American Airlines institutes a $50 coach standby fee

by Charlie Leocha on February 11, 2010


As of February 22, American Airlines passengers (except elite fliers) won’t be permitted to stand by for a different flight for free.

American Airlines, under their current system, allows all of its paying passengers free standby privileges for a different flight on the same day of travel. But that standby policy will be abolished a week from next Monday, unless customers are elite AAdvantage members (Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum), passengers in first class and business class, passengers who bought higher-priced coach tickets, and those flying on military fares.

Passengers flying on the same reservation with fliers in those categories will be able to standby for free as well. Military members can pass along their privilege to spouses and immediate family.

All other customers will have to buy a “Confirmed Flight Change” for $50 if they want to switch to another flight.

It seems that American will also be willing to sell the “Confirmed Flight Changes” for $50 to those elite customers as well, if they don’t want to stand by for a possible open seat, but would rather have a confirmed seat on another flight.

So, American joins Continental and Delta with standby fees. United still allows free standbys but charges more for premium seats. Southwest and JetBlue allow standbys, but charge a difference in fares in some cases.

This is a big change in airline customer service. Once upon a time, the airlines were pleased to move passengers to earlier flights to get them on their way. The thinking was that a passenger on board a flight was one less problem to deal with if there was foul-up later in the day.

I guess, that way of thinking has gone the way of nickle fares on the Boston MBTA.

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Tagged as: American Airlines, elite fliers, standby fees

  • http://leftcoastsportsbabe Janice Hough

    This change cannot make airline employees at the airport happy. It’s still easier to get people on an open seat earlier in the day. Especially if the flight they are booked on is full. In addition, it’s one more thing to slow down the boarding process…And that’s just for starters.

  • Thomas Kelly

    Please, I urge everyone to write to their customer relations group at url below to share your plans and concerns regarding this plan.

    I have included below what I wrote, as a basic model from which to start.

    http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/customerRelations.jsp?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=customerrelations
    =================================================================

    I understand American Airlines plans to abolish FREE coach standby and institute a “Confirmed Flight Change Fee” on February 22 2010.

    http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/american-airlines-institutes-a-50-coach-standby-fee

    I am amazed given the current economic pressure on airlines that you would even consider such a plan to alienate customers.

    Humans are creatures of habit. Once a habit is set, one does not change with out a reason.

    You are providing a reason.

    Since American Airlines is not my only option, this plan will drive me to United, Southwest, and others who continue to value their loyal customers.

    I urge you to rethink this ill advised plan before it is too late to mitigate the permanent damage.

  • Tim

    I’ve being sitting at DFW for 4 hours because of this insane policy change. After 15 years and 500,000+, I’m switching to UNITED AIRLINES. Goobye AA, Hello UAL.

  • Blondie

    Same here. I have been flying the same flight for months between Columbus and ORD with AA and weekly on other flights. Got here at 1:30 to fly standby. I was unable to get on the 3:00 flight even for the $50 fee. There were seats, but not what THEY label as “confirmed seats”. So unless I was willing to pay the change fee AND the difference in fare (which would have totalled approximately $300) I just waited. The plane left with open seats and I am just sitting her waiting when there is so little reason to not have kept me as a reasonably happy customer. That is okay….I can easily shift my business and also impact travel choices within my company (1500 employees). AA’s “strategy” is just another word for havign devious business practices and cheating and scheming to improve the bottom line. I had a cut off of 7 hours driving for clients. I will also choose to drive and prehaps cut back on the number of visits. What AA does not see is the missed opportunity in the flights that are left open (although their highly paid actuaries probably tell them differently). Bottom line: The folks at the ticketing areas take the flack and 3 of their own employees agreed that it is a really big scam.

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