Abstract Let 𝐺 be a finite reductive group such that the derived subgroup of the underlying algebraic group is a product of quasi-simple groups of type 𝖠. In this paper, we give an explicit description of the action of automorphisms of 𝐺 on the set of its irreducible complex characters. This generalizes a recent result of M. Cabanes and B. Späth [Equivariant character correspondences and inductive McKay condition for type 𝖠, J. Reine Angew. Math. 728 (2017), 153–194] and provides a useful tool for investigating the local sides of the local-global conjectures as one usually needs to deal with Levi subgroups. As an application we obtain a generalization of the stabilizer condition in the so-called inductive McKay condition [B. Späth, Inductive McKay condition in defining characteristic, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 44 (2012), 3, 426–438; Theorem 2.12] for irreducible characters of 𝐺. Moreover, a criterion is given to explicitly determine whether an irreducible character is a constituent of a given generalized Gelfand–Graev character of 𝐺.