Flying Standby

The concept of flying standby was foreign to me until I met my boyfriend, who works at the airport and therefore gets flight benefits. It sounded like a sweet deal to me, the catch, however, is all flights are standby, a horrible horrible system. You sign up for a flight, but just have to wait around and hope the flight doesn't fill up so you can get on. Today said boyfriend didn't get on his flight home from New York. He has now spent over $500 on a guaranteed return flight home and a hotel near JFK and he is missing a day of work tomorrow because he'll still be in New York. I have never had the flight benefits, but I don't really see how this is much of a benefit if it ends up costing you so much in the end! I would rather pay the ridiculous amount of flights upfront and know that I am going to get from here to there without having to worry about all that craziness.