If American Airlines really wants to be a premium carrier, it needs to stop alienating passengers with ridiculous standby policies that could not be more customer-unfriendly. Come on AA, this is such a low-hanging fruit…
A Silly Rule American Airlines Forbids Agents From Assisting With Standby…Even On Wide-Open Flights
I’ve highlighted this issue with a very specific example before, but here’s another example at AA’s major Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) hub:
@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
The truth is not that the agent did not have time (though some gate agents are overworked) but that she was not allowed to help…and that is by design. Put simply, AA has instituted several standby rules that make it unnecessarily difficult to go standby on an earlier flight:
- In an attempt to reduce staffing costs and direct people to use the app and sign-up for AAdvtange, AA has forbidden gate agents and other airport staff from adding passengers to the standby list from their end, unless the passenger holds Platinum Pro status or above in AAdvantage
- Passengers who are not AAdvtnage members cannot even standby for an earlier flight and members must use the app to go on standby
- You must place yourself on the standby list at least 45 minutes before departure
Let’s talk about the silliness of that last point.
Imagine you are flying from Columbus to Los Angeles via Dallas. You get into Dallas early and notice there is an earlier AA flight you can take to LA…it departs in 40 minutes. Sorry, you are out of luck. But had you added yourself earlier to the standby list, you might get stuck on a connecting flight you’d miss if your first flight did not arrive early or was delayed waiting for a gate (it happens often with American Airlines). It’s a lose-lose situation for the passenger and lacks common sense.
And let’s not forget the operational upside to placing passengers on earlier flights. As View From The Wing notes, “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.”
Indeed, this policy suggests AA simply sees passengers as pesky annoyances, not real people with lives and time that are valuable.
VFTW also points out another paradox:
- Standby is not allowed if you have checked bags, unless you are an AAdvantage elite
- Once you check a bag, you can no longer add yourself to standby using AA’s mobile app
- But Gold and Platinum AAdvantage elite members are not allowed to add themselves any other way
Again, why? Why make it so difficult? The functionality is there to move people onto an airlier flight with just a few keystrokes in QIK (Ctrl C, F3, option 3). Why would you possibly alienate customers instead of getting them on their way earlier?!
This is what separates a premium carrier from an airline that just doesn’t care…an airline that has a laser focus on on-time at the expense of common sense. We call that penny wise, pound foolish.
Now is a great time or AA to revisit this policy and either fix its tech issues so that anyone and everyone can list themselves on standby using the AA app…or (better yet, and) empower agents to help. People will reward that with loyalty.
> Read More: American Airlines Agent: “We Don’t Do Standby At This Airport”
image: American Airlines
Seems like American is trying to race to the bottom and be in the same class as Spirit and Frontier. Delta is considered premium because it is less sub-standard, not because it’s a great airline. United has good international routes and some of the big cities as hubs.
Flip side of the argument is why give a free benefit to customers who don’t spend enough money with you (or your affiliates) to make it worthwhile.
With the way too many ways to earn AA PP or Exp level easily anymore, it’s nice having an extra benefit. A few meal kits, no show hotel bookings and credit card spend gives you the 125k miles to get PP quickly.
Of course the negatives with so many elites are another story, upgrade lists are insane with PP’s being in 30’s on hub-hub flights daily.
But here no one is taking “your space” or “your upgrade.” Standby lists are sorted by status, spending, class of service…you would never lose out a standby seat to a no-status flyer. So what’s the problem? Why make anyone sit around and wait just to punish them, especially if you want to call yourself a premium carrier?
The old adage holds true here…”If we don’t take care of the customer, someone else will.”
Indeed!
I’ve achieved lifetime status with AA (not bragging just stating) and if I can avoid them, I do 🙁 IMHO, AA needs to rid itself of America West Management hood overs and any other Management that wants to compete with Spirit as to who can win the trophy for being god awful. Until AA Management pulls its head out of the dark hole it finds so warm and fuzzy and seriously wants to be a premium carrier, it’s mission will be to turn it into a carrier like Spirit or Frontier 🙁
I think this is AA taking the easy path on essentially finalizing the standby list at 45 minutes prior to departure, then letting the normal process handle the assignments.
Adding somebody into the middle of the standby list after seats are being assigned can cause a customer service headache. Let’s say there are 5 open seats and 5 people on standby. They clear 1-3 into seats 20 min prior to departure, then someone runs up to be added to the list and is slotted as #4 due to their status. They get the 4th seat and now the last person on the standby list is out of luck at the last minute and will likely go complain to the agent or whoever will listen.
I’m not saying I agree with this, but seems to me like taking the stance of avoiding the complaint from happening by not providing an enhanced service to their customers.
I’m okay with auto-clearing the list at D-45, which of course would mean that some NRSAs would make the flight and last-minute revenue standby passengers, even Concierge Keys, would not. I would not support removing those employees if already seated…but if there are still seats left, I don’t see the harm in adding someone to the flight with a few quick keystrokes in QIK.
AA has alway found ways to adopt policy and procedure that in effect creates potholes on the road to making it easier to do business with them from a customer standpoint. They add one thing that is helpful and then create something else to make something else more difficult.
From a gate agent perspective working the standby list is often a challenge, particularly on popular routes and can potentially cause departure delays. There has been some automation added to Qik that helps but some limits need to be in place to where there is a deadline for adding names to the waitlist. If a passenger arrives on a flight on the D concourse 40 minutes before the departure of a flight they want to standby on and they add themselves to the the list, by the time they actually arrive at the departure gate it could be 15 or 20 mins before departure time and the doors close 15 mins prior. This doesn’t include dealing with other confirmed passengers arriving to the gate off delayed arriving flights and clearing waitlist people who are in the gate area. None the less, why do they not copy whatever DL standby policy is since you don’t hear much complaining about their process.
This is even more ridiculous on shuttle-style routes like DFW-AUS. It literally operates 16X daily. Flights basically go every 40 minutes. AA should want pax to go out as early as possible. Dumb policy
Agreed.
It also opens up a seat on a later flight for a non rev passenger . Why let a flight go out with empty seats and risk stranding employees and their family members overnight ?
Remember that most airlines out there don’t have generous standby policies. Want to avoid the stress of a 50-minute connection at BRU? Unless you buy a fully flexible (stupidly expensive) ticket, you’ll be waiting for five hours or whatever until the next departure.
I can see the benefit of a generous standby policy, but there’s an obvious element of moral hazard in yield management and it’s not surprising that some airlines prefer to maintain the integrity of their pricing structures by discouraging or banning standby flying.