Originally Posted by
brewdog11
That's strange. I recently flew MSY-DFW-ORD and the check-in agent at MSY seemed completely baffled when I declined her proactive offer go standby for a direct MSY-ORD flight. Maybe the agent you spoke with (or the agent I spoke with) was more willing to bend the rules?
To address OP's question: Since you booked it all through AA, you should not have a problem. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing you'll be able to.
Hoping you are correct. The T's and C's
https://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/sd-tc.jsp for a confirmed standby clearly rule this out for both same day flight change and same day standby because of the Alaska operated leg (it explicitly requires the flight to be operated by mainline, Eagle, or Connection). I'll monitor ExpertFlyer for seats, but I'll want a pretty certain expectation AA will allow this before heading to the airport 2 hours early with my wife.