What are ID tickets?

Reading through my articles you might have come across the term ID tickets and that I use them for cheap flying. 'What are they?' you might ask. Well, let me give you a quick explanation

Who hasn't come across the situation where you need to get from A to B last minute and the proces for flights are super expensive? I think most of us have been there. So how do companies that need to bring their employees from A to B spontaneous not lose a lot of money on those flights?

For once many big companies have agreements with travel agencies that allow them to book those tickets at a cheaper price. BUt there are also special agreements between airlines, where they offer each other spare seats for a fairly low price. 

If you are flying regulaarly you might have noticed a standby or waiting list on your boarding gate on some occasions. How do people end up here? Well, for once that might be people that didn't make an earlier flight, because it was overbooked, canceled or they didn't catch their connection. However, those seats can also be booked.

This is possible through the so called ID travel agreements. Most the time this is a way for airlines to offer their employees cheap flights, without loosing capacity. How does this work? You book a standby ticket for a cheap flight, lets say from Munich to Paris. However, you won't have an assigned seat until boarding the aircraft. After the check-in has been closed, they will check if there are still empty seats, maybe because not all have been sold or people didn't show up for the flight. In this case you will get a seat on this flight. If it's fully booked you are out of luck and have to hope for the next flight.

Some airlines also make thoses standby tickets available for other airlines through ID agreements. The idea is to widen the network, to offer your employees cheap flights as a benefit, but also have the opportnunity t book cheap flights for employees on a business trip. 

How do I book? 

If you work for an airlines that offers ID travel you can book your flights through a specific webpage. Here you can now search for flights by airline. The airlines available for booking depend on the travel agreements your airline has with other airlines. The price depends on the route and how many stops you have to make. So a direct flight is cheaper than a flight with one or more stops most the time.

Tickets can be booked as two kinds. For once there are the standby tickets, where you don't know if you get to fly until boarding. Thhere are also confirmed tickets, where you pay a little more, but will have an assigned seat. However, those confirmed bookings are only available for your travel department to book for busniess trips most the time.

During the booking process you already get an indication of how good your chances are, based on sold tickets at that point of time.

After booking you receive a regular confirmation and can use the check-in process as with a regular ticket. INstead of a seat you will just have the info Standby or waiting list printed on your ticket.

What if the flight is full? 

In case the fight is full you will not get to fly. In case you are booked in a higher class like first class or business you might receive a downgrade to a lower class if there are still seats available. 

In case you don't get to fly you might be able to just rebook on a later flight and wait for your chance there. In case you just don't make it at all your ticket fee will refunded. IF you received a downgrade you will receive a refund of the price difference.

Why should I take the risk of not making the flight?

Well, if you want to take the risk that is completely to you. From my experience, if you travel alone there is a chance to get a seat in 90% of the time, because most flights are not fully booked. So if you want to fly spontaneous you can save a lot of money on this flight. If you book a higher booking class like busiess you can save even more.

If you are flexible in your travels and are OK with taking a later flight or flying the next day this is also a good deal for you. If you really need to mae that flight, or a flying in a group, like your family, this might be a little too stressful and you are beter of booking a regular ticket.

How do I sign up?

Like I said before, ID travel is mostly only available for airline employees. Check with your employer if they offer ID travel. Some companies only allow it after you have worked there for half a year. Once you are eligible for it you can sign up through your employer and also add family members. Depending on the ID partner they are also allowed to travel without you.