Different "ballgame":
Several years ago I was flying on a 3 class JFK-LAX flt. 6 non-revs (a perk of their contract) were upg directly into F, I was #1 on the list for PAID pax (hoping) to upg into J, but didn't clear. Thinking back I'm still annoyed.
Thus issue was discussed in a thread I started at the time.
But rules are rules (contracts are contracts)...but AA should try to make their EXPS happy fliers.
Im a mere gold but was on a PAID F DFW-CLT and was standby for an earlier flight.
In the end, I got on, and watched them put a nonrev in an F seat while i sat in 25E. Almost wondered if it was worth declining the standby.