Same day standby

[Aikalo80]

Hi everyone, 

 I'm new here. I had a question regarding same day standby. I'm sorry if it's wrong to ask this. I'm currently looking ahead at flights for around Christmas time for my family of 4. We are going to Florida and am gonna book the cheapest option available which includes a connecting stop and arriving late at night. Under the wanna get away option it says free same day standby, does this mean we could go to the airport and try to standby for an earlier NONSTOP flight to our destination? It would be wonderful being able to arrive earlier and not having to connect but the current price for nonstop would be doubled per person so I settled for the cheaper one with a connection. Thank you 

[05bardic]

Yes, it is possible as long as:

• your origin airport, destination airport, and day of travel are the same, and
• you request to be added to the same-day standby list at least 10 minutes before the scheduled departure of your original flight (at least 30 minutes if using the Southwest app or mobile web)

From reading your post, it sounds like that's your goal. However, here's where I'd caution you: Since you're booking around Christmas time, flights are typically pretty full. So to achieve your goal, you would need a total of 4 open seats to become available on your desired flight. All of the A List and A List +passengers get priority in the standby queue. So there's a chance your plan could work, but I would be prepared to sit at the airport until your original scheduled flight departure in case you don't get that lucky to get 4 seats opened up (assuming your family wants to travel together). 

[bballflyer]

To add to the other post;  You can get on the standby list on the app the day of, if you wait until the airport then you will be way down the priority list and doubtful you will get standby;  If you really want to change, look at spending a little more and booking the I wanna get away plus fare and you can make same day confirmed changes instead of standby, but the seats still need to be available; This means if there is room on the flight, you can book it on that day starting at midnight the day of, and not wait for standby list to clear.  Standby or Confirmed change, you will lose your seating position from check in so don't purchase any early bird check in, you will lose that too.  If you have small children, you can still do the family boarding;  If you really want a specific flight, with 4 people at peak time, and if you are checking luggage you may want to just consider getting the flight you want, but if you are ok with the cheaper flight if that is what you end up with, it is a great way to save money;