I don't know how this could be made to work, but it's worth a shot. Have corporations partner up with airlines, say, six weeks in advance, so that a plane is guaranteed to depart from point A to point B at a given time.

But, then, allow the airline to put additional passengers on the flight. This might reduce the congestion at hubs.

In addition to this, perhaps some people could sign up for e-mail notification of automatic vacations-- i.e. cheap offers on unused seats to go to interesting destinations. The return flight would probably be the same-old same-old of connections, but you'd reduce at least *SOME* of that hub traffic.
-- Madai, Aug 04 2004

Standby's not so cheap anymore http://www.faqs.org...rt1/section-19.html
[yabba do yabba dabba, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I think what you're talking about is stand-by. Basically you wait until there are open seats on plane going wherever and you take the flight for cheap. I plan on getting alot of cash together and going to the airport and taking the next flight....anywhere.
-- swimr, Aug 04 2004


Sounds like a good idea for an e-bay style website. For a small fee the charterer (the party that chartered the plane) lists where they are flying from and to, number of seats available, and "buy it now" price. Then people bid on the remaining seats, and some number of days before the flight bids are closed.

Of course this will only work well if you're forced to charter an entire plane, not just charged by the number of seats.
-- Worldgineer, Aug 04 2004


Actually I'm not talking about standby. I'm talking about creating flights to fit special needs and letting other passengers take them.

Let's say a corporation wants to fly 10 people from Milwaukee to Tuscon. Well, neither Milkwaukee nor Tuscon are "hubs" so typically those passengers would be forced to be flown through a hub, like say Las Vegas, while on route.

But I say, instead of using the "traditional" hubs, let corporations arrange direct flights, then do the "hubbing" from there. Maybe then those flyers going from milwaukee to LA can go through Tuscon instead of Las Vegas, and avoid the crazy largess of the congested hub.
-- Madai, Aug 16 2004


This is just group buying of airlines seats... it's been around for years. Every major airline has a charter division and a group purchase division. This is nothing new.
-- zigness, Aug 16 2004



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