good point, but I’m sure they were not standbys, as i did pay attention to the stand by list.

however, having mentioned standbys, does this change the situation.
Will UA do ‘op-ups’ to accommodate standing by passengers? Say there are 0 economy seats and 5 business seats left, and 3 people standing by. Will UA do op-up to let these 3 passenger on the plane, or will UA just leave the 3 standing by passengers off.
also, does it matter how those passengers come to standing by? Does it matter whether a passenger is standing by due to same-day flight change, or IRROP, or maybe the ‘leftovers’ from last oversold flight?
in that case, if there are only business seats left but no economy seats, will UA let passengers from IRROP/last oversold flight to take the business seats, or they will move existing passengers on the flight?