Originally Posted by
Stripe
The passenger standing by for F with a confirmed F ticket has priority over any upgrades for the empty seat. I'm not sure what the agent sees these days but in the past the agent had to check a separate queue. I was once at the top of the upgrade list but did not get the one open F seat because there was someone with an F ticket standing by. But I know of plenty of other examples where the agents are fixated on complimentary upgrades from Y and ignore the F standbys. Whether it's out of ignorance of the rules or laziness, the effect is the same.
.
I believe this is only in the old-fashioned case of DSR (and good luck to anyone trying to get an agent to process that anymore) - which is applied for involuntary downgrades of F passengers which have a confirmed seat in Y on the flight, due to oversale, seat issue, IROPS(?), and a decade ago an anytime/milesaaver J ticket but confirmed in Y. This is not for a voluntary standby of an F passenger on another flight.