The problem with stand-by flights is - you have to be at the airport, and you have to get there early.
So you can (potentially) change your destination, but not your departure.
Let's say you're in DR and you want to change your return flight from STI-JFK to POP-JFK - you'd have to be at
POP to find out if you made it past the stand-by list and onto the flight, but if you didn't make it - you probably already missed your original flight out of
STI. They never tell you in advance (afaik) whether you're going to make it past stand-by.
Also (since you mentioned United) - you got no chance! United doesn't fly to
STI so you'd have to book to Punta Cana or Santo Domingo, if you book there with the intention of going to
POP you're probably just gonna get fucked because;
A.) You're not going to get a standby seat on a EWR-POP/POP-EWR flight because they're pretty much always sold out - and from now until high season they only run 1-2 flights a week.
B.) After you find out that you didn't make standby - you're stuck flying into an airport that's anywhere from 4.5 to 8hrs away from where you wanna be - and you'll have to get back to that airport to fly home.
You'd have to check the times on the JB flights out of JFK to see if it's workable to do the switcheroo and I suppose it's worth a shot if you can find a flight to the destination you want to fly standby that leaves before the flight you're booked on - but not so much before that you're left standing around the airport for hours and hours.
Here's another thing to consider. Most flights to
POP are around $480 via JB in September while flights to
STI are mostly $360. So it seems like you could save $120 (minus the $50 fee) to get a standby flight to
POP, but...
You're not going to be able to return via
POP, so you're really paying $410 for a split flight (arriving in
POP but departing
STI ) and the base fare difference between the two one-way flights is $60... And you paid a $50 fee... So you'd have waited around the airport for maybe a few extra hours to save $10. If you can get one of the $299 JFK-STI flights then you're much better off, but it's still not a monumental savings.
Good thinking outside the box, though.
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