All businesses have procedures, and all businesses allow their employees some latitude in deviating from procedures. Several years ago, I had a round trip STL-OGG. The return was routed as OGG-HNL-LAX-STL. On arrival at OGG, we asked about standing by for the OGG-LAX nonstop, was told I could not do that (contract agent did not know why). I called the EXP line, and was told that the fare broke in HNL, and that was why we couldn't standby for the direct flight. We proceded to board the HA flight to HNL, and when we got to the gate for the HNL-LAX flight found that there were 50 pax on the standby list. The prior day they had a HNL-LAX cancel for mechanical reasons, and all these people were trying to get to LAX. Some of them had been re-ticketed for the next day (two days after their original flight). We had confirmed space, so we walked on, but the whole thing didn't seem to make sense from AA's point of view. I would have allowed employees more latitude to deviate from established procedures, but AA knows their employees better than I do.

I am glad to learn that agents have some power to make this exception in cases of emergency.