Flying standby from Heathrow and Stansted

someanonbloke

Hi, I'm curious about the possibility of flying standby from either Heathrow or Stansted. If I turned up in the morning, would there be a chance to get on a flight? I mean there must always be a chance of a an empty seat on a flight, right?

I want to fly to Lyon or an airport reasonably nearby.

blindman

someanonbloke wrote: »

Hi, I'm curious about the possibility of flying standby from either Heathrow or Stansted. If I turned up in the morning, would there be a chance to get on a flight? I mean there must always be a chance of a an empty seat on a flight, right?

I want to fly to Lyon or an airport reasonably nearby.

Yes there would however the cost would be horrendous. :eek:

20-30 years ago there was such a thing as standby-Sadly no more.

zagfles

Airlines have realised they make far more in money from last minute travellers who have to travel urgently than they do from offering discounts to fill empty seats on planes. So standby doesn't exist any more.

someanonbloke

It's just that I heard from someone who flies standby to Cairo from London. Perhaps it's possible with certain destinations.

zagfles

someanonbloke wrote: »

It's just that I heard from someone who flies standby to Cairo from London. Perhaps it's possible with certain destinations.

Does he/she work for an airline/airport or in the aviation industry? I think staff still can use standby.

Caz3121

re friend travelling standby between London and Cairo - there only appears to be BA and EgyptAir that operate that route so your friend either works in the travel industry to avail of standby tickets or possibly EgyptAir do something (but unlikely - BA certainly don't)...I would vote for the former

richardw

EasyJet are doing flights to LYS.

Kernow666

such a shame , i remember back in the days of teletext you could bag 2 weeks on the costas for £49 if you flew within 24 & sometimes 12hrs

duchy

The days before 9 11 since that standby is pretty much discouraged for fairly obvious reasons.

Frankly I like it better this way -I'm flying to LA for 270 pounds in August and Sweden for £26- who needs standby ?

bagand96

such a shame , i remember back in the days of teletext you could bag 2 weeks on the costas for £49 if you flew within 24 & sometimes 12hrs

That was back in the days where there was a LOT of tour operators trying to sell package holidays. Generally they had chartered flights and had to pay for the seats if they were full or not so would dump holidays on the market at crazy prices last minute to try and get bums on seats and in hotel beds.


There was also massive overcapacity in the market. The market has changed a lot since then and most of those tour operators either went bust or had no choice but to merge and consolidate. Hence why we now have only 2 main package holiday operators, TUI and Thomas Cook.

blindman

duchy wrote: »

The days before 9 11 since that standby is pretty much discouraged for fairly obvious reasons.

Can't see the logic here please explain.

The 9/11 terrorist trained to be pilots, booked business class seats on 4 specific flights on the same day at roughtly the same time so not exactly stand by.

As you say there are now other ways to get a good deal. Mostly from flying EX UK

bagand96 has is correct IMHO.

Too may Tour Ops chasing not enought punters.

I once booked a charted trip to Malta for two for about £100 within 24 hrs and when we turned up at the airport our names were on the TA list in biro...