LAXGreg

My LAX-EWR next week appears very full, with first class only having 2 seats. Conversely all the JFK flights have plenty of room up front. In the past I have been told (and practiced) that standby to JFK was possible if it was listed as a co-terminal in the fare rules. I had booked the flight on the web, so I no longer had access to the fare rules and decided to call AA and ask.

After talking to no less than 5 AA employees on the phone, I have ended up more confused then ever. After they "huddled" they came up with the following pronouncements:

(1) Co-terminals are irrelevant for standbys.
(2) Standby is allowed on my itinerary. You must pay $100 + the current fare difference. But it is standby, and you can't confirm your seat.
(3) It is against AA's policy to give out fare rules after ticketing.
(4) I can look up the fare rules on AA.com. This last one I know is wrong.

Are they right?

AAgoraku

If you know the fare basis code (call AA and ask for it), you can usually find the fare rules using the Expedia Fare List.

As for switching to another co-terminal airport... I have often switched at the airport w/out a problem. In my case, I usually switch from OAK to SFO when flying to/from JFK. When the flight wasn't very full, the gate agent wouldn't hesitate and would issue me a boarding pass. Other times, she/he would ask me to wait to make sure there was space available.

Be nice to the gate agent and you should be ok.

FWAAA

There are more co-terminals for fare computation purposes than for standby, but you can standby to JFK with an EWR ticket.

There is no $100 standby fee. That was dropped before it was even implemented. If you paid $100 and the fare difference, that would be a confirmed change, which, of course, you don't want to do. You spoke to some clueless people today. Extremely clueless. And stupid, to boot.

There is no policy preventing AA from distributing fare rules, before or after ticketing.

AA.com often tells me "there was an error accessing the rules . . ." I'm sure you and everyone else has received that message.

One of the benefits of EXP status is that generally the agents are more helpful than the ones you spoke to.

I sure hope AA hurries up and fires the deadwood.

C17PSGR

If you standby, how do you get by security under the new rules? Your ticket says EWR? Won't the security keep you from getting to the gate agent in the first place?

FWAAA

The checkin counter will give you a security document (printed on boarding pass stock) that will get you past security. And if you check in for your ticketed flight, you have that boarding pass as well.

LAXGreg

Thank you for the help. It was incredibly frustrating on the phone. It might be interesting to note that I was calling in the first place because they had inexplicably dropped my exit row aisle seats and reassigned me to non-exit middle seats. Did I mention that they also removed my upgrade request?

ARGH!