New standby policy harms customers and the airline itself
 

Since February 2010, American Airlines has restricted almost everyone other than AAdvantage Gold and above members from flying standby on an earlier or later flight than their existing itinerary - we now have to pay $150 plus the fare difference.

By making this change, AA is basically ensuring that unsold seats go empty instead of getting people to their destinations faster (and potentially opening up capacity for additional passengers on later flights). This is a disservice to customers and to themselves. I am a frequently flyer (elite status on United, Continental and formerly AA). Unfortunately, I have found AA's customer service reps and flight attendants to be among the rudest in the industry and their planes are often cramped, noisy and aged. Therefore, I have been avoiding AA flights whenever possible and will continue to do so as long as their short-sighted quest for milking every last penny out of the consumer continues to result in substandard customer service and inefficient policies.

Sadly, this milking will continue because the airlines are being allowed to consolidate, both domestically and internationally so that they become mammoth "powerhouses" that are "too big to fail". There is a resonance with the big banks...in their arrogance and abuse of customers.

The only remedy is for a break up of the massive "hub" monopolies, with no airline permitted to have more than 25% of any share of the local market. Until something is done to promote genuine competition, this abuse of customers will continue. You are right to boycott AA, and I hope you will write to them and tell them why. The problem is, with a few exceptions, there are almost no carriers left to flee too...

Continental, under it's previous CEO, was perhaps one of the few legacy carriers with some customer focus. Sadly, this too seems to have been lost and will be gone forever, when the huge monolith that is United/Continental becomes reality and allows for even more customer abuse.

when i flew AA last week i was able to get on an earlier flight by just paying $50 at the kiosk at the airport