Howdy! So flying on airplanes has been a very large part of my life! My dad worked for an airline as a ramper who loads baggage onto aircraft and such, and we often used his travel benefits to visit family when I was growing up. Fast forward to now, and I am a full-time engineer who has been working in the aviation industry for the past 14 years or so. In previous roles, I got to frequently fly and travel for work. And now I work for an airline myself in my current role! …the same one my dad worked at! Needless to say, between work and leisure, I fly a lot! In fact, there are three ways I fly.
I’d like to share those ways and methods with you so that you can understand what enables me to be prolific in my air travels. These ways are:
- Nonrevenue Standby
- Award Tickets
- Paid Tickets
Before I dig in… let me share this disclaimer: When I share my travels with others, whether in person or on social media, I often feel like there’s this perception that I have a lot of disposable income that I can yeet towards travel. And as an engineer, that is maybe partially true! However, I am actually more of a thrifty traveler who leverages various methods of air travel that don’t cost me an arm and a leg. Less money spent = more travels to be had.
With that out of the way, let me go into detail about each way I travel!
Nonrevenue Standby
Flying nonrevenue standby is the bulk of my flying. And this is the way I flew when I was growing up, and how I fly a lot now.
The simplest explanation for nonrevenue standby is when a flight has unsold or available seats, airline employees (and/or their listed family, companions, buddy passes, etc) can take these seats–for free! Or for a low fee that’s nowhere close to the cost of a paid ticket! What makes it “nonrevenue” is the airline doesn’t make money from letting these non-paying passengers sit in these unsold seats. What “standby” means is these passengers are confirmed for seats according to some sort of priority list or standby list. Each airline has their own priority codes at which to classify everyone, and they process the standby list according to the order of priority based on these codes. For tie breakers, some airlines process this list according to seniority, some process it according to check-in time.
I’ve also heard others refer to these nonrevenue standby passengers as “chance passengers”, and I think that is also an accurate term because these passengers are vying for a chance at a confirmed seat on a flight.
As an airline employee, if I have to travel for work on company business, I do have the ability to fly nonrevenue confirmed. It doesn’t cost money, and if there are seats available before departure, I can already get a confirmed seat and not worry about being standby.
I also want to distinguish that flying standby using employee benefits isn’t “same-day standby” that an airline might offer. Same-day standby allows paying passengers with confirmed tickets to get on the standby list on earlier flights without losing their original confirmed flight if they don’t get on the standby flight. Usually this is a complimentary elite benefit or a paid one depending on loyalty status. Revenue standby passengers have higher priority than nonrevenue passengers.
Another aspect I should mention is being able to fly standby on other airlines, or often called ZED flying. ZED stands for “Zonal Employee Discount.” My airline has multilateral agreements with a good handful of other airlines that allow me to fly standby with them for a low fee (taxes/fees usually based on distance). I find this very useful in situations where I can’t get on my own airline’s flights, but other airlines have open seats. Or other airlines fly between destinations that my own airline does not (like intra-Spain or intra-Canada).
Nonrevenue standby has been such an enabler for me to travel because of its little-to-no cost versus paid tickets. It can be quite adventurous because nothing is totally certain. It provides tremendous amounts of flexibility as it lets me adjust my travel plans pretty easily and on-the-fly (hah!). Why? Because I’m not tied to a ticket that I bought!
However, nonrevenue standby flying has its downsides too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten bumped from flights because the flight was full. Ideally, I’m only stuck at the airport for a few hours longer than intended, but sometimes I have had to sleep at an airport overnight or grab a last-minute hotel to try again the next day. And in a post-COVID pandemic world, everyone is itching to travel again so planes are often full making it more difficult for me to get an available seat.
There are a lot of rules when it comes to flying nonrevenue standby. And violating the rules and policies is a quick way to get fired or lose the benefits. I always try to remember that it is a privilege and benefit–not a right!
Some nonrevenue adventures I’ve had in the past:
- Flying home from college to play Wii for a few hours, then fly back
- Spending the weekend on BOTH coasts
- Day trips from Texas to: Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, SoCal, Washington DC, etc
- Day trip from Texas to Rio de Janeiro
- Flying down to Colombia for a weekend
- Visiting my aunt and uncle in Sydney, Australia for a day trip in-between Singapore and California
How can you fly nonrevenue standby?
- Work for an airline!
- Be a close family member or close friend of an airline employee who adds you to their benefits (sorry dear reader, I am not gonna be that for you 😛 )
Award Tickets
These days I don’t fly with award tickets so much, but I do certainly hoard miles for the opportunity! Flying with an award ticket means you pay for your confirmed ticket with miles or points.
Earning miles and points can be broken up into two main ways: flying on flights, and spending on credit cards. The typical way to earn miles is to simply fly on the airline you’re trying to earn miles with. Higher loyalty status often comes with increased multipliers to earn miles. The other typical way, arguably an easier way, is to spend money on an airlines’ co-branded credit card. And these credit cards usually have bonus multipliers for different categories of spending.
I will say that redeeming miles for award tickets still isn’t completely free. You still have to pay taxes and fees, and this wildly varies depending on the origin, destination, and the distance between the two. However, these taxes and fees are often nowhere near the price of a normal airplane ticket.
The nice thing about award tickets is you can get a lot of value on redemptions. For example, in 2023 I flew to Japan in First Class on Japan Airlines for 80,000 AAdvantage miles and $5.60 in taxes/fees (this would have cost like $20,000+ had I spent real money). American Airlines was selling Business Class with the same origin-destination for 450,000 AAdvantage miles (or $10,000+ to pay for it with cash). What a difference! Another benefit with award tickets is miles are often refundable–you can easily cancel an itinerary if plans change.
The downside with award tickets is that it can be really challenging to find great value or availability. Airline loyalty programs often devalue their miles so it’s often a moving target to find something worth bragging about. Not only that, but major airlines seem to move towards dynamic pricing with award redemptions thus making it more challenging to find great redemptions. Also, I find that many airlines with great loyalty programs are often stingy with releasing award inventory. In my Japan Airlines First Class example above, I found the award seat a few days before departure since I know Japan Airlines typically releases these seats within a week or two before departure.
I won’t get into the details here in this post, but there are a lot of nuances when earning and redeeming miles for award tickets. Partner awards, stopover rules, waitlisting, and so on are several of the considerations. Constant learning, haha.
A few great use cases I had using miles for award tickets:
- Earning a bunch of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, transferring them to Singapore Airlines, and being able to sit in their new First Class Suites (SIN-SYD) and fly the world’s longest nonstop flight in Business Class (JFK-SIN)
- Letting my mom sit in Business Class to fly home from Japan after being in the hospital for several days
- Flying my parents, my brother, and myself on a 5-day trip to Italy
- Flying to Rome to attend the canonization of Mother Teresa at the Vatican on a whim
- Flying home from San Diego when I got stuck there attempting to fly nonrevenue standby
How can you fly using award tickets?
- Fly…a lot…on one airline or that airline’s partners
- Spend …a lot… on an airline’s co-branded credit card
- Use shopping portals or dining programs that earn miles
- Do research on how to redeem your earned miles for best value redemptions
Paid Tickets
Flying with an actual paid ticket is uncommon for me these days. But I use this method more than award tickets. As another fun fact–I never grew up with paid tickets! We always nonrev’d! So when I started going on a lot of business trips with paid, confirmed seats…it was a shock! Lol.
Paid tickets are the most ordinary means of flying on commercial airlines. Most people buy these either directly with an airline or use a travel agency or third-party booking site.
The benefit of flying with paid tickets is you have a confirmed seat and any inherent benefits depending on the fare you buy and the loyalty status you have.
The struggle with paid tickets is that your flexibility can be limited depending on the fare type you buy. And that it actually costs a lot of money!
In either case–read the fine print! Lol
Because I work for an airline, one of my benefits is being able to get a discount on paid tickets flown on my airline. I try to utilize this whenever I end up paying for a ticket.
Some travels where I used paid tickets:
- $400 round trip between Dallas and Anchorage …and paid for the First Class upgrade offer on the return leg
- When nonrev and low-cost carriers failed me, I bought an expensive one-way ticket intra-Spain (MAD-PMI-MAH) to get to a wedding
- Flying on Spirit Airlines out of Colombia because I couldn’t nonrev back home
- Lots and lots and lots of business trips to Japan flying in Business Class (though these were all expensed)
How can you fly using paid tickets and reduce cost?
- Fly during non-peak season
- Use Google Flights to do research
- Fly low-cost carriers
- Purchase lower fare codes like basic economy or non-refundable fares
How do I decide which way to fly?
I feel like the answer to this question is very situational. But basically if I am trying to get somewhere and time or schedule is critical/sensitive (like trying to get to a wedding), I’ll try to get a confirmed seat via paying cash or using miles. If where I am going isn’t time critical/sensitive, then I’ll try to nonrev. Also if it is a route and/or season when available seats are a huge struggle, I’ll try to pay instead of nonrev.
Of course there are some trips that aren’t worth paying full fare for like … coastal daytrips lol.
Speaking of cost, when I nonrev I often don’t decide to travel until the week of, and this is very cost prohibitive as a paying passenger having to buy last-minute tickets. Also I typically list for my nonrevenue flights as one-ways, and doing the same as a paying passenger usually isn’t cheap.
Lastly, occasionally if I have nothing to do on a weekend, I’ll try to look up and see what destination has the most open seats from my home airport and decide to fly there. In other words, I let seat availability dictate where I go.
Bottom Line
Because I grew up with my dad working for an airline, I got to fly a lot growing up. And now that I myself work for an airline, I fly a lot even now. Throughout my life, I utilize three ways to fly: nonrevenue standby, award tickets, and paid tickets. Between all three methods, I’ve been able to have many adventures traveling the world.
How about you? Which way or ways do you typically fly? Let me know down in the comments!
