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An associate travels domestically very frequently for his work through the Naval Academy. I'm curious what sort of deal the military has with Southwest in regards to their travel - does the military book standby tickets or does USN always book a "regular" flight for their personnel?
This associate, in particular, seems to have really rotten luck flying Southwest because every time he is due to return home his flight is always too full for him to come home because the military booked him on standby, or so he claims. A couple of weeks ago his flight was "delayed" multiple days. Yesterday coming home from Denver it was "delayed" again.
What he says is happening perplexes me because I would *think* the USN would book their personnel normal flights (aka not standby) entirely for scheduling purposes and because the armed forced rely heavily on tight schedules. In addition, I can only assume if there was a person on standby, they would likely be able to catch another flight out of Denver to the DMV area pretty easily rather than a 24+hr delay?
Granted, I am not enlisted nor am I an officer so I can't really speak to whether this is true or not, so I'm coming here to gain some clarity.
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Southwest does not sell standby tickets. Everyone has a ticket that guarantees them a seat. That being said, Southwest has also had a rough few months with delays, cancellations, and rebookings. Even if flights are changed, passengers are booked with a guaranteed seat. The traveler could have requested a change in itinerary while at the airport that could be done on a standby basis, but they would still have their original flight available if the standby does not work out and the standby would only be earlier in the day, not later and not a different day. The flyer would also need to be A-List to utilize the same day standby option. Just with the info provided it sounds like there may be something else going on here.
--TheMiddleSeat
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As themiddelseat said, Southwest does not sell standby tickets.
Businesses (and presumably governmental agencies) negotiate ticket prices. In return for funneling business to SW, SW provides a discount off of the published fare.
Most, if not all, airlines do the same thing.