On the wednesday before Thanksgiving my wife and I were flying ***-ORD-LAN. When we got to ORD we found that an earlier ORD-LAN than we were scheduled on was delayed and about to board. We asked to put on the standby list for the full flight and were. I ended up 1st on the list and my wife 4th. We are both 1Ks but I was on a Q fare and she was on a standard award. I don't understand how priority works in situations like this. Could someone enlighten me? TIA