Question:
A friend and I are travelling to the US in July, and we want to use a
Delta 30 day standby air pass to get around.
Has anyone had any experience with these?
How long are we likely to wait at airports for vacant seats, as we are
"standby passengers"?
I flew Ansett about 4 years ago (prior to deregulation down there?), and
it was interesting. The food was almost identifiable.
Are these tickets good to Hawaii or are they for domestic travel only?
Who do you buy them from?
I have done that twice. So there are some of my experiences:
1. Delta is a rather huge airline within the US with major hubs in
Atlanta (ATL), Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW), Salt Lake City (SLC),
Los Angeles (LAX), Orlando (MCO), Cincinnatti (CVG) and New
York - John F. Kennedy (JFK). So their net is pretty dense.
Their reputation concerning service, food and maintenance is pretty
good. I have flown for about 40 times with Delta right know and
had no reason to complain.
2. You can fly whenever there are free seats. This is usually always
true - if you are not a large party. You also should avoid
flying around large public holidays (I tried that the weekend
after Thanksgiving. I ended up waiting for 10 hours. The quickest
connection from SFO to SAN (San Franzisco -> San Diego) was to take
a night trip to Cincinnatti and then return to San Diego ...). There
can be also some minor problems, when there are large sports events
(World Series, Super Bowl, National Rodeo Finals, ...) or a
large congress.
I was always flying during the day (I like looking out of the
window) and had only two times problems not getting the flight
I intended to. BUT: make sure in advance, by calling 1-800-...,
that your flight is available.
Even my request for a window seat work in most cases.
3. Norhtwest has a similar deal. But look in a time-table and in the
rules. NW does NOT have any hub in the west, and you are allowed
to fly to a certain city only 2 or 3 times. DL allows you
UNLIMITTED flying within the mainlaind US as you like (e.g.
daily nonstop SFO->CVG->SFO). You also can change the routing,
after checking in, if it figures out, that your flight is full
and that there is a possibility of getting to your destination
with another combination!
I've been with NorthWest (3 years ago) and Delta (Christmas).
No. There was only one flight I didn't get on, and that was the one to
Anchorage 9only one a day). However, two people is not the same as just one.
I'm not an expert but I have no complaints (except them trying to charge
me for carrying my bike !).
Is this only for non-citizens? If not, where do I get these? I can do a lot
of travel in 30 days.
I had one of these a year or so back. I agree fully with what the other
people said - just avoid the obvious busy times, and you'll have no problems
(though I was travelling solo, which may have helped).
One thing to watch out for though is this: you have a `free' ticket to
anywhere in the country: there is a great temptation to spend the whole month
just flying around from place to place, just to say you've been there. It's
an obvious thing to say, but dont do this. All you'll see is the inside of
lots of airports (they're all pretty similar in the US) and the insides of
lots of planes (even more so), plus you'll get to learn the in-flight
announcements off by heart. But apart from that, you wont have much of a
holiday. Consider that you only have to take one or two longish flights (in
my case it was from the east coast to Texas and back) to make the ticket pay
for itself.
Now the good news: your Bible will be the airlines schedule: if you dont get
on the flight you want, scrutinize the schedule and see if you can make the
trip by some other (usually crazy) route. (For example I wanted to get from
New Orleans to Atlanta, but the flight was full, so I went via (I think)
Charleston, got to Atlanta only about an hour later than by the direct flight;
and got two dinners into the bargain: it's not a routing that the airline
officials think of - and it doesnt come up on their computers of course,
which is why you need to be able to read the schedule)
Of course there's always a risk (because
you're having to get onto two flights instead of one, and you might get
stuck at the change-over point) but that's half the fun. Travel light so that
you can sprint from gate to gate, dont be afraid to put your name down for
more than one flight, and remember that until they actually close the doors,
you can still get on a plane, so dont be put off by the fact that all the
other passengers have boarded and they still havent told you you're on. By
the way, this sort of ticket is definitely not for faint hearts: if you're
the type who, when taking a scheduled flight and with no check-in luggage,
still turns up 90 minutes before departure, then you probably havent got the
right temparaement for this kind of ticket.
Most of what I say might not apply to a couple travelling together, as you
lose that flexibility, unless you are prepared to split up for a few hours.
Western never flew L-1011s. They had DC-10s. Delta had it's own L-1011s
direct from Lockheed, plus has picked up a lot of second-hand ones.
(Including some which they modified to fly long-range).
Delta got rid of the DC-10s after taking over Western. This was the
second time that Delta temporarily flew the DC-10---they also had a few
leased DC-10s when Lockheed couldn't deliver the L1011 on time (way back
in the early 70s).
Being here in the US, I'd like to know if any of the European airlines
have a reciprocal arrangement so people can jet around europe in the
same way. I'd like to get something where I can go from ireland,
england, to continental europe and maybe all the way east to moscow.
I'd also like to know if the US plan can be purchased only by people
living outside the US or if it's available for locals too.
How does one go about flying standby without one of these passes?
I called United and a couple of other airlines to find out about flying
standby, and they say they don't have "standby" tickets. Is there
such a thing for domestic travellers on other airlines?
I know that one way to fly standby is to purchase a ticket and then try
to fly on a different flight on the day of travel. But currently, even
the "cheap" tickets aren't very cheap! Is there any other way to fly
standby?
pedantic point:
One's passport doesn't give an indication of residence....
at least an American passport doesn't make any statement about residency.
I'm American, but not a resident of The States, but you can't figure
that from anything in my passport.....
Don't know about Delta specifically, but these plans are well known in
Japan... travel agents will tell you about all of them on the same flyer.
They're intended for non-residents (of The States)... citizenship doesn't
matter.
Actually, depending on the country you are currently residing in, there
*is* a way to tell whether or not you are a current resident of the
United States. A lot of countries put a residence permit visa in your
passport with the dates for which that visa is valid. I know this to
be the case when I lived in Saudi Arabia (2 years) and Kuwait (3 years).
The difficult part is that whoever examines the passport would need to
be able to read arabic, or the language of the issuing country
to confirm that's what it is.
Just thought I'd throw in my .02 worth.
Answer:
How good is Delta (safety/service/food/legroom wise) ?
What are the best times of the days to get seats?
The price for overseas travellers is US$449, which is damn good value
for 30 days unlimited trips. We have a copy of the conditions and there
are no catches, OTHER THAN the fact you are on standby.
NorthWest have a similar deal, same price. Is this better or not?
We have visions of waiting days in airport lounges....!
Flying between cities will maximise the places we can see in our time in
the US. I know these questions may sound silly, but bear in mind that
the Australian airline industy/system is *nothing* like the US.
Not much if you don't insist on taking a Friday night/Monday morning busy
business route.
It really depends on where you plan to go. Northwest has a better on-time
record but Delta's service is superior to NW's. Delta has more flights
in the South-East (Hubs in DFW, SLC, LAX, Atlanta, Cincinati) NW has more
flights in the Midwest (Hubs in MSP, Detroit, Memphis) Best thing to do
is look where you want to go and then check the airlines domestic system
timetable.
Try to fly into/through the hub cities. If you miss a flight, the next
one will be coming by shortly. Delta's primary hub is in Atlanta, Georgia.
They have a significant presence in Los Angeles (not REALLY a hub, but
they do have an entire terminal to themselves).
For safety, almost all of the carriers are the same. The leg room in
some flights is less pleasing (they acquired a lot of L-1011's from
Western air lines). The service on Delta is FAR FAR better than the
service on Northwest. Northwest (read: NorthWORST) is damn close to
a Continental Cattle-Car.
