probably try to catch the 5:30am out of ATL and the 10:30 from ORD...

Anyways I’m glad to hear that with Orlando lol... that experience was definitely discouraging 😂 thanks again!!!

Busy city to busy city domestic can be very tight, ATL-ORD. You have to try an ‘off time’ & date. That may be 1st flight on Sunday morning, or early New Year’s Day.

Domestic loads can swing in a whim, 20 seats to oversold in a heartbeat. International doesn’t swing as fast, protocols for travel slow last minute changes.

It’s an adventure, maybe buy one discounted ticket to get started. I always say have alternative plans. I had a relative at ORD trying to get to SFO then New Zealand, ended up in Ireland, couldn’t get on to the West Coast.

Bad weather also helps standby, depending. Trying to go west out of ORD with bad weather east will lead to misconnects.

I figure it would be.... that’s why I’m planning on leaving a day early or ORD and trying to catch the earliest flight I can. I figure the international legs are easier to grab than the domestic busy ones. I’ll try for a Thursday morning earliest flight and go from there...

Thanks again!

Which do you think would be more successful Thursday morning? 5:50am to DC or 7:30AM to Chicago? I’m thinking the early morning will be more empty...

Any NR, any airline, first flight of the day.:D

Yes, somebody will always over-sleep and maybe they didn't over-book the flight too much. Tues is best, then Sat, then Thur. Holiday week, all bets are off.

Well, for me it's mostly other pilots who share their thoughts and reviews via web.

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