Thread: What’s a safe number of available seats?

There isn't really a "safe" number of open seats because there are so many factors that could impact availability at the last minute. I can't speak to dl's policy but I can say that at my airline you may not have a purchased ticket for the same city pairs on the same day that you plan to nonrev. In other words, you may not hold positive space only to cancel when you decide that there are plenty of open seats and nonrev. At my airline, doing this results in instant loss of your travel benefits and possible termination. Check the rules carefully or you may face the same thing. You can list as a nonrev and LATER decide to buy a ticket because there was no way you were getting on but doing so ahead of time is a no-no.

Originally Posted by Jaspell

I’m new to non rev. On a delta S3B, what’s a good number of available seats showing to constitute a good risk? Day of travel, the flight I am listed on shows 19 seats available 7 hours before departing. In that scenario am I likely to get on or nah. What’s a good same day number? I do have a refundable ticket on an alternate flight but if I an go no rev I will.

My Dad is a S3b under my active DL benefits. He lives outside UIO. A safe seat number is 15 with Friday - Sunday off limits. I never list him on those days and summer he avoids. He's in SAV seeing my sister heading back to UIO Wednesday with 35 seats. To Europe he will fly via BOS - AMS or BOS - CDG no problems. Hope that helps.

Nowadays, unfortunately, there are no rules except, I would say 1 hours prior, specially on domestic flights because some revenue standby can pop up. On international flights it is different first in general standby is not allowed and some markets, specially in South America are know for their tendency of no shows. There is also another factor, you priority rank because some employees with high priority can also pop up at the last minute. I would say, if you have a low priority 10 to 15 for domestic and 5 for international.