Originally Posted by
FlyMeToTheLooneyBin
Sorry if this is off-topic, but is it really true that if you've been cleared with X, then you can standby (not CFC) on another flight and they'll put you into standby for sitting in F? Would they have to process the upgrade list first before processing your standby into F?
NO, definitely NOT TRUE when using e-upgrades. If you are upgraded to X on your original flight, but then desire to standby on an alternate flight where X is not currently available, you will be added to the standby list for your original purchased economy booking class. Only once you clear the standby list and have a confirmed boarding pass, you then can choose to be added to the upgrade list to get into X on the new flight. BUT....and here's the big BUT....you will be
BEHIND ALL PREVIOUSLY CONFIRMED PAX on the upgrade list, INCLUDING THOSE OF LOWER STATUS.
(So, if there were a GLD guy who was confirmed on the new flight six months ago and requested an upgrade, he would get the upgrade ahead of you, an EXP who was on standby and confirmed on the flight the day of departure. Rules of the game. Once, an AAngel told me that any indication on your record that you were ever on standby for the flight automatically bumps you down to the bottom of the revenue upgrade list. In fact, you would be behind ALL other upgrade requests on the PALL except nonrevs.)
When I am thinking about doing a same-day standby, I often ask the agent to look at the upgrade list and see what my chances would be on the new flight. Then, I decide whether to keep my original confirmed seat in F or risk it to get on the new flight. Occasionally, the agent can do both parts--confirming me onto the new flight, then confirming the upgrade request--within moments of each other, but those occasions are becoming fewer and farther between.
However, there are 2 ways around this issue:
a) Use Confirmed Flight Change. That way, for $75, you will be "confirmed" and there will be no record of you ever having been "standby." Your upgrade request on the
new flight will zip to the top of the list (based on your status and original timestamp of the request on the original flight)
b) Use miles+copay or eVIP to upgrade. Those upgrades come out of different fare buckets than e-upgrades, and oftentimes A inventory is already available at the time you move to the new flight. So you would bypass the list entirely and be confirmed right into A class (or C class if it's a 3-class domestic flight or 2-class international flight).