Noticed two passengers yesterday waiting in line to board my flight with the gate lice.
They kept waving their boarding passes around for people to clearly see them.
It said NRPS and in smaller print it said by the seat assignment " No miles / No upgrade"
They were seated in First. Long upgrade list. Couple hours before the flight there were 7 seats available according to the upgrade list, when I got to the airport there were 5, all of which got upgraded at the gate.
The NRPS boarding passes were the heavier stock paper that you get at check in, not the thin ones you get at the gate. This led me to believe that these two got these seats at check in.
I got my F seat and I am not complaining, I am just curious how they got upgrades when the boarding passes clearly said "No miles/no upgrades" but also PREM with F seats right next to it lol.

There probably is a simple explanation for this.