Upgrade Priority of AC Employees vs. Status Passengers
I was traveling on business to HKG last week and looking at the seats remaining in J class the morning of the flight I thought I had a good chance of getting an upgrade due to me SE status. However when I arrived at the gate and spoke to the agent she said that all remaining seats in J had been assigned to AC employees flying with their family members.
It seems to me like paying status passengers should have priority here. So was this just a case of a gate agent playing favorites or is there an official policy for this? This is my first year as a SE, so I'm still a little confused as to the whole upgrade procedure.