Stand by.

Airport. People. Planes. Flights. Suitcases. Tickets. Pretty normal way of traveling nowadays. Wait for your flight, come to the gate, board the plane. That's about it. Easy.

Very easy. Unless you fly stand by.

Many may not know what stand by is. For those I explain. Stand-by ticket is a cheap ticket. Usually 10 times cheaper than a regular one. So the flight you would normally pay $1000 for, will cost you only a $100. Now don't get all excited. That is not for everyone. There are people who are eligible for stand by tickets and usually they either work for the Air company or are related to someone who does. My father is a pilot in Qatar Airways and that gives me a great opportunity to travel almost for free. However as great as stand by tickets are, there are underwater stones, that come with them. Stand by passnegers don't have a date on their tickets, so they can fly any day they want, IF there are seats left on the plane 5 minutes prior to the end of boarding.

Last year I have flown Flint-Chicago-New York-Moscow. All stand by.

I left Flint at 6 am in the morning and by 10 am my plane landed in La Guardia airport. As my luggage was in JFK and that was where the plane for Moscow was leaving from, I had to get myself there.