jabrams72

So, this is purely galley gossip, but I was told by an FA on a flight this past week that she's heard effective 2010, AA will change the policy regarding "confirmed same day flight change" to replace all non-pay standby options--that is free standby is replaced by a change fee. (She said she'd imagine it would be waived for EXP, but hadn't heard that part officially). Later in the week, in chatting with an FA on a different flight, out of a different station, I asked if she had heard anything about changes to standby and she said that she hadn't heard anything official, but there were rumors about charging for standby.

So this is galley gossip, taken with the usual large grain of salt, but I'm curious as to whether anyone else has heard anything about this possibility from other sources?

Deltahater

can our FA friends shed some light on this please?

Intuitively, given the airlines' behavior over the last few years , it makes sense that AA charges for something that is currently free.

Free--BAD
charge-GOOD

customer--BAD
revenue--GOOD

denCSA

Hmmm, while this could be true, AA has had a general reluctance to invest in any upgrades to SABRE (especially with it getting the boot in a few years) or IT in general. For example, we still wait 3 days for mileage to post... however that is not revenue generating and charging for standby is, so I wouldn't rule it out. But keep in mind that since AA does not use a GUI over SABRE any changes to the coding would cost quite a bit. Take it with a grain of salt.

brp

Well, given that the model of a fee-free airline,WN, does charge a fee for any standby from other than the full fare (from the purchased fare up to the full fare, IIRC), this seems a consistent response. Fees are, of course, not a good thing, but this makes sense.

Cheers.

paseom2

I have considered AA's standby policy to be a huge benefit over WN in respects to same-day travel. AA 'matching' WN in this case, IMHO, would be a mistake. Legacy carriers need to market their distinguishing benefits otherwise they will be seen as 'more-expensive', less efficient, unfriendlier versions of WN.

gemac

1. They should not do this. This is, at this point, internal proprietary AA information, and any AA employee who shares it on the internet could find themselves in serious trouble with their employer, as I understand the situation.

2. OP - Individual FAs may know of changes to the standby policy, but it isn't part of their core job functions, so I would expect that they wouldn't be nearly as familiar with any changes as, say, a gate agent or a check-in agent. Why are you asking FAs when you are regularly exposed to these better sources of information?

dayone

I find it curious at best that a FA would be so well-versed in upcoming changes in standby policy, especially to the degree of EXP fee waivers.

jabrams72

I completely agree with you on this. That's why I specified it as "Galley Gossip." I didn't ask the first person, she raised it in context of discussion (I had gotten on an earlier flight as a stasndby on a connection, since it was delayed and hadn't departed when I arrived). She volunteered this information, saying that in essence "you won't be able to do that for free much longer". The second was again, just in conversation. I don't tend to have long conversations with GAs and check-in agents, since they are usually more harried, while there are break times for FAs on flights. I wasn't asking for "official confirmation," but in the course of a conversation, just asked to see if her information corroborated--I figured I'd hear more detail here or AA officially eventually (probably here first )

imajes

uhm, there was a big announcement a few months back about a multi million dollar contract to replace their entire systems over the next couple years...

Deltahater

I am in disagreement on this. It is not that we are seeking proprietary financial or route planning information. It is simply a clarification on a policy that will affect the traveling public. I understand some people are very hesitant to share documents, but when I crafted internal documents for a Fortune 10 company, I always crafted them with the idea of it being on the front page of the WSJ/USA Today the next day. If you run a company with over 10,000 employees and many of them disgruntled, you need to assume that they will be shared.

Sharing is better than not.

brp

It is good for us, of course, if the documents are shared. As AA employees have gotten into trouble for releasing information that was not yet intended for the public (and, in one case, a thread was temporarily removed at AA's request), I think it would not be prudent for the employee to leak the internal information.

No matter how your internal releases were worded- if your company had found out exactly who leaked it, would they have gotten a pat on the back and a nice raise for doing that?

Cheers.

gemac

I'm not saying that AA's policy towards sharing internal information on the internet is wise, just, or humane. All I'm saying is that their policy is what it is. It's pretty clear, and AA employees in the past have had difficulties because of similar information posted on FT. AA's legal team has contacted FT and threatened legal action unless such information was removed (which FT did). I didn't agree with that either, but there it is.

AA's position is that when they want information publicly known, they will release it publicly, until then, releasing it causes employees to be subject to disciplinary action. Encouraging employees to do something that will get them into trouble with their employer and will not last long on FT is something that I would not do.

FWAAA

Include me as skeptical that AA would share upcoming changes to standby policy with FAs. That's not how AA rolls.

AAerSTL

As long as it is waived for EXP I will be happy. DL offers same day confirmed stand-by for its elites. If it's extra money AA can get from non-elites I think it is a good idea. I was flying DL last month on BOS-ATL and another pax who clearly had no status went ahead and paid the $50 flight change to fly with her friend. Of course, people try to get it waived but DL won't budge.

denCSA

Correct...