courtesy of Continental Airlines.
Imagine you have a 3pm flight from Las Vegas to New York that arrives at midnight. You arrive early with a friend who has a 1pm flight that gets in at 9:30. That sounds soooooo much earlier. You approach the lady at the ticket counter and ask her if you can fly standby on the 1pm flight.
She says that there are six people in front of you on the standby list. Would you like to add your name? Sure you would. She says that there is a $50 fee to switch flights, but that if you aren’t accepted as a standby and end up on your originally scheduled flight, credit card is not charged. Is that okay?
What do you say? Reasonable deal?
All right now consider a different scenario. You approach the lady at the ticket counter and ask her if you can fly standby on the 1pm flight.
She says yes, but it will cost you $50 to change the flight.
Is it worth it?
Interesting, eh?