Flying Standby - managing checked luggage

[bigrednole]

I contacted Delta and they said we can only do Standby. They thought we could make a change, but once in, no good. We even tried the Same Day change and still no go. But, we are able to do Standby though. There are just no changes allowed with NCL Air. There are still a large number of seats available on the flight we hope to get on in less than 2-weeks. I would say they are 25-40% open. 

 

My real question is how to manage Standby. We have not flown in probably 10 years. So, if we choose to do Standby, what do we do with checked luggage? 

Edited March 27, 2022 by bigrednole

[purduemom1]

As one who flies stand by frequently, my advice is to not check bags, just carry on. I have traveled all over the world this way, including to board several cruises. No worries about checked baggage. One disclaimer, I fly stand by as a non rev (employee benefit eligible) so would board after those revenue pax who are standing by. I do not know how much of a difference this makes for checked bags. I believe that luggage is not supposed to travel unless the owner is also on the flight but how strictly this is followed, I do not know.

 

You did not say if this is a non stop flight. If so, then one possibility is to gate check your bag if that is offered. Lately, that has been offered on every flight I have taken.

 

Just a word of caution, seat availability this far out is very unreliable. A lot can happen to those open seats between now and then.  Delta, like most other airlines, is still short of pilots and flights are full. Best to have a plan B. 
Good luck.

Edited March 29, 2022 by purduemom1

[fbgd]

36 minutes ago, purduemom1 said:

I believe that luggage is not supposed to travel unless the owner is also on the flight but how strictly this is followed, I do not know.

 

It isn't strictly followed. Passengers are not supposed to know if their bags travel on another flight but it happens all the time. (Pan Am 103)

[iancal]

1 hour ago, purduemom1 said:

As one who flies stand by frequently, my advice is to not check bags, just carry on. I have traveled all over the world this way, including to board several cruises. No worries about checked baggage. One disclaimer, I fly stand by as a non rev (employee benefit eligible) so would board after those revenue pax who are standing by. I do not know how much of a difference this makes for checked bags. I believe that luggage is not supposed to travel unless the owner is also on the flight but how strictly this is followed, I do not know.

 

You did not say if this is a non stop flight. If so, then one possibility is to gate check your bag if that is offered. Lately, that has been offered on every flight I have taken.

 

Just a word of caution, seat availability this far out is very unreliable. A lot can happen to those open seats between now and then.  Delta, like most other airlines, is still short of pilots and flights are full. Best to have a plan B. 
Good luck.

Excellent advice.    This is what we have been doing for the past ten years of retirement.

 

More than once while connecting during a winter storm we have been asked the question.....can you board now, do you have any checked bags?  Twice, when the answer was yes/no  we were able to avoid a 24 hr or more terminal delay and fly out immediately.  Our fare code helped as well.

 

Open seats may simply imply unassigned/yet to be assigned seats for those who have opted NOT to pay for seat selection or have the most basic economy tickets but have firm  reservations on the flight.  

Edited March 29, 2022 by iancal

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, fbgd said:

 

It isn't strictly followed. Passengers are not supposed to know if their bags travel on another flight but it happens all the time. (Pan Am 103)

 

This ^

 

Passengers are supposed to think their bags are on the flight "with them", or at least not know for sure if they aren't.

 

About 3-4 years ago, we were flying on a relatively short domestic flight that had several departures each day (same airline).  We got to the airport really early, and realized that we could easily make the flight before "our" flight.

So we asked if we could change to the earlier flight.

"Do you have any checked bags?"

"Yes."

"Then, no, you can't go on the earlier flight, because your bags will be on the flight you are booked on, and your bags can't go on a flight without you."

 

So we sat there for a couple of hours.  At least we travel with our trusty laptops in the carry ons.

 

We arrived at our destination, and couldn't find our bags on the carousel.

Surprise!  They were waiting at the airline luggage office.

"Oh, your bags came in early, on the flight before yours..."

😠

 

GC

[Free2bMeForever]

Delta scans luggage tags and sends updates through their app when bags are loaded or unloaded from the planes. Others may have seen some variance with this, but I have not.  Delta “guarantees” your bags will be delivered within 20 minutes of unloading and uses the notification to “prove” it.😉

 

In over 50 years of flying with Delta, I’ve only had 3 “hiccups” that I can remember (although I’m probably jinxing myself).  They left my bag in Atlanta and delivered it to my hotel in San Diego the next morning; sent me to the wrong carousel in LGA one night; and put my bag on an earlier flight somewhere between SLC and CHS.

 

I’ve never tried to fly standby so I don’t know how they would handle that, but do know that they will flatly refuse to put you on a flight if they don’t think they can get your luggage onboard the flight with you.

[bigrednole]

17 hours ago, purduemom1 said:

As one who flies stand by frequently, my advice is to not check bags, just carry on. I have traveled all over the world this way, including to board several cruises. No worries about checked baggage. One disclaimer, I fly stand by as a non rev (employee benefit eligible) so would board after those revenue pax who are standing by. I do not know how much of a difference this makes for checked bags. I believe that luggage is not supposed to travel unless the owner is also on the flight but how strictly this is followed, I do not know.

 

You did not say if this is a non stop flight. If so, then one possibility is to gate check your bag if that is offered. Lately, that has been offered on every flight I have taken.

 

Just a word of caution, seat availability this far out is very unreliable. A lot can happen to those open seats between now and then.  Delta, like most other airlines, is still short of pilots and flights are full. Best to have a plan B. 
Good luck.

Maybe I should have been a little more clear. We are booked on an afternoon flight the day before. No big deal because it gets in at a decent time. However, there are earlier flights with much more space available, per the seating charts on Delta's website. We would be doing one layover in Atlanta. I have checked space availability on the two earlier flights for both legs of the trip. The flights we are booked on are about 90% capacity. The morning flights are about 60% capacity.

 

We will have checked baggage, there is absolutely no way around that. I have read differing information on checked baggage and flying standby. Some sites have read that the bags can be checked, the original flight tags put on the bag along with a Standby tag. Then, if given the standby flights, the checked bags are moved to the new flight with the new tags. The other thing I have heard is to take checked bags to the terminal. Then when, if, the standby is approved, they will have the checked bags taken at the gate.

 

Just trying to see what or how people manage this. 

[megr1125]

Domestic luggage can fly without its owner as mine has done on my last 3 flights.  I've checked in and dropped bags early and they've been partying it up in the baggage service offices in either FLL or EWR or whatever place I was going.  So there's a chance that your bags would end up on the same flight as you if you did standby.  Otherwise, it SHOULD show up on the original flight and you'd have to go back to the airport to get it unless the airline delivers.

 

BTW the little seating charts are not always accurate indicators of how full a flight is. I learned that here years ago.  😄

[purduemom1]

OP, thanks for the additional info. As several of us have said, the seating charts you are looking are not always a true picture if availability nor are they a good indication of availability this far out. Since your checked bags are  a concern, consider keeping your original, confirmed flight. “A bird in the hand” as they say……

 

BTW, be sure to download the Delta app before you leave, it will notify you of the status of your bags. If you decide to go stand by, you can also see your status on the app. It will show seat availability and where you are in the queue (info only available after you check in). Many airports will also show stand by info on a screen in the boarding area. However, I have noticed that this doesn’t always happen so having the app is important.

[Twickenham]

I can tell you what happened to me in a similar situation. In our case, we had a flight to YYZ (Toronto Pearson), with an onward connection to Warsaw and just under 2 hours in YYZ. The forecast for several days before were predicting a major winter storm on our travel day, so I planned ahead to arrive at the airport before the check-in cutoff time for the earlier YYZ flight. Explained the situation at the check-in desk, and fortunately got a very understanding and competent agent who switched us to the earlier flight. Note, this was not standby, but confirmed.

 

I would try to get switched at check in - if the loads are similar to the seating chart (which they may or may not be), it might suit them to put you on the earlier flight rather than have an overbooking situation on the later flight and have to pay for volunteers.

[FlyerTalker]

On 3/29/2022 at 9:42 AM, fbgd said:

 

It isn't strictly followed. Passengers are not supposed to know if their bags travel on another flight but it happens all the time. (Pan Am 103)

 

Passengers are not allowed to voluntarily separate from their bags.

 

Airlines are completely allowed to separate bags from passengers at their discretion.

 

Different sides of the coin.

[em-sk]

On 3/30/2022 at 2:37 AM, bigrednole said:

Maybe I should have been a little more clear. We are booked on an afternoon flight the day before. No big deal because it gets in at a decent time. However, there are earlier flights with much more space available, per the seating charts on Delta's website. We would be doing one layover in Atlanta. I have checked space availability on the two earlier flights for both legs of the trip. The flights we are booked on are about 90% capacity. The morning flights are about 60% capacity.

 

We will have checked baggage, there is absolutely no way around that. I have read differing information on checked baggage and flying standby. Some sites have read that the bags can be checked, the original flight tags put on the bag along with a Standby tag. Then, if given the standby flights, the checked bags are moved to the new flight with the new tags. The other thing I have heard is to take checked bags to the terminal. Then when, if, the standby is approved, they will have the checked bags taken at the gate.

 

Just trying to see what or how people manage this. 

 

To answer the question of what happens to the bag.  They are tagged as standby and go to the first flight your on standby for.  Once the standby list is processed by the gate staff, the baggage handlers are advised which passengers are flying and load the bags.  If not, they are moved to the next flight your booked on.  

 

Some airline are extremely good at doing this others may just put the bags on the first flight and they arrive ahead of you.