Originally Posted by
iadisgreat
I think all you would get is the fare difference - not sure why you would get any other compensation as you were the one who went standby.
I didn't end up going standby. My original flight, which I took, was late (after I boarded), and I got home around midnight.
If the AA gate agent had done his job correctly, following AA policy, then I would have been given a first class seat on the earlier flight, and all would have been good.
I'd think that AA would want to be sure to train gate agents to clear people with paid FC tickets into FC first before processing upgrades, to avoid having to refund fare differences to people. Think of how much revenue AA is refunding to people when if policy were followed, no refunds would be given. Or AA should want to just tweak its software so that a legend would appear next to the name of anyone with a paid FC ticket, such as "PAID FC PAX: CLEAR DIRECTLY INTO FC BEFORE PROCESSING UPGRADES".
I would assume that AA would refund the FC ticket price paid minus the coach fare at the time of going standby. In my case, that would have been zero.