Is there a "published" hierarchy? I know this site has one and it's reasonable, but they are more "guidelines" than rules. CX (station manager) can manually plug anyone he wants for op-up. My colleague was op-up from PEY to J on his recent EWR-HKG trip and he's only AA Gold (OW Ruby), and unless he got ultra lucky that there are no MPC-DM/GO/SL on the flights (doubtful), someone took a liking in him and op-up him first (to try to get him to fly CX more?)