Originally Posted by
sts603
It is done manually by the gate agent.
That is really appalling - people go stand-by usually because they get done early - not because they were trying to save money by booking a later flight.
I will say that her co-worker looked appalled as well. I am not going to report the specific incident, but I might write to AA as a point in general, and mention ORD specifically. The reason I don't want to report the person specifically is that 1) it was a conversation I overheard and 2) I was not affected. I don't know whether the "they" was a specific person who may have been deserving in some way (I cannot think of why), or whether the "they" was anyone who flies standby.