American Airlines Standby & Same Day Change Policy Explained

Nowadays American Airlines doesn’t have change fees on most types of tickets (excluding basic economy). However, you still have to pay the fare difference between tickets, and if making a change last minute, that can be pretty costly.

Sometimes you just need to make a last minute change, and fly earlier or later on the same day. Fortunately there are two techniques that can be used to change flights on the day of departure — I’m talking about standby and same day confirmed flight changes.

In this post I wanted to take a look at how these two options work. American is far from the most generous airline when it comes to these features, but they’re still worth being aware of and understanding.

How American’s standby policy works

With American’s standby feature, passengers can standby for any flight in the same market on the same calendar day, and they’ll be cleared on a space available basis. This has last seat availability, so as long as there’s a seat on the plane, you can potentially get it with standby.

As you’d expect, there are some details to be aware of for standby:

• American only allows standby within the United States, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
• You can only request standby on the same routing that you’re originally booked on, so you can’t change your connecting point, etc.; if you have a connection, you’ll be cleared flight-by-flight
• You must be an American AAdvantage member, a oneworld status member, active US military, or a Main Cabin Select customer, to request standby (anyone can sign-up for AAdvantage for free)
• All AAdvantage members can standby for an earlier flight, while only AAdvantage status members can standby for a later flight
• Standby is only available for flights on American and American Eagle metal, and not for travel on partner airlines (though it’s fine if you booked travel through a partner airline)
• Standby must be requested via aa.com or the American Airlines app, so it’s not something that a human can help with, either at the airport or over the phone; the only exception is that select elites, including Concierge Key, Executive Platinum, and Platinum Pro members, can make this request through an airport agent
• The request for standby can be made between 24 hours and 45 minutes of departure of the flight that you want to take; Concierge Key, Executive Platinum, and Platinum Pro members, can make the request up to 15 minutes before departure, at the departure gate
• Standby is prioritized by elite status, so the higher your elite status, the better your chances of clearing standby; you can see the standby list through the American app
• Standby is based on the original class of service booked, so if you upgraded to first or business class, you’d be on standby for economy

Since standby has last seat availability, it’s often not too hard to get onto standby for a flight. As you’d expect, it varies greatly based on the route, day of week, etc. In general, flights are pretty full, though there are also sometimes no shows.

It’s always worth referencing the standby list for a flight through the American mobile app, to see how many people are on standby on a particular flight, and how many empty seats there are. Just keep in mind that often not everyone on the standby list actually shows up for the flight (since you can automatically be rolled over), so your odds might be better than you expect.

How American’s same day flight change policy works

With American’s same day flight change feature, passengers can confirm a change onto another flight for travel on the same calendar day. This has the benefit of not requiring you to wait until minutes before the flight departs, though the downside is that there are capacity controls, so you don’t get last seat availability this way.

Before we talk about the terms associated with this, let’s talk about the cost:

• A same day confirmed change within the United States, or to/from Canada or the Caribbean costs $60, while a same day confirmed change between New York (JFK) and London (LHR) costs $150
• These fees are waived for Concierge Key, Executive Platinum, and Platinum Pro members, as well as Alaska Mileage Plan MVP Gold 100K and MVP Gold 75K members
• Fees are also waived for those booked on unrestricted economy fares (in the “Y” fare class), and those on first and business class flight awards

Here are the things to be aware of for same day flight changes:

• American allows same day confirmed flight changes within the United States, to & from Canada and the Caribbean, and between New York (JFK) and London (LHR), but not in any other markets
• You can only request a same day confirmed change on the same routing that you’re originally booked on, so you can’t change your connecting point, etc.
• A same day confirmed change can be made up to 24 hours before the new departure time of the flight you want to take, but you still need to travel on the same calendar day as initially booked
• Same day confirmed changes are only available for flights on American and American Eagle metal, and not for travel on partner airlines (though it’s fine if you booked travel through a partner)
• Same day confirmed changes must be requested via aa.com or the American Airlines app, so they can’t be requested in person or by phone, even if you have elite status

I find that American’s same day confirmed change policy is kind of frustrating, especially in comparison to the competition:

• Agents can’t help you with requesting this in person or by phone, and sometimes there are discrepancies in terms of availability
• American just isn’t as generous in terms of same day confirmed change availability as some competitors in terms of the amount of availability, the ability to change routings, etc

For those wondering, how do same day confirmed changes work if you’re confirmed in first class or business class, whether paid with cash or secured with an upgrade?

Well, American’s policy here is pretty quirky. In my experience, you can make a same day confirmed change as long as the flight you want to switch to has “E” class available (which is the economy fare class for same day confirmed changes), and as long as at least one seat is for sale in the class of service you want to travel.

By comparison to the economy policy, I actually find the premium cabin policy to be a bit more generous, as you can potentially score the last available premium seat through this feature.

Bottom line

American has both standby and same day flight change features. With standby, you can get onto any flight in the same market the same day with no capacity controls, subject to availability at the gate. Meanwhile with the same day flight change policy, you can confirm another flight up to 24 hours before departure for travel on the same day, but with capacity controls.

What has your experience been with American’s standby and same day change policy?