American Airlines Wants $50 to Fly Standby

I read in today’s The Dallas Morning News that American Airlines plans to start charging many passengers $50 to get on a standby flight. This aggravates me to no end. I’m not an elite flier, nor do I book the expensive coach tickets, so now I’m going to be forced to pay $50 to get into an empty seat on an earlier flight.

My lovely wife and I fly light – it’s carry-on only for us – so bumping to an earlier flight is a strategy we’ve employed quite successfully on several occasions. But now, if it’s going to cost us $50 each, we’ll probably just wait on our scheduled flight.