American Airlines passenger Jennifer Hughes doesn’t understand why she isn’t allow to standby for a flight with plenty of open seats available. Surely the gate agent could have provided a better explanation than “they didn’t ‘have time to help’.” In truth, they aren’t allowed to help. That’s the way American Airlines decided they like it.
@AmericanAir crap service DFW, gate agent refused to help us, stood on phones 30m and stated they didn’t “have time to help me”! Brianna didn’t even attempt to assist, 13 extra seats Honest truth would rather be on phones then assist customers! Called supervisor 20m ago evidently pic.twitter.com/fWzP8Ky8uM
— Jennifer Hughes (@Jennife83749624) March 26, 2025
American Airlines Standby Rules Keep Passengers Stuck At The Airport
When a plane has extra seats available, it actually helps the airline to put people in them. Not only does it drive customer loyalty, it makes the operation more efficient – and keeps them from having to deal with costly passenger delays from bad weather and mechanical issues that can creep up later. American Airlines doesn’t see it that way.
A year ago they adopted policies (here are the internal rules) that let seats go out empty while passengers are still trying to get on the flight. Their focus was on reducing staff costs, and getting customers to change their behavior to use self-service tools (website, app) instead of getting help from a person.
There is no more running to the gate to catch an earlier flight for most passengers. The airline turns away passengers who try to do this.
- You must be an AAdvantage member to standby, though you can join at the airport.
- American pushes almost everyone to self-serve. Unless you have Platinum Pro status or higher in the AAdvantage program, you have to ‘do it yourself’ to standby. An agent cannot help you.
- And this now has to be done at least 45 minutes prior to departure. If you land early and run to the gate of an earlier connection, you’re stuck waiting in the airport. If you finish meetings early and manage to get to the airport in time for an earlier flight, you’re out of luck. You need to list for the earlier flight at least 45 minutes before departure, but you don’t always know if you’ll make it or not!
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.
Technical Glitch Keeps Elites From Using Standby Benefits They Do Have
The new customer-unfriendly policies are even contradictory with passengers trapped in the middle.
- Standby isn’t allowed if you have checked bags, unless you’re an AAdvantage elite.
- Once you check a bag, you can no longer add yourself to standby using American’s mobile tools.
- But Gold and Platinum elite members aren’t allowed to add themselves any other way.
In fact, if you ‘add bags’ on the app even when not checking in, you lose the ability to same-day standby for another flight. This cannot be removed from your reservation once added (I’ve not heard of any success in doing so via an agent). That means you would need to request standby at the gate, but for most members this is not allowed.
American Airlines allows their Gold and Platinum frequent flyers to stand by for a flight, even if they’ve checked bags. But they’ve programmed their systems not to allow it, and they won’t allow agents to do it for them any longer to save money. And they haven’t communicated any of this to customers.
American’s Standby Rules Were The Most Restrictive Anyway, Even Before This Change
When a customer wants to standby or change to an earlier flight, they aren’t allowed to change connecting cities. That means if they are flying in or out of a small airport that has only a single flight through a given hub, they cannot make same day changes at all. They can’t change the number of segments they’re flying, or switch from a connection to a non-stop.
These were all changes that were put into place when US Airways management took over, worrying that someone might save money and cost them revenue by booking a cheaper flight and changing to something more expensive. These are also policies that are out of step with competitors United and Delta.
What do you do when the airport you flying into is so small that you have limited choices for airlines? I have an upcoming flight and my only choices were either AA or Delta. Used to be serviced by United but they dropped that airport. AA’s flight has one layover and costs over 50% less than the Delta flight which by the way has 2 layovers. Sorry but in this situation my choice is AA. I’ve had good and bad experiences with just about every airlines I’ve used in the past.
My father flew for American for 30 years. It was a great airline back in the day but even with his flight privileges as a retired pilot he doesn’t fly American unless as a last possible option. The flights are so overbooked that they aren’t usually able to fly non-rev without hours and hours of waiting for seats to come available. Allegiant is cheaper, and more reliable… Sad because AA used to be THE airline to fly for service and customer care.
Another day, another example of why AA is such a horrible airline. For all the people on here doing what you normally do (flame and insult people) you are missing the bigger picture. When you string together of the places where AA is failing to keep up with its peers you see a business with a toxic culture, disengaged employees and leadership with active disdain for their passengers. AA is quite proud of their “zero tolerance” policy toward upset passengers but they fail to realize how often the root cause of passenger discontent and escalation is AA. (I am NOT condoning or justifying any violence toward employees).
I flew NK for the first time three weeks ago. While it was DL or UA, it was better than AA.
Not doing customer service is wrong, why if I can drive I do. Airlines have becone major dictators.
But my first gut response was in reponse to the title wording … often earlier flights cost more. Moving into it for free might be against policy. IDK.
AA never has any problem to putting in you in a plane after missing flight. I flight once a week for business and I experienced all kind of problems and AA always being able to help. The flight tickets prices can make your plans tide. Also you know your schedule by the time you are looking for a flight. If you don’t want to wait longer at the airport just schedule and pay for the one is convenient for you. Do not go against to the airline because you decide to schedule your own flight as your convenience. Also if you really want to go in a flight just pay the difference and they will put you on it.
What else did you expect from America West?
AA us dead Bob and his cabal ate it’s corpse
When I first started my career in the early 80’s, I lived in Chicago, and UA and AA were the two “good business airplanes “. AA actually was a decent airline back then. I made the choice to focus mainly on UA, and retired last year as a UA MM Lifetime *G for me and my wife. I am thankful I made the “right choice “ back then.
Prior to retirement, I had to fly AA occasionally due to travel policies. Several weeks ago, I burned up the last of my AA miles on an award ticket. This was the last flight I will ever fly on AA and couldn’t be happier. I pity you poor bastards that live near an AA hub since you have no choice but to fly this burned out husk of an airline. Which really isn’t an airline anyway, it is a credit card company that flys planes.
The airline changed our flights with no options. We had to cancel the car rental and we are coming in extremely late.
@Scott Griffin,
I’m so sorry you had to deal with that. Mental illness disability is as serious as— and needs to be treated as compassionately — as any other disability. I’m glad you got home, where it’s easier to feel safe.
My bar for avoiding American Airlines is $200. I’ll pay up to $200 extra to take any other carrier. Even if my personal experience is rarely affected in a major way by their terrible business philosophy, the staff are miserable and treat you accordingly.
I’d rather fly Spirit if I can score the Big Front.
Sadly, I like to Charlotte, and B6 pulled out.
Why do AA employees have to lie all the time?
Self-service, fine, but the GA outright lying to the paying customer (they should have told them to use the website instead of a no) is inexcusable.
Why the regulators don’t issue fines for all the lies?
I’m sorry but this is ONE thing they’ve got RIGHT ! Why should someone be allowed to just “decide” to go earlier ?? That costs MANY people (already flying Standby, employees especially – some trying to just commute to work) from getting on their ORIGINALLY booked flight. Imagine you’re a flight attendant booking your standby flight at the exact TIME you need it to get to work, and because Karen wants to jump on EARLIER – for whatever reason, you get bumped off and will now be put on a later flight, miss your working flight which causes delays for other passengers on that employee’s working flight. (And YES, There ARE MANY people that booked cheaper flights, knowing they could go to airport and jump on the standby at a different time – that would have cost more) I get it, things change, meetings end early, etc etc but why should YOUR decided (not had to) switch screw MANY others ? It’s a snowball effect …. think about it. There use to be a “change fee”, so if anything, bring that back. That’ll stop the “just becausers” and the “cheaper flight cheaters” and then if your meeting let out earlier and you think it’s worth the extra fee, pay it and jump on. Otherwise … BOOK THE FLIGHT YOU WANT TO BEGIN WITH AND GO HAVE A COFFEE IF YOU GET IN EARLIER !
Is it really bad customer service when an airline expects you to book and pay for the flights and routes you really intend to travel?
I generally avoid flying anymore. The service has gone downhill. I have found that as generations pass, the more entitled they have become. They don’t have the same work ethic anymore and are just lazy. Also, with all this DEI crap, you don’t have to be the best anymore, you just get everything automatically. It has destroyed merit.
Back in the ’80s American airlines used to be a great airline. I remember talking next to somebody that worked in their office in Dallas back then and she recommended I get the book that they give to all their employees when they hire on. Great book on the history and philosophy of the airline.
Now they seem to be about one step above Spirit. I dropped my advantage membership when after January 6th the head of the flight attendants Union said anybody that was there should not ever be allowed to fly on any airline for the rest of their lives. What about the people that were just there and didn’t commit any crimes or didn’t do any violent protesting? Screw her! She should read the Constitution, and she would do well in mother Russia.
This is really not good. It happened to me. While my first flight delayed at ORD I lost my connection. But there is a later flight, and that’s the last flight that day. I’m able to get to the gate while they are boarding. The gate agent just said they can’t do standby for me and ask me to run a long distance to the service desk. When I got there just find no people there. I was so lucky that the phone waiting time is short so the customer service on the phone is able to put me on the standby list just 1 minutes before the door is closed. Before, the gate agent will be able to simply put me on a standby list and deal with it after everyone has boarded.
Are American Airlines trying to lose as much business as possible?
They have the rudest flight crews, the most disgusting long haul flight food and now the stand by seats mean you standby and watch as your stand by seat departs without you!
Is a disgruntled employee running the show?
The company is a joke and I would rather pay more to fly with anyone else and do so. They will never get another dime from me!
AA sucks. To the person who mentioned DEI or DEI crap, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Your comment makes no sense. AA will never get any of my money.
Just another anti AA article from VFTW full of anecdotal evidence. VFTW is the Karen of travel blogs. I only read it to see what they are ragging about this time..
@Al Wow, just wow. These policies are being put in place by YOUR generation. The rest of us are simply trying to earn a living in a toxic work culture, sometimes with very few options.
Thanks for the support. Have the day you deserve.
I avoid American if at all possible as if they were frontier or spirit . Everything aspect is worse than most other airlines.
Well I guess I will never fly American
Yet another reason to avoid AA. I used to prefer AA for my infrequent flights. But now? Nope… No more AA flights for me and my family. It is clear that AA has zero concern for their customers… So in return, I have zero concern for them
OH it gets even more absurd. Found out last month that if you have a connection, as soon as you board the first plane the option for standby for the second plane disappears in the app! Which is obviously a problem when customer service pushes you to the app…
Went straight to the new gate at the second airport, no gate agent. Went to the closest customer service counter, which was of course closed. Then went back to the gate and there was finally an agent there. The flight was delayed so was more than 45 mins out but she couldn’t help me because it was less than 45 mins before the SCHEDULED time. Trekked all the way to the one open customer service counter and THEY were finally able to help me and got me a boarding pass. But had I been 5 minutes later, no dice.
ALL for a flight where I ended up in the bulkhead row aisle with a middle seat next to me open. Absurd!
Why all of you complaining it’s not AA is us air and American west blaming aa employees is wrong blame the pilots they wanted this so this is what you get a low cost airline
I was an American Airlines platinum member for 25 years. They treated me so poorly on more than one occasion recently, that I canceled my premium credit card and now never to fly with them ever again unless they were the only option. Being a long time, premium customer Got me absolutely nothing.
There is no airline that is perfect. I have had bad experiences on some where others have had wonderful experiences and vice versa have had wonderful experiences where others have been bad. I had horrorible testimonies in the past of Spirit airlines and I flew from Nashville to Dallas Fort Worth round trip a few months ago on Spirit and got an incredible ridiculous rate so low I couldn’t but book it. The aircraft was immaculately clean, smelled wonderful and the flight attendants went over and above. Same with Allegiant as I did a round trip from Nashville to Palm Springs California a 4 hour 23 minute flight each way and it was a wonderful experience and I had no one sitting on my row besides me. I fly American often as they service some cities other carriers don’t and I have found their aircraft to be clean and mostly efficient but also experienced negative issues on Delta and United in times past.
Traveling over 100 vehicle and flight trips combined annually for business delays both on highways and in air can be frustrating and while people expect you to be at their business functions or events the crew assigned to each flight feels the anxiety of the flyers. That combined with the fewer choices of airlines in today’s time as a result of numerous merger acquisitions just multiply the problems. Yes I know the lower cost carriers like Spirit have filed bankruptcy but the more carriers that merge or go out of business completely just drive the cost to fly up and make it unaffordable for many.
Yet
Another turn off
@Fly Girl, thank you for proving my point. Your approach is a business-first and not a customer-first approach. By your logic the needs of an FA who needs to fly standby to get to their base because they made a choice to live in a location that required a flight to t heir base is more important than providing customers with an experience that drives loyal. That loyalty is what sells the highest value tickets and puts money in the pockets of the FAs who refer to their customers trying to get home sooner after being on the road as “Karens.” Your logic suggests that passengers should just suck it up or whip out their wallet just to take an empty seat that an FA wants when they could fly jump.
As I mentioned earlier, this issue is emblematic of broader service excellence in air travel and, particularly, at AA. Pax…the people paying the bills…are being treated like sh!t by a small but growing number of airline employees (in-flight and in the stations) drunk with power.
STOP TREATING YOUR CUSTOMERS AS AN INCONVENIENCE AND THE ENEMY. THEY ARE WHY PEOPLE IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY HAVE A JOB. My suspicion is that if we slide into a recession and air travel continues to soften the tone of airline employees will change when there aren’t enough pax to justify the labor count. Hopefully that will help thin the herd of people who have no business working with customers.
I want to thank the airline industry for there great work and the service that you provide we the customer/consumer. I’m sure that it’s difficult to provide a great service by the way which you do for clients who only complain constantly. It’s amazing to me at how selfish we have become as a people, country and nation. I want to say that I’m not in anyway perfect and sometimes have to correct myself for my on shortcomings. I wonder if the airline passenger ever stops to consider the hundreds of things that have to go right on a daily, hourly basis to get them to there destinations safely. Everyone one from the ticketing agent to the flight attendant that bids you fairwell as you exit your flight works effortlessly to make your flight as safe and enjoyable as possible. Things happen, and it’s not always the airlines fault. We don’t get to the airport on time. There is a holdup at security. We bring something that can’t be carried on board the flight etc…you know! I’m not ringing my own bell I just want to say thanks! You probably don’t hear that often. Out of all the little things that go wrong you get the big one correct that’s ….getting me safely to my destination…. and for that, I SAY THANK YOU!
I did standby with AA yesterday. From Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte and then again from Charlotte to GSP. It got me home 7.5 hours earlier. I didn’t see an option in the mobile app. I requested standby on the website. At FLL it was straight forward. It showed my name on the board and eventually it showed an assign seat. I went to the gate agent and he had a printed boarding pass ready to go for me. In Charlotte, I also had my name on the board and got an assigned seat. Gate agent didn’t want to deal with me. I had to wait until I was the last one to board a plane. Note that I didn’t have checked bag and I am Platinum status.
AA has to pay me to fly with them. Or it’s an extreme family emergency. I avoid at any cost.
I went from Nicaragua via Miami to Charlotte to Harrisburg.. via AA. Major flight delay in Miamicausedus to be late into Charlotte. We ran to the gate for our flight. Plane still there but we could not board
They canceled our boarding pass. Sent us to another gate going to Chicago. Arrived around midnight. Theere were 11 passengers on a plane that held 150+. In Chicago they got a cab to the motel, food vouchers. After a shower I had 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Only one flight per day CLT to Harrisburg. Got to Harrisburg around noon the next day. They could have hotels, taxi, and food vouchers ti
Mmes three
and we could gotten home 13 hours earlier. Poor business decisions on their part
Very disappointing standing there watching your seats go without you.
Who’s actually running American Airlines today? Elon Musk and DOGE?
I vowed to stop flying AA about 2 years ago because of horrible service and treatment for the last time. There’s always harrassment by certain gate agents and flight attendants in some cities they serve. Customer service has declined significantly. I started purchasing premium and in some classes full fare premium hoping I could avoid being mistreated by the gate agents and some flight attendants but AA never fails to disappoint. Service at the gate started getting worse bc I personally felt that despite being respectful, limiting interactions with agents unless absolutely necessary, and following their rules they treated me as if I didn’t belong. There’s questioning me…pulling me out of line…unnecessary antics. I’ve had one gate agent scan my boarding pass to get on the plane and another pull me out of line to harass and question me boarding in premium cabin…for what? I paid for the seat or upgraded to the seat. The last time was so humiliating as soon as I got on the plane I typed a complaint about the experience. I received a missed call and voicemail from the airline saying they wanted to follow up. I called several times…the customer service rep was ‘out of office’ but told me she wanted me to get back with her. I kept trying to follow up and by the time she got back to me…maybe 2 weeks give or take I was told too much time passed they were closing the case bc nothing was founded bc the gate agent who treated me horribly didn’t corroborate my side of the story. She out right lied to protect herself. I was sad and angry bc I literally keep my head down and mind my business when traveling for peace and to remain safe. I couldn’t confront the gate agent about her actions the way I should have been able to bc it would have likely given her the excuse to jeopardize my flying that day. Also, while that flight was for pleasure my work required that I frequently traveled by air…if I lost the privilege of flying one of the largest airlines in the country it could have jeopardized my employment. They did give me a whopping 2,500 miles….which was an insult for what transpired. I didn’t want miles…I wanted an apology, them to improve service to everyone, and for me to be treated with dignity and respect. Maybe even disciplinary action and retraining for the gate agent. Gate agents have way too much power and sadly I’ve noticed repetitively when they really need to stop people from boarding they do not especially if you’re a certain type of pax. On board flight attendants also give some people passes on their behavior before that door closes and find it appalling when we get in the air and they act out of character. I get they don’t get paid until the door shuts but all of our safety is in jeopardy. Target the unruly don’t stereotype and harass those of us who are quiet, respectful, and minding our business. With work I have even been able to avoid flying AA bc there were other options for the cities I needed to go to. Early in my career, I always heard bad things about SWA and avoided them but let me tell you I started taking more of their flights…EXCELLENT experiences! If you learn their system… easy breezy and I have NEVER had a bad experience at the gate or onboard with Southwest (biz or personal) even during major delays bc of bad weather or equipment issues. They always ended up getting me where I needed to go by the end of the day or early the next morning! I pray that I NEVER have to fly AA with its current leadership and operations. Stop flying American Airlines….they are despicable….spend your money elsewhere…drive…train…maybe bus it…fly ANYBODY else that treats you with respect/dignity!!!
Your article at first glance makes it seem as if American Airlines simply refuses to help, out of laziness or lack of care. But reading deeper into the article we see an important nuance: YES they want to accommodate passengers moving up to an earlier flight, but they want passengers to use the app instead of staff time. This should be the focus of your article and its headline. It’s misleading otherwise.
@D Hales – they want passengers to use the app – at least 45 minutes prior to departure
Done with American Airlines. Platinum member for many years and now can’t go stand by, just happened to me too. I was at the gate 1 hour before and could get no one to help me. They kept sending me to customer service and they would then send me to the gate. What a cluster F. So spend 4 additional hours at the airport because they would not let me on with 20+ empty seats. They can make changes so can we! Hello Delta and Untied you have a new customer. American can stick that new policy where the sun doesn’t shine.
I agree with AA policies. Gate attendants are just that.. attend to boarding tasks, not ticketing. These rules facilitate safety and good flying protocol. Pple who become irritated have a false sense of entitlement. Ticketing agents, gate attendants and crew attendants are discreet functions. Travelers need to have greater respect for the level of responsibility of airline personnel. Also air travel creates anxiety in itself. Flight crew needs support not belittlement.
The main problem here is they want you to use the app! They don’t care that most people don’t fly that often, and we pay a lot of money for our flight, so we actually PREFER a human being to help us and NOT an electronic do it yourself! We don’t work for the airlines! People have told me they can fly cheaper and direct using Breeze airlines but they won’t because it’s all do it yourself with no people as customer support. So I won’t try Breeze either. I guess I have to add AA to that as well for no customer service help, just electronic help. We pay a lot for a ticket, so we want real IN PERSON HELP to make it easier for US not easier for your workers!
I retired from AA 6 years ago. I was with them for 40 years but honestly that doesn’t mean anything. The day I retired, I lost my 40 years of seniority. This was a surprise. We always carried our seniority when flying as a non-rev. Doug Parker changed all of that. Now any employee, no matter how little seniority they have will be boarded before any retiree. Shows you what a piece of work AA is.
As if i needed another reason to never fly American again. What a joke. America’s legacy carriers just need to be allowed to fail.