Save Money. Fly Standby.

I’m from Georgia, so when I want to go home for school breaks, I fly. It’s almost a 12 hour car ride…no thanks. Sometimes, I can find flights for around $100, but usually it ends up costing almost $200 per ticket. This gets pretty expensive flying back and forth for Fall Break, Thanksgiving Break, Christmas Break, Spring Break and Easter Break.

This doesn’t even include the price for airport parking of $11 a day while I’m home.

Point being, it gets pretty expensive.

I discovered something this summer that is going to save an incredible amount of money this year.

If you are a student between 18-22 years old, Airtran offers standby flights for $60-$70.

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Browse online and find a flight that you would like to be on.

2. Go to the airport and purchase a “standby” ticket at the ticket counter.

3. Go to the departure gate and tell the attendant that you are flying standby and that you are there.

4. Sit down and wait at the gate, and after everyone else has boarded the plane, they will let you on if there is an empty seat left.

5. If, for some reason, the plane is full and they do not let you on, continue to wait and they will do the same for the next flight.

I extremely weary of the whole “flying standby” concept and had no interest in it. Over the summer, my boyfriend bought me plane tickets to fly to Detroit to visit him. He purchased standby tickets, so I was forced to fly standby. I was super nervous at first. There were several other college students who were also flying standby, and we all made it onto the plane. They told me that they always fly standby and that they have always been able to get on the first flight they tried.

Both of my flights to and from Detroit went very smoothly and were only $65! After flying standby, I looked back at all the plane tickets I’ve purchased since I was 18 and am sick thinking about how much money I could have saved.

I was about to purchase my fall break plane tickets, and saw that round trip tickets will cost a little over $500. I decided to not purchase tickets and will be flying standby again.

Obviously, there is risk involved; you may not make your desired flight. But if you are not on a strict schedule where you need to pay extra for the security of the flight, flying standby is a great option that saves hundreds of dollars on flights.

Visit AirtranU.com for more information