The last few years I've traveled many places -W. Africa; Ireland; Holland; India --all with the help of Delta buddy passes given to me by a retired Delta employee friend. Just in the last few months, though, their whole buddy system as well as passes for retirees has broken down. We've been discussing our experiences lately and they've been very stressful. They also cut her pension way back. But what I can tell you about flying standby, Delta would not like to see in the media. They've doubled the fares of buddy passes in the last year or so. By reducing the number of flights throughout their worldwide system, the likelihood of getting on using a pass has dwindled greatly. From her experiences, just two of them, I wonder if I'll be able to travel at a discount again. Here's a few experiences she's had: "I think I told you that I had a horrible experience going to and getting out of Montana in September; I 'bonded' with a group of other non-revs -most of them were active employees -and no one was getting on. I tried 3 other airlines (which I have the option but you don't) and still couldn't get on. Had to go to Minneapolis to Salt Lake... to get to Arizona. It was shocking to me as I had NEVER had a problem like that before --maybe would get bumped once but could always get on the next"