Stand-by a day early? Can it be done?
 

I have a flight out of ORD tomorrow that was cutting it close for a meeting. Now the weather looks bad tomorrow at ORD so I am guessing there will be delays.
I called EXP desk to see about changing my ticket to today and she said that it was up to the airport but that I might consider saving the $450 difference and go stand-by tonight.
It is wide open but I thought that stand-by had to be day of original flight.
She did say it was up to the airport to allow me or not.
Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of standing by the day before a scheduled flight?

did it last week. Best they could do was the $150 change fee.

It's been awhile, but this has been my experience as well.

I know my husband has done it and not had to pay the change fee, but I expect it depends on the mood/attitude of the TA. The reason I remember was that he did it the evening before the infamous institution of the liquid/gel ban. Got home before that mess started. The next day, when we learned about the ban (which was instituted with no advance warning), we figured he was the luckiest guy in the world.

I did it out of LHR a few months ago, I think they charged me $250.00 but it was worth it to get home a day earlier.

If you explain it is due to weather and possible issues the next day, they might be more likely to say yes. It's good for AA if they can reduce loads on a day with irregular operations.

Last week my experience was 3 EXP desk phone trys to no avail.... just the change fee AND the new fare basis.... then in person at LAX the same reply... over $500 extra.... then one more try with a different TA and she was good enough to find a $150 option.... I think she just knew how to massage the system.... but just the $150 change fee got me on standby and home on the redeye - better than a wasted 7 hr stay at a low cost hotel so I GRATEFULLY took it!! [Lesson - perseverance and good fortune].

AA sometimes allows you to change days without penalty when extremely bad weather is forecast. Every time I have noted that they have done this, a notice in red is posted on aa.com stating that bad weather may affect upcoming flights.

Depending on what you had to do but I stay at the Hilton LAX for 105$ overnight. Seems to be a better option in my eyes instead of spending 150$ on AA fees. Except you have something to attend of course.

I have a question related to this thread and it is better not to start a new one.

I will be flying to LAX from MIA on december the 12 and back on the 13th. The thing is I arrive at LAX around 11:20 pm on the 12 and my return flight is on the 13th at around 10pm. As I am doing a mileage run and want to go back to MIA and not pay for a hotel in LAX ($199 all in MEX-MIA-LAX-MIA-MEX), can I stand by for a return trip that instead of being nonstop has to stop in DFW? My original return is nonstop LAX-MIA and I want to stand by the same day on the LAX-DFW-MIA flights. The LAX-DFW flight departs on the 13th at 0:15, I think, and the first non stop to MIA on the 13th departs at 06:00. So doing it with a stop in DFW will let me get into LAX and then back 1 hour later on the 13th to MIA and not spend money on a hotel.

How should I do this, who should I aproach, call center, airport ticketing, gate agent? Can it be done for free or at least for 25 USD confirmed.

Other thing is that AA changed my flights more than 2 hours as they cancelled plenty of flights and reskeduled me on other flights. I havent talked to them, but I asume I can ask them to change my flights for free even if it means changing a return to a 20 hour earlier flight, but on the same date.

Help will be appreciated. Thanks

CFC is $50 not $25 and you can SB for the 1-stop flight. If you pay the $50 (if available) you can be confirmed on both LAX-DFW and DFW-MIA. Up to 12 hours before the flight you can do it by phone or at the airport. However, if you SB for free you will need to clear in both LAX and DFW. Meaning you might get to DFW and not clear the DFW-MIA.

change fee should be waived, but I'm not sure if you still have to pay the change in fare.

never tried this, but can't you check in? and then use the boarding pass to try to go standby on a flight just under 24 hours before?

weather.com says ""cloudy and windy, with showers developing in the afternoon". Why not take an early morning flight?

Thanks for the heads up - I'll remeber that!!

My thought had been a Motel 8 or the like... but to rest my head for just 5 hrs, at any price, didn't fly with me (plus I probably would have slept past takeoff time). I was returning LHR-LAX-JFK - so I was frazzled already and figured it best to get back to JFK early.

Can you fly stand by the day before your ticketed return flight on AA?
 

Yeah, I know this is probably a dumb question, but my brain is fried from long, exhausting work days. I was unable to find the answer via the search function.

Anyway, I have a returned scheduled flight for the 25th. But I found out I have to be at my next job in another state on the 25th, so I need to fly back home a day early to take care of business, then fly off to my next assignment on the 25th.

Will AA charge me the $125 change fee, or some outrageous fee to return home a day early? I pay for my own travel, then deduct from my taxes, as I am freelancer. My ticket is booked in Q and I am Gold, if that helps.

Thanks for the help, advice, etc.