dayone

I've never had a problem either. I did it last Wednesday at DFW and was able to move to AA88 and enjoyed my second trip in NGBC.

BenjaminNYC

If everyone on FT applied that policy, there would be no FT.

UNITED959

I'm pretty sure it is. I remember a few months ago, I was flying ORD-PVR...my booked routing was ORD-DFW-PVR. There was a non-stop that was wide open, but I was told the "you can't do standy on international tickets."

UNITED959

She was definitely no Miss Sunshine. When I inquired about upgrades, she replied with a knee-jerk, "Oh there's nothing" without even touching her keyboard. Or maybe she was so good she knew the loads of every flight leaving ORD at that time?

DCAstudent

The emepirical evidence in this thread shows just as many agents who would say the exact opposite, so what the agent said is far from dispositive.

This thread closely resembles the thread asking if there is a "policy" that airport agents cannot process AAdvantage upgrades. Some agents have said "you can't do that" while others have been more than accomodating.

brp

Disagree. There are plenty of things we can talk about that we can affect or learn about (which flights seem to have more upgrade availability, comparisons of routings, understanding existing convoluted rules, etc.) without whining about (admittedly unpopular) policies that we can't affect here.

Cheers.

card1953

I just tried to fly standby on AA 51 yesterday morning 3/18 (I was ticketed on AA 79) and I was told that the flight was full. I was told that if seats were available, I would "probably" have to pay the change fee.

pinniped

Well, if I show up ontime and AA is running late, can I bill them for the cost of my time? I mean, it's not my fault they are running late.

MiamiBeach

It may vary by fare, but most international (but NOT Canada) AA fares include this paragraph in the rules:orOf course exceptions are always made, but the rule is there.

sepdfw

I have also done this in the past ... no problem!

hauteboy

I've done both ORD-LHR and LHR-ORD standby, as recently as January. Not sure if having Oneworld Emerald status may have helped, as I made the changes in the Flagship Lounge.

dayone

No.

Its schedule is not guaranteed. Yours is, by virtue of your purchase of a non-refundable ticket.

JAGMAP

Should have PM'd me before going, could have told you who to check-in with If the flight was full though, you probably would have ended up in the middle of the 5 and who wants to travel for 9.5 hours that way?

jordyn

This is a very strange defense of a no-standby policy because the problem you describe could be solved simply by allowing people to fly standby if there are empty seats available.

gemac

What I was chiming in on was a discussion of missing your scheduled flight and standing by on a later flight. There is no guarantee that I would be the only one standing by on that later flight. Probably not, and I could end up stranding someone else.

Basically, my opinion is that (in a perfect world) when you buy a non-refundable ticket that is changable only with a change fee, you should be charged that change fee only if you change the flight sufficiently in advance to permit a reasonable chance of selling that seat to someone else (perhaps a week in advance). Otherwise, you should eat the ticket. If you aren't sure when you will fly, you should buy a more flexible ticket and pay for that added flexibility. Some obvious exceptions, health, death in family, etc., but as a general rule. I think this would permit the airlines to do a much better job of managing loads and would raise revenue per seat mile, which would enable airlines to avoid periodic bankruptcy.