Standby and suggested slots
Get offered a cancelled slot: stand by for a booking, set standing preferences or an open window, or be suggested a slot that fits how you fly. Accept the time-limited offer to book it. The desk can offer canceled slots and withdraw pending offers.
For students, renters, instructors, owners, admins and dispatchers
Ask to hear when a time you want opens up: from the Book screen, from a booking, or with a standing preference. When it opens, everyone who asked is told at the same moment, nothing is held, and the first to book it gets it. When nobody asked, a cancelled slot can be suggested quietly under Open slots for you. It never books you without your say-so.
Ways to ask for a slot#
| Kind | Where you set it | What it matches |
|---|---|---|
| Notify me | On WebYou → Book or the app's booking screen, choose the aircraft and day, then Notify me under the time | That aircraft on that day. It lapses at the end of the day |
| 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 |
Pick at least one day. Leave any other field blank to mean any.
You do not have to find the Standby screen to set a standing preference. Right after you join an organization, AerScheduler asks When are you usually free to fly? Pick your days and a time of day and save. Until you have a preference, a one-line Get first dibs on cancelled slots callout on WebYou → Schedule and on the app's Home screen links to the Standby screen; the X hides it on that device. After you accept an offer, you are asked once whether you want first dibs on slots like it, starting from that slot's day and time. Whichever way you get there, what you save is an ordinary standing preference, listed and removable on the Standby screen. You can keep as many as you like, for example Tuesday 2 to 5 PM and Saturday 1 to 6 PM.
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 organization 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 organization's roster.
Book an open slot#
When a time you asked for opens, you are told by notification (A time you asked for just opened), and it is listed under Open slots for you on Home (and on the Book screen on the web). It is also under WebYou → Schedule → Offers.
- Book it (Book on the app's Home) puts the reservation on your schedule.
- Not for me on the web, or Decline on the offer itself, removes it from your list. In the app, tap the slot on Home to open the offer.
Everyone whose request matched was told at the same time, and nothing is held for any of you: the first to book it gets it, and if someone beats you to it, Book it says so. An open slot stays bookable until 30 minutes before it starts, so you can still take it that evening.
Turn on Offers & standby under notification settings (email and/or push) to be told straight away. With both off, open slots still appear on Home and the Book screen.
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
- Offer a slot by hand to one member
An offer holds nothing. While it is open the aircraft and instructor stay free on the board, and anyone, the desk included, can book over it; the open offers for that time then close by themselves.
Offers that still hold time#
Offers made before 14 October 2026 could hold the aircraft and instructor while one person decided. Any still open show as a dashed Offer / Confirm block on the day and week boards and on the desk's Pending offers list. The people who were on the cancelled booking can book over one as if it were not there. Owners, admins and dispatchers can free any of them, and an instructor can free one on their own time:
- In the app, open the Start time list. Held times are greyed out and marked Held. Tap one to see who it is offered to and until when, then tap Release.
- On the web, click the dashed block on WebCalendar and choose Withdraw offer.
New offers never hold anything, so this list empties as the old ones end.
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.
The lesson's instructor is not asked first. A dual, ground or instructor lesson is offered straight to the students who asked for it, and only while the instructor is free at that time. Booking it puts it on the instructor's schedule like any other booking. If your organization approves your bookings, booking an offer sends the desk a booking request instead, exactly as booking that time by hand would.
Some cancellations do not start recovery at all, because the reason means nobody else can use that time either:
- Weather, for flights. Ground lessons and simulator time are still offered.
- Aircraft maintenance or Aircraft unavailable, when the booking has an aircraft.
- Instructor unavailable, when the booking has an instructor.
Two more do not start it, because they are not really a free slot:
- Booked in error or Rescheduled to another time. The person is fixing their own booking and usually books again straight away, often in the same slot.
- The lesson's own instructor cancelled it. The time was theirs to give up, and they often book it again themselves.
The desk can still press Offer this slot on any of these if the situation has changed, for example once the weather clears.
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.
Suggested slots#
Most members never set up standby, so a cancelled slot often has nobody waiting for it. An organization can choose to have AerScheduler list such a slot for the few members most likely to take it. It is off by default: owners and admins turn on Suggest open slots to members who didn't ask under WebSettings → Booking preferences, separately from offers themselves.
When it happens#
Only after a cancellation, and only once everything above has run:
- Everyone who asked for it (standing by for that booking, a matching standing preference, an open window, or Notify me) is told at the same time, up to ten people. Nothing is held and the first to book it gets it.
- Only when nobody who asked can take it, and the organization has suggestions on, does AerScheduler suggest it, once, to up to three members. Suggestions are not sent as notifications.
It never suggests a slot that the cancellation rules out (weather, maintenance, an unavailable instructor, a correction, or an instructor cancelling their own lesson, see above), a slot offered by hand from the desk, or idle time found by Fill idle time automatically.
How the member is chosen#
AerScheduler looks at the last 90 days of flying and only ever considers people who already fly that aircraft or that instructor:
| Order | Who | Example for a Friday 10 AM dual in N172TS with Jake |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regulars: fly this aircraft, and with this instructor when there is one | Students who fly N172TS with Jake |
| 2 | Fly the aircraft or the instructor | Anyone in N172TS, or anyone who flies with Jake |
It looks no further than that, so a slot is never suggested to someone who has never flown the aircraft or with the instructor. When nobody fits, nothing is suggested. Everyone is checked against the same rules as standby: role, checkout approvals, grounding, and schedule clashes.
Among the people it found, the three offered it are whoever fits best: flies at that weekday and time, flies that aircraft and instructor, often books on short notice, is due for a lesson, is behind on training pace, has said yes to offers before, and has nothing booked in the next couple of days. Members who cancel a lot, or who have ignored offers, rank lower.
AerScheduler AI makes this choice when it is available. It sees counts and dates only, such as "6 flights in this aircraft" or "last flew 12 days ago", never names, email addresses or anything else that identifies a person. If AI is unavailable or slow, the same facts are ranked by fixed rules instead and the offer still goes out.
What the member sees#
A suggestion is not sent as a notification. It appears under Open slots for you on Home and on the Book screen, and is marked Suggested for you on the Offers list. It says why, for example "You've flown N172TS 6 times recently and you fly with Jake". When it went to more than one member, it also says the first to accept books it. It shows the reservation type and aircraft, never the cancelled booking's title, which is often another student's name. If someone else got there first, Book it says so and the offer closes. If your booking is refused for your own reason, such as no card on file, you see that reason and the offer stays open while you fix it.
A suggested slot does not hold anything. It stays on the board as free time, instructors see no hold on their schedule, and the desk or any member can book it at any moment; the open suggestions for it then close by themselves.
Limits#
- A slot is suggested once, to at most three members. If none of them accepts, nobody else is asked.
- A suggestion stays bookable until 30 minutes before the slot starts, or until someone books it.
- Nobody gets more than 3 suggested offers in 7 days.
- Pass on 3 suggested offers in a row, by declining or letting them expire, and suggestions pause for you for 30 days. Accepting any offer resets the count.
- The member who cancelled, and anyone else on that booking, is never offered it back.
- The organization's offer rules below still apply: quiet hours, decline cooldown, and the per-person cap on open offers.
Turning it off#
- For yourself: press Stop suggesting slots on any suggested offer, or turn off Suggest open slots to me on the Standby screen. Slots you stand by for yourself keep coming.
- For the organization: turn off Suggest open slots to members who didn't ask. Turning off Offer open slots after a cancel stops all offers, suggested ones included.
Organization 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 offer cancel recovery uses. It is off by default. Nobody is booked until they accept. The scanner only looks inside the organization's 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 organization can create in a local day (default 20).
Quiet hours#
Cancel recovery waits through this local window (default 9pm to 7am) before telling anyone, so a late-night cancel does not wake people up: the slot is offered when quiet hours end, not at 1am. The clock is the airport time zone, then the organization's 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 per person#
One member can have only this many open desk offers and suggestions at a time (default 2), so one inbox does not fill up. Slots a member asked for are not counted.
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.
- Why was I offered a slot I never stood by for?
- When nobody on standby can take a cancelled slot, AerScheduler suggests it to up to three members whose flying fits it best: the same aircraft, instructor, weekday and time. The first to accept books it. The offer is marked Suggested for you and says why. You get at most 3 a week.
- How do I stop suggested slots?
- Press Stop suggesting slots on any suggested offer, or turn off Suggest open slots to me on the Standby screen. Offers for slots you stand by for yourself keep coming.
Still stuck on this?
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