Cheap airline tickets by waiting for cancellations?

So, from what I remember on watching The Simpsons, one can sit around at an airport and wait for cancellations on outgoing flights. You can then nab those seats for considerably cheaper than a normal ticket.
Now, my question is, does this actually work? What are the logistics of doing so? Like…, where would I wait, who would I talk to, how would I know if a flight had empty seats? Lastly, how likely is this to work if I’m trying to get to a particular place (as opposed to anywhere), and how much cheaper will this be?

I think this is called standby. And from what I’ve heard from friends, it’s about the same price as I’ve gotten from Priceline. (pre 9-11, $99 NY-Chicago, Priceline vs. $110 standby)

Well, the first problem you’d encounter would be that you have to wait outside security. Not only can you not get through security without a boarding pass, but the agents at the ticket counter are the ones who have to sell you your ticket.

The second (and biggest) problem that you’d encounter is that you pay MORE for a ticket the closer it is to departure time. There are two main reasons for this:

  1. An airline seat is a unique product with an expiration time: once that door closes, all empty seats are lost revenue that is gone forever. No chance to send those unsold seats to the outlet store or the clearance rack; they are gone. This results in:

  2. Airlines have very sophisticated ways of maximizing the revenue for each flight. If you commit early you can get a good price. This is because you ensure SOME revenue on that flight, and when you book the flight is probably not full. As the flight date approaches and more people book, the price becomes more expensive. This is because ther are fewer seats available and (more importantly) the people who are booking seats later usually are more specific in their needs (ie I NEED to be in LA by 10 AM). You are in effect paying for the airline to maintain that whole flexible schedule that you need to accomodate you.

Now, at some point the fares go from “maximizing revenue” to “gouge the hell out of them”. Where this is varies by airline, but pretty much anything on the day of the flight is really going to cost you. If you need to be in City X that bad, you will pay for it. But again, you are paying for flexibility here, not just the seat. Think of stepping off the curb at JFK and taking a cab to Atlantic City instead of a pre-arranged bus - both provide you a seat, but that cab got you there RIGHT NOW and as such is much more expensive.

So, at what point does the last-minute airline seat go from “excrutianingly expensive” to “dirt cheap”? Actually, I’m a pilot, not an agent, so I don’t know if this ever happens. But…

My best guess is that the fares never drop. The timing between selling the ticket and getting on the airplane must be set, but this varies by airport. Getting through security in DFW is much quicker than EWR, for example. Does EWR drop ticket prices 15 minutes earlier than DFW? This would be a huge logistical nightmare, and no airline is going to hold or delay a flight for one person who just bought a cheap-o fare. If you paid $350 for your ticket would you want them to hold the plane for the guy just threw $40 down but had to get something to eat at McDonald’s before he got on board?

My best example that this doesn’t happen is that there are not hundreds of people camped out at ticket counters waiting for last minute deals. If any airline started the “fill the airplane up at any cost” idea, people would be camped out at the ticket counters trying to snag the good deals.

So, I have only circumstantial evidence that this plan will not work. But if you are planning to try this during the holidays, then forget it. The flights are already full, and the airlines are purposely restricting capacity in order to get ticket prices up.

On preview, ubermensch has mentioned standby, which is NOT what I interpreted the OP to be. To fly standby you have to purchase a ticket between two cities and then wait to see if seats are available on that flight. OK, this is kind of what the OP was, but he mentioned the Simpsons episode where they sat around an airport not knowing where they were going (Jamaica, Paris, Tokyo) so I went with the “but a ticket right now” explanation.

So basically, it’s probably not gonna work like it did on The Simpsons? :eek: :frowning: Somehow, I didn’t think it would…
Anyhow, I just wondering because I was planning on heading to Japan for next summer. I was wondering if I could possibly not buy a return ticket until I was ready to leave, but still manage to get a reasonable price for the flight back. I guess standby would be the answer then. Thanks a lot guys. :smiley:

There are mystery vacation packages out there - basically you make a reservation for whatever set of dates and pay for it. On the departure date, you go to the airport to check in and that’s when you find out where you’re going.

They used to be kinda popular, appealing to those who just want to go somewhere, but post 9/11, they don’t seem terribly common. Here’s a couple still available:

http://www.airnz.co.nz/bookingsandoffers/specialoffers/mystery_breaks_default.htm

http://www.bestravel.com/Mystery_Specials.html

I don’t think last minute fares (cheap ones) really exist in teh US, but they seem to most other places. A couple months ago, I bought a ticket in Prague to fly to Istanbul. The ticket was purchased about 16 hours before the flight and the fare was good.

I don’t think last minute fares (cheap ones) really exist in teh US, but they seem to most other places. A couple months ago, I bought a ticket in Prague to fly to Istanbul. The ticket was purchased about 16 hours before the flight and the fare was good.

This may be a memory of the pre-deregulation age, when the federal government approved and supervised air fares. You could get a cheap stand-by fare if you were willing to take your chances on when a flight might have extra seats.

But those days are long past.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/travel/air/handbook/part1/section-19.html

I know an airline that posts whether they have seats open that people cancelled on. They give the dates too & the price has always been pretty much the same for those seats, $199RT Calif to HA. Better then waiting in a airport :slight_smile:

handy which airline?

Pre- or post-9/11?

Where do they post this info?