Is it possible to fly standby on southwest

If you cancel your Southwest flight, your payment will either be refunded back to your original form of payment or you can choose a travel credit for future Southwest travel. Recently I was in Chicago to watch my daughter march with her marching band in the Chicago Thanksgiving Day parade. There were 2 flights back from Midway airport — pm and pm.

With the parade going from a. And of course most if not all day-of-travel fares are incredibly expensive. If flying standby on Southwest was an easy option, then everybody would just book the cheapest flight of the day, show up to the airport for the flight they wanted, and just do a Southwest standby on an earlier flight of the day.

The saga of all I did to get around the Southwest Airlines Wanna Get Away standby policy probably merits its own post. The agent quoted the Southwest standby policy and would not budge. At the airport, first I tried the Southwest ticket counter. So then I tried the gate agent. When I explained again that I wanted to fly standby on Southwest, they again quoted me the policy and asked me for my 24, additional points. I asked to speak to a manager, who was again very sympathetic, but said that there was nothing he could do.

Running out of options, I called the Southwest Airlines standby phone number again, and after getting denied to fly standby on Southwest Airlines again , asked to speak to a manager, who DID after a bit of running around manage to get around the Southwest Airlines standby policy and get my daughter and I onto the earlier flight, right in time for Thanksgiving dinner! Sign up. Discussion Forum and Stories. Indicates external site which may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.

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All Rights Reserved. Use of the Southwest websites and our Company Information constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions. Unexpected events can cause travelers to at a different time than originally planned. While some airlines allow customers to show up at the airport without a ticket and purchase a standby ticket, Southwest Airlines requires standby passengers to have previously purchased a ticket. Standby tickets are only valid between the same city pairs and on the same day for which the ticket was valid.

Purchase a Southwest Airlines ticket. Business Select and Anytime tickets allow travelers to change the time of the flight with a standby ticket for no additional fee. Wanna Get Away, Senior fares and Ding! If you know ahead of time that you may be changing your flight and require a standby ticket, purchase a Business Select or Anytime ticket to avoid additional charges.