Economy Comfort Standby - No Status
New to DL. AA EXP for years and am considering switching over. However, given my recent experience trying to get on an earlier flight I am unsure.
I booked a seat in Economy Comfort for a flight I recently took. I needed to get back earlier so wanted to standby or do same day confirm on a flight two hours earlier. I called the day before and gave my CC to get on the standby list. At the time agent said no EC seats available (even though coach was wide open) but I would be on the list. She told me I had to go to the airport. I would not be cleared overnight even if a seat opened up - only at the airport and I could still check in and take my regularly scheduled flight. The next day got an alert that a seat in W fare class opened up. Still did not get confirmed. Cleared at the gate but got a normal coach seat. Was I supposed to get an EC seat? I guess I am just a bit confused - if Delta makes such a big deal about EC being a separate fare class and prices it as such then what gives. Did people with status get upgrades into EC ahead of me? It looked like it on the departures board. What am I missing? Besides having status on DL!