Originally Posted by
nologic
Yes, that's what I suspected...an extra 90 mins in the CCR is fine...although there's always an argument for getting passengers on their way if there's space available. You never know what could happen with that later flight: the flight itself could have mechanical problems or another flight could have trouble and they might need the seats to re-route passengers. Generally, a low probability, but you never and I generally think it makes sense to fill up empty seats when there's an opportunity.
BTW, sorry about the typo in the title...(also, I did a search on "Standby," and reviewed the first two and didn't find a relevant thread...these boards are getting very cumbersome to search.)
Though I see your reasoning on filling the plane with passengers willing to make the change, there are two sides to the argument and BA do have revenue interests to protect. Not only would they be missing the change fee (if you're desperate enough to want to get on the earlier flight you or your company -for some- might just pay it); there could also be a lost revenue element.
Let's say a ticket the earlier flight A costs £2000, whereas the later flight B costs £1800 in a cheaper fare bucket. If BA had the policy of allowing a standby and you were okay with taking the later flight (B) but preferred to take the earlier flight (A) you'd book the cheaper fare bucket to try to get on the earlier flight standby. Now if you really preferred the earlier ticket enough and it was worth £200 to guarantee the earlier arrival rather than take your chances, you would pay for A.
Plus, it would also require a not-insignificant amount of staff resources to implement this I would imagine.
But living on this side of the Atlantic (Canada), and not actually having flown a single itinerary on AA as booked thanks to SDC and standby, I can see how it would be beneficial to customers on BA.
Does AA actually let you standby for international itineraries though, I've only recently flown them within North America?