I just happened to run across this thread and had a bit of a followup question -

The wife and I (both AC E) booked aeroplan business class reward tickets from YOW-IAD-MUC-FCO, FCO-CPH-AMS, and AMS-FRA-YOW in August. (I hope i got all of the airport names right) We were able to get business class on all segments except for the last one FRA-YOW. I was ok with this initially as I had played with various dates and destinations and this was the best that I could get. I was surprised when the aeroplan CSR informed me that we would automatically get standby for business class for that flight. Given that we are both AC E, would we still be at the back of the line for upgrades?