Exclusive: American Airlines Now Lets Everyone Standby To Nearby Airports—Even With Checked Bags

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.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Ah, a fantastic way to NOT get your ‘checked’ bag at the destination (if you get on-board).

  2. What if your bag was checked for that flight but you were connecting and auto removed from the flight?

    SOL if not there 45 minutes before?

  3. @Beachfan — Here’s a solution: Don’t check bags, generally, and especially not if attempting standby. Solved.

  4. Two other benefits for allowing routing changes (especially for confirmed flights):

    1) It gets the possibility for more revenue for AA for those under Plat Pro (someone may be willing to pay $75 to change to an earlier / later flight)

    2) It can reduce headaches during minimal-notice Irrops like summer thunderstorms for the Plat Pro and above who can do SDC for free. An EXP flying RDU-DFW-ABQ may see a decent chance of storms in DFW that day (although not enough for AA to put a waiver in) but ORD is looking clear. If the storms materialize, AA has one more seat to put displaced passengers into.

  5. The restrictions on same day confirmed changes are absurd. Even if someone was trying to get a nonstop at the price of a connecting flight, they are taking a big risk that the nonstop will have space (which, given today’s loads, is unlikely). And if the nonstop somehow does have space for a standby, by letting the passenger board that flight you now open up at least two more seats that can be sold or offered to other standby passengers on later flights which could be either revenue generating or useful in case of IRROPS. Why let an earlier plane go out with an empty seat that someone wants which could open up additional seats later in the day? The connecting city restriction is even more absurd – why would AA care if I connected through PHL or DFW to get to YUL? And again, standby is very risky and by no means a sure thing so I don’t see it as gaming the system, which is what they are seemingly trying to avoid.

  6. Do you mean legendary, not legion?

    Also the option to standby to a nearby airport is only for those without checked bags, according to the text that you included.

  7. @Beachfan — Bah!

    Probably a good call, though, I still fly them occasionally, and used to fly them a ton when based in MIA. They do have a compelling route map in the Caribbean. Nonstops are better than having to route through ATL, or IAH/IAD/EWR for that.

    Don’t get me started on their lack of IFE on most of their narrow-bodies. Like, DL, UA, B6 mostly have individual screens (and free WiFi), yet American’s got BYOD and purchased WiFi, if it even works. Sheesh!

  8. Good on AA. I triple echo good luck on getting those bags. Pro travelers are going to either keep their original flight to protect the bag getting to destination or they are going to just use a roller bag. I love my roller bag.

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