9. What are the standby rules? When do I have to pay extra to standby for a different flight, and why?
a. (nsx) Standbys can be cleared starting 10 minutes before scheduled departure time. That means you are taking a chance of losing your seat if you show up 2 or 3 minutes before flight time. If you get to the gate before all the seats are gone, the gate agent will give you a boarding pass ahead of any remaining standbys. If not, you are out of luck.
Internet check-in has improved this situation. Once you have a boarding pass, your seat is held until the gate agent removes you from the flight (reversing your check-in). I once arrived at the gate less than 3 minutes before departure and a few seconds before the gate agent cancelled by boarding pass. I think she was working in reverse order of check-in, because mine was the very last seat on the flight.
Note that if the flight is delayed and you decide to delay your arrival at the gate correspondingly, you are risking losing your seat
unless you already have a boarding pass . Sometimes the gate agents will clear standbys 10 minutes before scheduled departure, and sometimes they will wait until shortly before the actual departure. If you have a boarding pass, you are safe until boarding is complete and the gate agent determines that you have not boarded. Online check-in saves the day again!
b. (nsx) To standby for a different flight, you will have to pay the difference between what you already paid and the full fare that a walk-up passenger would pay. Once you pay up, you are in the same boat as a walk-up passenger. In particular if the normal departure time is less than an hour away, you cannot buy a confirmed seat: not on the phone, by Internet, or in person. You can only standby. But if the flight is not overbooked, the gate agent will probably give you a boarding pass immediately anyway. Otherwise you have to wait until they clear standbys starting 10 minutes before departure.
There are a few exceptions to the requirement to pay full fare to standby:
(1) Your original flight is delayed 30 minutes or more. I have used this when the delay is upstream (at the preceding airport), even if the delay at my airport is not yet posted.
(2) You miss your original flight by 2 hours or less. You may be able to stretch this time limit a bit, but that would be at the discretion of the gate agent. This is called the "flat tire" rule.
(3) The camera crew for A&E TV's Airline "reality" show is filming and you throw a fit. Just kidding about that one, sort of...
Regardless of whether or not you pay the full fare on an outbound flight, you get to keep any discount fare you have on your future return flight.
c. (nsx) Of all the differences between Southwest and the other majors, this is one which makes the least sense to most people. But Southwest is just thinking ahead to the consequences. If you were able to standby free for any earlier flight, you would book the Internet Special for the last flight of the day but show up for the peak hour flight. What would be the results?
(1) The peak flight would have far more standbys than could be accommodated. Currently almost all standbys get on the first or second flight. With free standby, there would be chronic huge wait lists. At least until...
(2) Southwest would stop selling cheap seats for any flights on peak travel days. Then...
(3) Flights at off-peak times on peak days would have many empty seats, representing lost revenue relative to the current rules.
This is why changing this seemingly bizarre policy would be a lose-lose proposition. The only reason the other airlines can allow standby for free is that their fares are essentially the same for all times of the day. Southwest gets more revenue and a higher load factor its way, keeping average prices down.
d. (nsx) If the low fare you want is available both earlier and later than your desired flight time, book the earlier time. If you miss the flight you booked by less than 2 hours, you will be able to standby and keep your low fare.
e. (gregorygrady) You can easily book a Rapid Rewards award reservation on the SWA website with a 3 to 3.5 hour connection. Although it won't be a "published" connection, you can use all 3 columns on the reservation page (Depart, Arrive, and Return) to book this via
www.southwest.com. For example, to fly LAX-PHX-TPA with a 4 hour layover in PHX, you'd book Depart: LAX, Arrive: PHX, Return: TPA with the layover in PHX as a 4 hours or less amount of time. It will "price out" properly and will use only 1/2 RR ticket and cost $5. Combine this with (d) above, and you
might be able to get a layover of up to 6 hours.