Originally Posted by mabramovich

I posted this in the domestic thread but apparently this counts as international so I was advised to post in this thread.


Hi all,

I had a question about a standby experience that happened today.

My girlfriend and I were travelling AMM - DOH - PHL - BOS on QR, with the PHL - BOS segment of course on AA. We were travelling in on an AA J award under two different record locators. I'm an AA Platinum, she has no status.

On landing in PHL, we tried to standby for an earlier flight to Boston. At the transfer desk, I was advised of a $75 fee, even for Platinums. I'm pretty sure that's wrong and sure enough in the lounge there was no issue putting me on the standby list (and I cleared for the flight).

However, no one could or would put my gf on the standby list, either for free or for $75. The agent tried and said nothing could be done on award tickets, and called her help desk who worked on it for a while with no success. We went to the gate so that I could board and as a last ditch effort she went to customer service who said nothing could be done in PHL - only at the point of departure. Of course, I asked to be put on standby way back in Amman but you can imagine that RJ ground staff working the QR flight had no idea about AA standby rules.

I'm looking at AA.com where it clearly says award business passengers get free confirmed changes and standby. In any case, she should at least be able to pay money to move up, right?

Am I mistaken? It was obviously very frustrating to not be able to make an earlier flight which ended up going out with a lot of seats.

Can anyone clarify the rules for me? Would be much appreciated. Thank you.