Standing by for a flight on American Airlines has become an absolute mess. There are new rules that very few customers know about, and failing to follow these secret changes is costing customers hours of their time.
There’s no more running to the gate to catch an earlier flight. American now turns away nearly all customers who try to do this, even when there’s plenty of seats available.
And as American pushes almost everyone to self-serve, the technology doesn’t work right. People are getting stuck in airports for no good reason at all – because the airline thinks it lowers their costs, but by becoming less efficient and burning customer goodwill they’re actually both driving up expenses and costing themselves revenue.
New American Airlines Rules For Getting On A Different Flight
American Airlines changed its rules this year to require customers to join the AAdvantage program in order to stand by for an earlier flight. Instead of pushing the rewards of the program, like free wifi at Delta, they’re often saying “we’ve screwed up and delayed you, and part of fixing screwups is being a member of AAdvantage.” But that isn’t all they did.
The problem is that customers do not know these are the new rules and also that the tech doesn’t work.
Not Knowing The New Rules Means Not Getting On The Flight You Need
Customers are showing up at the gate or customer service, standing in line, and by the time they get to the front of the line the agent says they cannot be helped – standby must be added online or through the app. If they’d known that they could have added themselves at least 45 minutes prior to departure of the flight. But, having wasted time in line, it’s now too late.
Using Required Self-Service Tools Still Gets You In Trouble
One reader reached out to me about a recent American Airlines trip where they wound up stranded at the airport for hours because American’s app didn’t work right to get them where they were going on standby. They also posted their story to social media.
An Executive Platinum in the AAdvantage program, they shouldn’t have to use the app. They’re still eligible to have an agent help them with standby. But things weren’t looking good for their travels, so they used the tool to get on the standby list when they were flying Washington Reagan National to Chicago O’Hare.
The app let them list standby for multiple flights. That turns out to be a glitch – the airline only means to allow a customer to stand by for one flight at a time. And this glitch ended up being very costly to the traveler.
- They showed up early enough to catch the 6 a.m. flight, and they were listed #1 for standby. The gate agent, though, said he wasn’t on the standby list at all because he was “on multiple lists.” The agent wouldn’t help correct things, said he was “busy” and then the agent skipped over this passenger clearing standbys.
- A supervisor told him he “violated a policy” by listing for multiple flights, as the app allowed him to do.
- Customer service reiterates that he’d broken policy but then acknowledges the app shouldn’t have allowed this and that the agent should have just taken him of the other lists and cleared him as #1 to stand by on the 6 a.m. He thought this agent cleared this up.
- Flight after flight he got blame and excuses and wound up at the airport for 14 hours.
I’ve verified this happened, it shouldn’t have, and that American should only have allowed standby for one flight at a time. They’re working to find and address the cause, but it was their fault. The self-service tools we’re all supposed to use now caused this passenger to get stuck for a day.
You Must Use The App, But It Can’t Do What Agents Used To
Another reader was flying Montreal to Charlotte and on to Raleigh. They arrived 20 minutes early into Charlotte, and their connection to Raleigh was delayed by two hours. They were looking at over 4 hours in Charlotte, but an earlier flight to Raleigh had seats available.
They asked at the gate about waitlisting for the earlier flight, and were told no – they had to use the app. The app wouldn’t allow it.
- Presumably the problem is that this was an international itinerary, and American Airlines doesn’t actually permit standby.
- Historically there would have been no issue standing by at the gate for a domestic flight as part of a larger international itinerary.
- The app wouldn’t allow it – only permitting same day changes to later flights than this one.
American Airlines Gate in Charlotte
The gate agent tells the customer that “non-status members can never standby at all” which isn’t true. The flight went out “with 18 seats available,” he couldn’t gotten where he was going as-planned but instead was stuck on an an hours-delayed flight instead for no good reason.
Standby Policies Have Been Broken For Years
Even if the tools worked, American’s standby policies themselves have been broken ever since US Airways management took over. They’re far less generous than Delta and American allowing customers to use their network to get where they’re going.
For instance, in addition to not being able to seek an agent’s help to get on a different flight, passengers still have to follow their original routing. There may be plenty of space to get home through another hub, but outside of irregular operations, they can’t use it. Travel to or from a city with only one flight to the hub you’re ticketed through? You cannot standby or use same day confirmed change at all.
That undermines the entire value to the customer in having the largest domestic network and all those hubs.
American Airlines Passengers Now Have To Use Tools That Do Not Work
American Airlines is not providing the tech tools to allow for self-service, and telling customers their only option is self-service. Gate agents can no longer do what they used to do for customers. That wastes passenger time, keeps them from getting home early and even on-time – suffering through delays unnecessarily – and keeps American from running an efficient operation moving passengers along and freeing up seats to get other people where they’re going or even seats to sell.
@concerned person
If anyone gets in trouble it would be you we should be concerned about.
This is both good and bad. It’s only bad for the customers whom don’t read or are tech savvy which is understandable but usually fixed after the first experience.
However, It’s good for those customers who are listed on Standby already who used to miss flights because people would “run up to the gate” at the last minute “to catch an earlier flight”. It keeps people honest and fair.
Let alone the employees who would miss flights at the last minute after booking an earlier flight that was originally open trying to commute to work.
What do passengers expect or think they should have the right to change to whatever flight they want. Many passengers buy tickets at the cheapest price on the late flights and expect to walk up to any flight and get on. Gate agents already have an enormous amount of work and passengers nowadays are becoming more and more unruly. Also last minute passengers bags most likely will have to be checked, which takes time and, in some cases, would involve having to recalculate weight and balance.
Why should any airline offer a perk of being able to standby on any flight? I agree with American 100% only allowing this perk for passengers with certain status. The passengers who have status worked their way to get their status. If you want these perks, then work your way to status.
Lastly, this also affects the airlines employees who are trying to standby to get to and from work. Many workers commute and depend on looking at the availability of a flight and not having to deal with surprise passengers trying to change their flight.
What I keep hearing on here is that AA is making it more difficult and all they care about is profits. If that is the case standing by for an earlier flight should come with a cost that it used to. A lot of complaining rightfully so for something that is not even charged to the customer any longer. So would everyone be happy with bringing back the $75 change fee for standing by for a different flight
Captain Freedom … ‘I wonder if Raja can fly standby as a former AA employee’ … wishful thinking, execs at his level get positive space first/business when they leave (exception might be if he got canned over an HR issue, depends on what was in his contract.)
Well I mean, I hope airlines start charging for standby cause 30 to 40 people standing by on a JFK flight on monday morning is caotic.
Meanwhile: I have used the “new” app-driven same day flight change and stand-by option many times and have had 100% success rate. Meaning: I got on the flight I wanted to get on, and knew in most cases that I was on before or during boarding of the desired flight. It is not as bas as described here.
I have also been in awe of the pro-active AA app rebooking feature. I was in a thunderstorm induced mess at CLT where I was trying to fly to LAX to connect to HND. Three CLT flights to LAX all delayed, one cancelled, another left really late, and the one I was booked on also was delayed. I missed my HND connection, and the AA app rebooked me on the next available, which only meant losing a morning in Japan (arriving in the afternoon vs early morning). The only gripe I had is that I could not see departure and arrival times with the rebooking message on the app so I went to figure that out myself. But it worked great.
That’s what happens when you use a no care/don’t care about customers airline like the Sky Nazis American airlines!
American Airlines has been a bad airline for a long time. But lately they’re so terrible that instead of using PHL as my home airport I drive an extra hour to Newark and fly United.
Using Newark airport is actually better than flying American. Only reason to fly American now would be if they start charging Spirit fares.
IF YOUR WANT AN EARLY FLIGHT BUY THAT FLIGHT! Passengers are manipulating the system. Buying cheap late flights and coming HOURS early. Standby is NOT A RIGHT! It’s a privilege. You should buy the flights you want to be on or do a sale day flight change and pay the money. Then you are bumping people who work hard IE employees off flights because of your so called “privilege”. Our bumping advantage members off because you have status. No more and oh well. AA got it right
I can confirm this happened to me today on a delayed flight. I have status. I just don’t understand what AA is hopping to accomplish? Are they going to be the Boeing of airlines?
The tech is flawed, the cs has eroded, staff mi longer seems to care. You can feel it in the whole organization. This is really bad news not just for their fortress hub captives but the entire ancient regime management thinks they are maintaining.
USAir was similar, even if your flight was delayed switching to an earlier flight was not a huge todo.
Does anyone at AA know what customer service is? What a way to treat the elderly or blind, forced to use the app. AA is done. Total incompetence is when companies make enemies out of the people they’re suppose to serve with exchange of money. AA is pretty souless for being in the business of moving and connecting people. When you make your customers enemies, your time is near the end.
I got screwed over by this last week.
Was flying CDG-HEL-JFK on AY and connecting to BOS on AA. This was an award ticket in Business. I had a 3.5hr connection in JFK but the earlier BOS flight was delayed by an hour, meaning I could easily make it. I went to the Greenwich lounge and asked to standby on it. After being at the counter with a (clueless) agent for 20min, with multiple calls to the supervisor, they concluded that “it can’t be done, due to a recent policy change”.
This represents a pretty significant devaluation and makes AA a lot less useful for me.
Biggest piece of info in the article…
“American’s standby policies themselves have been broken ever since US Airways management took over. They’re far less generous than Delta and American allowing customers to use their network to get where they’re going.”
USAir has killed American Airlines. There is no such thing as customer service anymore. I am sure American will be gone within 10 years or less. It just isn’t the same and it is basically Spirit with grey paint.
You are standing by for FREE on a more expensive flight, figure it out or take the flight that YOU BOOKED!
I book my flights well in advance, as I travel with a youngster (under 9) for court-ordered summer visitation. I don’t have status as it’s the only time I fly. My home and destination cities are AA hubs, meaning 1 stop (versus 2 or overnight layovers with other airlines).
I have been bumped from flights because of standby and not having status (beyond having an AAdvantage account and AA card). It’s infuriating. Not only does it take longer to get where I need to go, on patience as thinly veiled as AA’s customer service philosophy, but now get an earful from the other parent thinking I “did it on purpose.”
So far this year, I haven’t had this issue. However, I had a very long layover and waited in line to get on standby for an earlier flight on my solo return home. I was told it was NOT an option, even though I am an AAdvantage member. They didn’t mention the app at all. Nor did the service agents bother to look. Immediately turned away.
If AA weren’t wasn’t the best option to get across the country and back in a weekend and not miss work due to travel, I would fly any other airline.
The biggest issue with “running up to the gate and getting on 10 minutes prior” is your bag will not make it on that flight, hence the 45 minute rule. You may arrive early then be waiting till your orginal flight arrived to get your checked bag.
@Adam – there are separate rules about standby and checked bags, this has nothing to do with that
I retired from AA before the merger. Now AA is no longer a good airline. It still US Air with the AA name. Terrible service and bad attitudes. They’re not fooling anyone. I will tell anyone fly DELTA for better service and they don’t overbook like AA. I’m also an old BRANIFF employee. AA really screwed up when they ran Braniff away. My passes are worthless. I prefer to buy tickets on someone else.
As a former AA employee/retiree,
this new policy makes our well earned employee standby travel passes truly worthless.
AA has screwed all employees and retiree again.
This is merely the beginning of how AI based technology is going to screw up what was once easy and useful in our lives. The machines aren’t going to have to launch nukes because they will kill us via stress with stupid crap like this and the rescheduling tools AA and others are now using. But this is only the airline industry, I am sure there will be examples in every other soon as well.
Sad that this “idea” will probably migrate to other airlines. As a retired employee of UAL, I can at least hope to get somewhere as a non-rev standby with them (so far) but will they dump human contact at the gates and just go full-steam AI and apps and e-this and e-that ??
I have always loathed American, having gotten acquainted with some of their senior agents working next counter over from United. Never would I fly them as a (other airline) retired airline employee Their (own) employee standby was horrible. Seniority didn’t matter, it was first-come, first-serve by the time of arrival at a gate – and that was 10 years ago as well as prior to that. Those AA employees were flabbergasted when we told them that employee standby at UAL was strictly by seniority and not the time of check-in. Can you imagine a new-hire 6-month employee at AA getting to a gate before a 30 year employee and they get on before them. Picture that scenario with a family of four. I would be horrified and resolved of never getting on a flight if I worked for AA or worse, another airline, with these “enhancements”. This is why I never wouldn’t even think of flying AA and now this ?, not even buying a revenue ticket. Sad and sorry for their passengers, especially people who fly infrequently for any reason and simply don’t know or expect to be jerked around like this.
I wish they would do more to support the reservations agents. Those guys will work their tails off to help you. But it seems like lately AA is taking away their abilities to effectively help us. This is a mistake, as most people want to speak an actual person when issue’s come up, or I’m this case a same day change.
I have 36 yrs and I’ve only flown stand-by twice..I pay full fare and fly whoever offers me the Best Service and most of the time AA isn’t even close…especially since America West took over!