Too much noise in the original story. The main issue is that a OWE showed up at the gate of an earlier flight and the GA wouldn't put him on the standby list. I do this frequently, usually at DFW if my flight into DFW gets in a bit early and I can make it to the gate for an earlier DFW-AUS flight. The last time I did this was in mid February. Has something changed so I can't do that any more?