I had the same experience on a Frankenflight from EWR-YUL yesterday. EUA doesn't seem to run for these flights -- I asked customer service about the upgrade list 3 hours before the flight and all they could tell me is "You're on the standby list." So I showed up with my Y BP at T minus 50 minutes and waited for them to either page me for a upgrade or board Golds.

Eventually, the GA calls First, GS, 1K, and PPlat. About 12 people go up, and since the E-170 only has 6 F seats (and all of those folks are either in F or ahead of me on the list), I figure I'm out of the upgrades. And then, to my surprise, the GA calls rows 3-8 -- no Gold, Silver, Premier or what have you.

So I lurch into the line, scan my BP... double beep. "Your seat is 1D" and a new BP.

The really weird thing is that we left with an empty seat in F (next to me, in fact). So apparently there were only 5 elites on the flight. The woman behind me specifically said that she was only Premier, and surprised to get the upgrade.

So, not only did they never call Elite Access, but apparently most of the people who boarded at the F/GS/1K/PPlat call were in Y with no status.