When I was in the Bahamas last year my host had another visitor, an old friend from graduate school days. This friend had a couple of days free and dropped in.

He could do so because a good friend of his was a male flight attendant for some major airline. The visitor, a middle-aged man with wife and children, was listed as the male flight attendant's significant other and had the spousal privilege of free stand-by flights.

He left when he did because there was a seat available, a fairly rare occurrence on the airline he could use which served the island.

Not at all gay, not at all a significant other, it still seemed to work. The guy had traveled all over.

If it were truly a gratis deal it was a good one. If it wasn't, he paid a very high price.