Here's a tip for the week that may save you $50 and get you home earlier. I was out of town this past week and my return flight to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at 7:45 pm from Chicago on Friday.  I was traveling with a colleague and we arrived at the airport around 4pm.  We had noticed that there was a flight leaving Chicago at 6 pm and asked about it at the counter.  The airline personnel offered to confirm us on the earlier flight for an additional $50 or they could put us in the standby list.  The desk personnel believed that there would be enough seats for us and we were placed on the standby list because we didn't want to pay the extra $50.
   We made the flight and though it was delayed we still arrived in Atlanta about 1 hour and 15 minutes earlier than our other scheduled flight.  This is probably old news to those of you who fly regularly but it was a new experience for me.  My suggestion is that you try flying standby on an earlier flight if you already have a confirmed flight but want to get home earlier.  By the way, I have no idea if this works in any other situations.  I have had to fly standby due to a missed flight and while the cost was right the extra hassle in that case was a pain in the butt.

Tip summary for today:
- Save $50 by flying standby on an earlier flght if you have already confirmed a later flight.
- Don't be late for a flight!