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On Virgin America, once you check in at the airport, you can get on standby to catch any other earlier flight for no extra charge with them.
I think with Southwest, they only do it free if your previous flight is delayed. Otherwise, I do think they make you pay the difference in price between what you pay and if you walked up to the counter and bought a ticket. I remember once getting to the airport early and trying to get on an earlier flight that was clearly not sold out and they wanted me to pay the difference in airfare cost. Was around $120 (I had like a $39 ticket)
Southwest: To standby for a different flight, you will have to pay the difference between what you already paid and the full fare that a walk-up passenger would pay. If the normal departure time is less than an hour away, you cannot buy a confirmed seat: not on the phone, by Internet, or in person. You can only buy standby. But if the flight is not overbooked, the gate agent will probably give you a boarding pass immediately anyway. Otherwise you have to wait until they clear standbys starting 10 minutes before departure.
There are a few exceptions to the requirement to pay full fare to standby:
(1) Your original flight is delayed 30 minutes or more.
(2) You miss your original flight by 2 hours or less. This is called the "flat tire" rule.
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