How to Fly Standby on Delta

Same-Day Flight Confirmed

If a same-day flight has a seat available, you can lock it in. Delta offers this service to any ticket holder so long as you don’t have a basic economy ticket. If you want a later or earlier flight on the same day as your ticket and there’s a seat open, you can transfer the ticket. When you do this in the app or at the check-in counter or gate, you have a “Same-Day Confirmed” ticket. This isn’t standby. It’s better! If your ticket is Same-Day confirmed, you have a seat locked in. You don’t need to show up early at the gate or anything. If you do have a basic economy ticket, you can ask the folks at the check-in desk if they’ll do this for you, but you’re probably going to need to buy a new ticket. This costs $75 if you aren’t a Diamond, Platinum, or Gold Medallion member. If you are, it’s free. The Medallion member statuses refer to Delta frequent flyers who have accumulated a certain number of miles through the Delta SkyMiles reward program.

Same-Day Flight Standby

If you can’t fly same-day confirmed, you can wait for an earlier flight. If Delta does not offer you a Same-Day Confirmed ticket, you can ask to fly Same-Day Standby—but only if it’s for an earlier flight. It’s free to do this, but you do have to cross your fingers and wait at each gate to see if there’s room for you. You cannot do this if you have a basic economy ticket. Your original ticket is still good. If you show up to the airport 4-8 hours early and try to catch a Same-Day Standby seat, you can always get on the flight you originally booked if you don’t have any luck.

Same-Day Standby Upgrade

This upgrade option is only available occasionally on certain flights. If space is available and your ticket is eligible for upgrades in your app, you can pay a small fee to upgrade your seat. The fee depends on your SkyMiles status and the flight. These upgrades are only available on the following flights: Domestic flights in the United States (with the exception of JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO) To/from Aruba, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Los Cabos (Mexico), Montego Bay (Jamaica), certain islands in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Atlanta to/from Costa Rica, St. Maarten, or St. Lucia. Cancun (Mexico) to/from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, or Minneapolis.

Priority Standby

You get priority standby if you’re a Delta Edge or Corporate member. If you’re an executive member, flying under a corporate account, or you have some kind of elite status, Delta will often give you the “tiebreaker” when you fly standby. In other words, if there are 10 people on the waiting list and you have a special status with Delta, you’ll get the spot first as soon as one opens up. Some airlines don’t offer very many perks for members, but if you want some freedoms with standby, Delta’s rewards program (SkyMiles) is pretty good. It’s free to sign up, too!

Missed Flights

If you miss your flight, you can ask Delta to let you fly standby later. The problem here is that they may not allow you to do this if you have a basic economy flight, and there’s absolutely no guarantee that you’ll get a seat even if you’re a frequent flyer. Still, Delta will often try to accommodate you if you end up missing a flight and you want to fly standby on a later flight to the same destination. If you arrive less than two hours late, they’ll usually try to get you on the next available flight. The folks at the check-in desk have some freedom when this happens. If you can come up with a good, heartfelt story about why you missed your flight, they may let you off the hook when it comes to any fees for a seat!

International Flights

You can use Delta’s standby system to upgrade your seat on international flights. You do need to be a Delta Medallion member to do this, though. While nobody is allowed to fly standby on international flights, you can add free upgrades to your ticket via standby so long as there’s availability. Just ask the folks at the check-in desk or gate about what’s available based on your member status. In other words, while you can’t fly standby on international flights, you can upgrade your seat on standby if you’re frequent flyer with Delta. You can also do this in the Fly Delta App. Delta still may not let you add upgrades to standby depending on the availability.

Overbooked Flights

If you’re standby on an overbooked flight, the ball is in Delta’s court. If you’re standby on a full flight, Delta employees will ask flyers if they’d be willing to change their flight for a travel voucher, and if so, for how much money. If enough people agree to give up their seat, you may be offered a seat on the flight. If Delta offers you standby on a fully-booked flight, you just have to cross your fingers. If you have a ticket and Delta offers you a voucher to fly standby, ask yourself what you think your time is worth. Delta accepts the lowest offers first, but you can earn hundreds of dollars in free future tickets if your bid is accepted and you don’t try to beat the crowd!

Death or Medical Emergency

You can try flying standby in an emergency, or get a discount if you’re a member. Delta doesn’t sell old-school “standby tickets” if you’re trying to catch a flight ASAP for a funeral or emergency. You can replicate them in a roundabout way, though. Delta offers bereavement tickets for deaths/emergencies if you’re a SkyMiles member. Those tickets allow for free Same-Day Standby upgrades. By joining their SkyMiles program and calling Delta to book a bereavement ticket, you can upgrade your ticket to get on the standby list for an earlier flight. You can sign up for Delta SkyMiles and take advantage of the bereavement discount immediately! You can theoretically sign up on your phone, get to the airport, and get a discount on the next upcoming flight at the check-in counter.

Employee, Friends, and Family

These non-rev flyers should be able to fly standby for free. Non-rev (short for non-revenue) flyers refer to employees (and their friends and family) who get to fly standby for free. Delta’s policy in the past for employees (and their friends and family members) was very straightforward. If a seat was available and nobody else was on the standby list, you could take it for free. It appears that with the COVID-19 pandemic, Delta Airlines has taken down their webpage and phone number for non-rev flyers to contact them and find open flights. You should be able to get a standby seat, but contact Delta directly to find more information.

Delta Upgrades

Unfortunately, upgrades do not transfer on standby flights. Delta appears to be pretty strict on this one. Even for Medallion members, you cannot transfer any upgrades or perks if you’re taking advantage of a standby seat. You can always ask, but Delta is unlikely to honor your request. You can always ask for a refund on any upgrades you added at the check-in desk! It may not work, but there’s no harm in trying.

Destination Changes

You are not allowed to change a destination by flying standby. It may be a bit of a bummer if this is the reason you wanted to change your flight in the first place, but you are not allowed to alter your destination when you fly standby. You must fly out of the same airport on your ticket, and go to the same airport you were flying to originally. If you want to change a flight destination and you have a Delta One, Premium Select, First Class, Comfort+, or Main Cabin ticket, you can transfer it to any flight for no fee (so long as a seat is available). If you have a basic economy ticket, you cannot change the destination. Unfortunately, you’ll need to buy a new ticket.

Multi-Leg Flight Standby

Unfortunately, you can’t fly standby for multi-stop flights. It’s likely that allowing standby on flights with multiple stops would mess up Delta’s behind-the-scenes scheduling, but Delta just simply doesn’t allow this for individual segments. If you want to get to one of your connecting flights early, you’re out of luck. The only way Delta allows this is if you agree to fly standby for every single segment of the flight. For example, if you’re flying from Chicago to New York to London and you want to fly standby on an earlier flight to New York, you’d need to fly standby to London afterwards. Depending on how busy things are in New York, that may take a very long time.