A week ago American Airlines continued its steady drumbeat of improved product announcements and better customer policies by restoring the ability of most customers to stand by for a flight.

Last year they had implemented rules that required most customers to be AAdvantage members in order to stand by for free; use self-service channels only (AA.com, mobile app), and do so at least 45 minutes prior to the new flight.

American announced that all customers, regardless of status, would be able to get assistance standing by for a flight and wouldn’t be relegated to whatever options the mobile app or website was willing to give them. That seemed like easy, low hanging fruit – but also a real improvement – because customer stories of running to a gate to catch an earlier flight only to be turned away when seats were open had become legion.

However the change actually appears to be better than what American Airlines announced, based on an internal memo describing the policy change.

• American had said that standby would still only be available up to 45 minutes prior to flight, except for Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey status members.

• That meant most customers weren’t having the ability to run up to the gate restored. However the official policy memo says that “within 45 minutes of departure…[a]gents will do everything possible to accommodate customers while maintaining on-time departure.” Gate agents don’t have to add you to standby at the last minute (unless you’re of high enough status), because their priority is getting the flight out, but they’re still supposed to do it if they can!

• Only Platinum Pro members and above can standby within 45 minutes of travel with checked bags. But embedded here is another friendly change. If it’s at least 45 minutes prior to departure, anyone can stand by even if the’ve checked a bag. Previously this was limited only to AAdvantage elite members (Gold and higher).

• And the ability for an agent to help with standby is important if you have a checked bag – I’ve written about the app and website being unable to add customers to a standby list once they’ve checked a bag. That meant Gold and Platinum members couldn’t standby with a checked bag, even though it was supposed to be a benefit of their status, because they were only allowed to use self-serve tools that wouldn’t allow it.

• You can standby to a co-terminal destination (like New York JFK and LaGuardia, or Los Angeles and Orange County). That’s another option to get where you’re going, even if it’s not the original airport on your ticket.

Everyone can now standby on American Airlines for free. They’ll no longer be told to use the website or mobile app if asking an agent for help. The airline no longer actually forbids standing by within 45 minutes of departure, they just don’t guarantee it for most customers. And they’ll allow standing by to a co-terminal airport, too. These are all real improvements, and better than what American had announced.

American still requires you to follow the same routing as on your original ticket – the same starting city and same connecting city, if applicable. That’s true both for standby and for same day confirmed changes (where you change your flights in advance rather than standing by at the gate). And that’s a shame – another easy fix.

There’s little customer benefit in flying an airline with the most hubs if you can’t use those hubs to get where you’re going. And since some cities may only have a single flight to a given hub on a day, customers flying from those cities and through that hub effectively cannot use standby or same day confirmed changes at all – even though American may have other flights.

It’s not a rule that American’s competitors have. But it’s one of the early things imposed when US Airways management took over the airline. They were seemingly concerned that someone might book a cheaper less desirable itinerary and same day confirm a change to a better one that would have cost more money – costing them revenue – so they made same day confirmed changes tough to use.

Tough to use also means tough to fly – and makes the airline tougher to buy tickets from. Hopefully fixing this is on the agenda for the team driving customer improvements.