That's good, but yes, it helps when you are mostly one of two or three. They know how to turn a table in there.

As for standbys ... it actually works out more often than not, especially on these short flights, unless they happen to be actually sold out in F or oversold on the plane as a whole.

A confirmed passenger in F on standby overrides an upgrade, and technically gate agents aren't supposed to process gate upgrades until boarding begins and after they do standbys (around T-35 mins these days), so if you are on the standby list by time of dep - 50 minutes at the latest, and there is a seat in F, you are good to go. Status does come into play if you have multiple standbys, but you do get in ahead of upgraders. On these really short flights there are often a few open F seats at boarding time, very rare that they sell out, so the chances tend to be good. Just get there early enough and as Ross says, do not leave the gate until they actually close the door. Then move onto the next flight if you're unlucky.

I missed out Saturday morning, on JFK-LAX, as the plane was oversold by 3 and even with two no shows they had to pay someone off to get off the plane (a thousand dollars!!!). But, AA had kept one empty seat in F and one in J, so without the oversell in Y I would have gotten in. They very rarely will fill a cabin out completely with upgrades ahead of boarding.