How many of you travel standby on planes because of employee benefits? How do you handle the uncertainty of arrivals and departures as far as additional planes/trains connections, and hotel reservations? What have been your experiences/nightmares travelling like this, and are there any words of advice to making this way of travel easier? (It's the only way that I can afford to go over to Europe.)

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<BR>Stand-by travel no problem, we have been to South Africa, Uganda, Chile, Argentina, Falkland Islands, Finland, Sweden, Germany, UK, France, Belgium all on stand-by. All you need is a bit of patience, generally you have to start trying to get home a couple of days before the end of your holiday.<BR><BR>Avoid the peak times eg Christmas holidays, if you get stuck talk to the aiport staff they always have special deals at local hotels to put you up overnight.<BR><BR>We are off to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks, don't worry and remember whatever airline you have a ticket on generally all the other airlines will accept you.<BR><BR>Good luck

We have flown standby here in the US and had planned to do it to Paris last October. We had to be in Paris on a certain date so were going several days early to allow for being "bumped". For the return we were allowing extra time and probably staying at the airport if unable to get out. After 9/11 we decided to just buy a ticket because flights were decreased. The latter is still true so flights are flying pretty full. I do not understand the person who said other airlines will take your "ticket". We can buy tickets at decreased prices if available but I would not expect them to be honored by an entirely different airline.<BR>You do have to be flexible and prepared to spend the night in a hotel if you can't get on the plane.