Stand by for a slot and accept an offer
Join standby on a booking, set standing preferences or an open window, and accept a time-limited offer when a matching slot opens. The desk can offer canceled slots and withdraw pending offers.
For students, renters, instructors, owners, admins and dispatchers
Stand by for a booking you want, or set standing preferences for the kinds of slots you want. When a matching time opens, AerScheduler sends you a time-limited offer to accept. It does not rebook you silently.
Three ways to ask for a slot#
| Kind | Where you set it | What it matches |
|---|---|---|
| One booking | Open that reservation and press Stand by for this booking | Only that booking, if it cancels |
| Standing preference | WebYou → Profile → Standby, or Settings → Standby on iOS | Days, types, hours, aircraft, and instructors you choose |
| Open window | Same Standby screen | One date range you are free |
Leave a standing field blank to mean any. Pick at least one constraint before you save.
Owners and admins can turn the whole feature off under WebSettings → Booking preferences → Offer open slots after a cancel. It is on by default. When it is off, cancel recovery does not send offers and the Standby / Offers screens are hidden.
If your school requires a checkout before you book an aircraft, the Standby aircraft list shows only the fleet you are checked out on, the same rule as booking. Assigned instructors sort first; you can still prefer any instructor on the school roster.
Accept or decline an offer#
When a matching slot opens, you get an offer with a deadline to respond. On iPhone the push includes Accept, Decline, and View: you can claim or pass without opening the app first. Tapping the notification body still opens the offer screen.
Respond from the notification, or open Offers
On iPhone, pull down the banner or open Notification Center and choose Accept, Decline, or View. On the web, go to WebYou → Schedule → Offers. On iOS you can also open Offers from the notification body or from your schedule flow.
Accept or Decline
Accept creates the reservation on your schedule. Decline (or letting the offer expire) can roll the offer to the next eligible member.
Turn on Offers & standby under notification settings (email and/or push). Offers expire quickly, and with both channels off you will only see them if you open the list yourself.
What the front desk does#
On WebCalendar, staff can:
- See who is standing by on a reservation
- Press Offer this slot on a canceled booking to start or resume recovery
- Open Pending offers to withdraw an offer that should not stay open
While an offer is pending, the day and week boards show a dashed Offer / Confirm block on that aircraft for the offered window. That time is not free: dragging or booking over it is refused with a clear reason. The reservation stays reserved for the offered member until someone accepts, declines, the offer expires, or the desk withdraws it.
Withdrawing a pending offer stops the chain and frees the window so the desk can book by hand. Member decline or offer expiry still moves recovery to the next eligible person.
Who actually gets offered#
Eligibility still applies. A renter standing by on a dual booking will not receive that dual offer. Role, checkout approvals, grounding, and schedule clashes all filter the list before ranking.
For dual, ground, and instructor lessons, cancel recovery first asks the instructor on that booking to confirm they can still teach. Only after they confirm does a claim offer go to a student or other watcher. Desk-created offers skip that step. If the instructor declines or the confirm expires, students are not offered that window.
Offers are not sent when the slot starts too soon (under 30 minutes by default) or when there would not be enough time left to respond before it starts. The offer window never runs past the slot start.
Standing preferences and open windows rank behind a member who stood by on that exact reservation, so a specific watcher still goes first.
School offer rules#
Owners set these under WebSettings → Booking preferences when offers are on.
Fill idle time automatically#
When this is on, AerScheduler AI looks for open aircraft time that matches standing preferences and sends the same kind of timed offer cancel recovery uses. It is off by default. Nobody is booked until they accept. The scanner only looks inside the school flying day (Settings → Booking preferences, default 6am to 10pm local), skips gaps it already offered or cooled down, and respects a daily offer budget so the board is not flooded.
Minimum idle gap / look-ahead#
When fill-idle is on, set how long a free scrap must be before it is offered (default 90 minutes) and how many days ahead the scanner looks (default 14). Shorter scraps stay free for walk-up bookings.
Max AI offers per day#
Caps how many new AerScheduler AI offers the school can create in a local day (default 20), on top of the max-pending offers cap.
Quiet hours#
Cancel recovery waits through this local window (default 9pm to 7am) before creating an offer, so a late-night cancel does not reserve the aircraft overnight. The clock is the airport time zone, then the school zone if the airport has none. Desk-created offers skip quiet hours and still go out immediately.
Decline cooldown#
After someone declines or lets an offer expire, they are not offered another overlapping window on that same aircraft for this long (default 48 hours). It is not limited to the same cancelled booking.
Max pending offers#
Each pending offer reserves the aircraft. This cap limits how many of those offers can be open at once for the school (default 10).
Max pending offers per person#
Separately, one member can hold only this many pending offers at a time (default 2). That stops a broad standby preference from filling one person's inbox and soft-holding them across many windows in a single sweep.
Offer window when slot is within 24 hours#
When the slot starts within 24 hours, the offer reserves the aircraft for a shorter time (default 30 minutes). Keep this short so a last-minute recovery does not lock the plane for hours. The offer window never runs past the slot start.
Offer window when slot is further out#
When the slot starts more than 24 hours from now, the offer reserves the aircraft longer (default 2 hours) so the member has time to see the notification and respond. The offer window never runs past the slot start.
Related#
Common questions
- Does AerScheduler rebook me automatically when a slot opens?
- No. You get a time-limited offer to accept. Decline or expiry can move the offer to the next eligible member.
- Can I accept or decline from the iPhone notification?
- Yes. Offer pushes include Accept, Decline, and View. Pull down the banner or open Notification Center to use them. Turn on Offers and standby under push notification settings.
- Where do I set days and types I want, not just one booking?
- On the web, open You → Profile → Standby. On iOS, open Settings → Standby. You can also reach it from Schedule → Offers → Manage standby. If your school requires checkouts, the aircraft list is limited to what you are approved on.
- Why did I not get an offer for a dual I was standing by for?
- Eligibility still applies. Your roles, checkouts, grounding, and schedule clashes filter candidates. On duals the instructor must confirm first. A renter-only account will not receive a dual offer. Slots that start in under 30 minutes are not offered by default.
Still stuck on this?
Email support@aerscheduler.com and tell us what you were trying to do. We answer.