Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the FT Forum!

I just finished a short ride on WS, YYC-YVR-YLW to visit family for the holidays. During the flight confirmation call yesterday, the agent advised me to arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes early because of heavy volume. However, I could standby for earlier flights with no checked baggage.

I got to the gate area in time for the 10am departure to YVR. I figured my chances were pretty good as WS never oversells and someone is bound to no show. Sure enough the GA announces that there were 8 open seats on the full flight. I looked around and there were 10 standbys just before they cleared the standby list, good odds as there was at least one group of employees on personal passes (they had WS issued badges (not the read TC issue) and wore jeans).

On clearing the standby list, the employees got called first and given BPs. The GA then says to the girl beside me, "Sorry we're all full, I know you’re on a companion pass, you will have to relist yourself through the call center". She then gave me back my BP and said I was confirmed on the regular flight.

I stood with a shocked look and thought, surely the standby list is revenue passengers, then non-revs like all other airlines. But no, the standby priority goes employees, then companions and finally revenue passengers.

Could Fisch or a regular WS flyer confirm the standby priority? Am I missing something that happened behind the scenes?