Originally Posted by Syzygies

On today's transcon, ten people had upgraded and yet I was still #2 on the list, waitlisting miles. This struck me as odd, a statistical outlier compared to all my recent flights (but an unusual time for me), so I asked at the Prez Club.

Mileage upgrades are ordered by fare class, before elite status. In particular, a Gold on a higher fare is #1 in front of me. This was news to me; I had imagined that as a Platinum willing to plough my miles back into upgrades, my status actually meant something.

It would be nice if any of this made it to the FAQ. I suspect that the FAQ isn't updated because, well, we really don't know.