cooberp

I'm a PLT heading to LAS today. I needed to fly via DFW to requalify for status next year: both JFK-LAS direct and LGA-ORD-LAS would have left me 122 EQM short (apparently the great circle route from JFK to LAS passes very close to ORD), whereas LGA-DFW-LAS would get me to 50,075. Unfortunately, AA.com was offering LGA-ORD-LAS one-way for $160, whereas LGA/JFK/EWR-DFW-LAS was about double that. So I put the ORD routing on hold and called the AAdvantage Platinum desk. I got a helpful agent who said that, pending seat availability of course, I could book the ORD routing and then standby via DFW, and if I got on the flight I would get mileage credit for the DFW flights. With that assurance in hand, I went ahead and booked the ORD itinerary.

I got to LGA and asked to go standby via DFW. The ticket agent said no problem and put me on the list. When I cleared the list, they gave me a boarding pass to DFW, but wanted to check my carryon since the overheads were full. As they went to check it, they saw I was a connecting passenger to LAS, and couldn't check the bag since I didn't have a confirmed seat on a DFW-LAS flight. Moreover, they saw that my original itinerary was via Chicago, and asked me who had put me on the DFW standby list. I said "the ticket agent." They said "the agent shouldn't have done that. You can't standby with a different routing"--the exact opposite of what I was told on the phone, which was that you can stand by on any itinerary with the same origin and destination. I was getting a bit nervous. They finally let me on the plane, and found a spot in the overheads for my bag, but did not give me a standby boarding pass for LAS.

I imagine I will just go to the gate for the LAS flight when I get to DFW, explain my situation and ask to be given a standby boarding pass. Hopefully all will go well. But my question for FT'ers is, who's right? The phone agent, who said I could change routing as a standby so long as I had the same origin and destination, or the gate agent who said I couldn't, but was making an exception for me since the ticket agent had "mistakenly" processed my request? It would be good to have some clarity on this policy when making future travel plans.

jerry a. laska

The routing needs to be applicable for the fare charged. You should check the fare rules for the ticket you purchased and see if it allows a routing through DFW.
Also:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-segments.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...routing-2.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ht=sdc+routing

JonNYC

Nice summary!

FWAAA

The gate agent was confused (and wrong). The ticket agent who said the OP could standby for a different routing was correct. I believe that connections via ORD or DFW are permitted for NYC-LAS fares. Of course, the cheaper buckets on the DFW routing were sold out, leaving the fare much higher.

Non-elites are now permitted to buy same-day standby permission for $75 if same-day change (also $75) is not available. Non-elites who pay for same-day standby may not change routing. Elites are permitted to change routing. Read all about it in the terms and conditions: https://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/sameDayTravel.jsp

cooberp

Thanks very much, FWAAA. You're exactly right that both the DFW and ORD routings were available, but the DFW one was much more expensive.

I don't see anything about routing changes on the page you've linked to. It says there that you can stand by for a flight (which I imagine means one segment) that has the same origin and destination, not an itinerary that can have multiple segments. Is there another page you can point me to? Or do you just happen to know that this is universally permitted for elites, and that there are no fare rules on domestic flights that prohibit it?

cooberp

Just got my LAS boarding pass, so all worked out well. It would be good to know for the future whether elites can stand by on a different routing for any otherwise permitted routing (e.g., LGA-DFW-LAS is OK, but LGA-MIA-LAS would have booked as two one-ways so you can't stand by for that itinerary), or whether it depends on the specifics of each ticket's fare rules.

JDiver

The definitive answer is often in your Detailed Fare Rules, per jerry a. laska.