American Airlines backtracks on onerous standby policy

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American Airlines is making it easier to get home earlier, backtracking on one of its most irksome changes it made last year.

Effective Tuesday, July 1, the Fort Worth-based carrier will is now allowing anyone to be added to the standby list for an earlier flight — no questions asked.

Last year, the airline restricted same-day standby to AAdvantage members — so this newfound flexibility will be great for those who aren't AAdvantage members or who prefer to credit their American flights to other Oneworld alliance member airlines.

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Furthermore, the airline is backtracking on the need to add yourself to standby via online and in-app self-serve options. This restriction was also introduced last March, and it made it harder (and sometimes, impossible) to add yourself to the standby list when the American app crashed or was buggy.

Over the past year, I've had numerous instances where I've tried to add myself to the standby list for an earlier flight, but the mobile app kept giving me error messages. In all cases, I (nicely) asked the gate agent if they'd be willing to manually override the system. The response was very much hit-or-miss, so I'm thrilled to see American make standby available for all passengers regardless of what technology you're using.

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Note that you'll still need to be added to the standby list at least 45 minutes prior to departure, and same-day standby benefits are only applicable to domestic flights and segments.

Furthermore, despite allowing anyone to join the standby list, American will still prioritize standby requests from elite status members above non-elites, meaning that those with higher status will enjoy better odds at grabbing the last seats on a full flight.

American didn't share much about why it's making this change just over a year after adding so many onerous standby restrictions. The airline said in a statement that "we are continuously looking for ways to enhance the travel journey for our customers and this update gives all customers the convenience of a flexible itinerary, space permitting."

This move comes as the carrier has been doubling down on customer experience improvements, all part of a premium-forward strategy that fulls under the leadership of Heather Garboden, American's new chief customer officer.

Under Garboden's watch, the airline has debuted its most premium jet yet, opened and announced new Flagship and Admirals Club lounges, and made a handful of investments in the onboard amenities and dining program. The airline even announced free Wi-Fi coming online next year.

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