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American Eliminates Standby, Unveils Shiny New Mandatory $50 Change Fee

February 12, 2010 at 8:35 AM | by | Comments (0)

It was a good idea by American Airlines to drop a bunch of new fees all in one week. There's no reason to extend the frustrated coverage, which is what stretching out the announcements would have done. It's just the airlines' bad luck that the week they chose ended up being one where half the country is functionally shut down, leaving us with little to do but detail each and every one of their new charges. On Monday it was $8 blankets. Now let us introduce you to the $50 standby fee.

To be totally technical it's not so much a standby fee as much as it is the elimination of a standby option. It used to be the case that, having bought a coach seat and missed your flight, you could hang out next to the gate hoping for a flight with open seats. We always thought that was a bad idea - better to just pay the change fee and get a confirmed middle seat on what was gauranteed to be a miserable flight - but apparently some people were exploiting the "free loophole."

Now standby was never really a "loophole," in the sense that passengers got something for free that others paid for. The standby deal is that you assume more risk in exchange for paying less money. That's a gamble not a loophole. But American really wants it to be a loophole so they can paint their move as something other than an obvious money grab. So its a loophole and if you miss your flight you'll be paying $50.

We especially appreciate the American press release explaining that this is for our own good, because the gates were just getting so crowded with hopeful passengers. Seriously. That's what they said. They also said, upon being pressed, that "there is probably some revenue involved here," which we thought was an honorable and decent admission given how it's obviously effing true.

Elite frequent fliers, travelers in first or business class, military personnel and what USA Today is calling "people who bought pricey coach tickets" are exempt from the new policy.

[Photo: TXZeiss / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· American Airlines to charge $50 to fly standby [USA Today]
· American Airlines [Jaunted]
· Airline Fees [Jaunted]

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