FWAAA

All others can use CFC:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Americ....html?x=0&.v=1

Full details here:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/sameDayTravel.jsp

--------------------
MODERATOR NOTE:

Below are details from the AA website indicating who is eligible for free standby (source):

Quote:

The following passengers may standby at no charge based on availability:

• Customers traveling within and between the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
• the Caribbean or Canada with tickets purchased before February 22, 2010
• Customers who purchase unrestricted Economy Class fares (Y, B, H class of service)
• Customers who purchase Business or First Class tickets
• Active U.S. Military personnel traveling on orders or personal travel
• Active U.S. Military dependents traveling on orders
• American Airlines AAdvantage Executive Platinum®, AAdvantage Platinum® or AAdvantage Gold® members
• oneworld® Alliance Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby members
• Customers flying on the same reservation as an American Airlines AAdvantage Executive
• Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum or AAdvantage Gold member or oneworld Alliance Emerald, Sapphire or Ruby member regardless of frequent flier status or fare type
• AAirpass® members
• First and Business Class MileSAAver® Awards
• First, Business and Economy Class AAnytime® Awards

-AAdvantage Forum Moderator Team

HNL

Wow. Further evidence that elite membership has its privileges.

scubadu

Was that in question?

Regards

GUWonder

So will it now become far more routine for domestic non-"premium customer" passengers to be charged the same-day-confirmed change fee even when barely missing some cut-off deadline at the airport?

My AA lifetime elite status has become worth relatively more again.

brp

Interesting- a case of AA following WN (for a change) who generally don't allow fee-free standby, except in full-fare cases.

Cheers.

JY1024

Interesting...wonder if the motive was geared more towards streamlining operations or towards generating revenue (or both).

I'm guessing this probably won't affect elite members too much? As an EXP, I'd be jockeying for standby space with other EXPs anyway.

Blumie

It's not just WN. I think most airlines charge for standby.

hotdogs

This is a problem bc premium passenger will try to standby for free but that space will now fill up with CFC, which have priority over even an EXP trying to standby!

Blumie

It's gotta be the latter. I don't know how this streamlines operations, AA's press release notwithstanding; seems to me that GAs will not be spending a lot of time explaining the rules and processing CFCs. Still, as an elite, I like the change, if for no reason other than schadenfreude.

demkr

I have a better idea. How about lower CFC fees for elites? The standby fee thing was inevitable imho...they are trying to remain competitive

cparekh

I wonder if it will still be true that CFC is offered only when rev mgmt allows, or will it be offered as long as any space is available. My experience with CFC was that any time it was offered, I was likely to get standby anyway, so I never purchased it. If this still hold true, my guess is that elites will still have enough leeway to get standby seats.

Also, I am not sure how many non-elites actually take flights other than their originally ticketed flight outside of irrops.

Spiff

EXP can do CFC too. I've gladly done it and was (re)confirmed into F (X) as soon as I paid the $50.

Blumie

There's always an optimist in the group. First, CFC always was an option, although perhaps an option less often chosen because of the ability to standby for free. Second, do you think the average traveler, who chooses their airline based on a few dollar difference in fares, is gonna pony up $50 (or whatever the CFC fee is) to change their $79 ticket? Some will, but my guess is not a lot. Third, unless AA changes when they make CFC seats available -- and maybe they will -- it only makes them available when there are a fair number of seats available. And finally, it remains to be seen how standby at the gate works and whether a passenger willing to pay $50 gets priority over an EXP; on a fully booked flight, I hope, and expect, that elites still will have priority on the standby list over a non-elite willing to pay $50.


Are you proposing that elites should have to pay more than $0 to standby or that we should be allowed to confirm flight changes for a lower fee? The former is just silly. The latter is great; I'd like to pay less for everything. I'm an elite; I deserve it.

JY1024

Well, in theory there would be fewer people on the standby list, right? (i.e. people who don't want to pony up the extra $50) That should free up the GAs a bit as they won't have to spend as much time clearing the standby list, paging people, handing out new boarding passes, etc. That may help GAs get people boarded more quickly and close out flights faster.

Blumie

Bingo. Even as an elite, CFC -- even at $50 a pop -- can be your friend!