Priority standby is one of the great benefits for Elites! This can be really valuable when there are flight irregularities, many passengers and few available seats. Just go to the gate and you're at the top of the list. I often standby for earlier flights, and have had good luck with upgrades. Last week I was traveling from RDU to Arizona with a connection at EWR. My plan was to standby for an early flight to EWR to allow enough time to have dinner with my brother and some friends. If I had booked the flights I wanted the layover (over 4 hours) would have been considered a stopover and substantially increased the fare. I had not been able to do an advance upgrade on the later flight, but was upgraded on the earlier flight and had a great dinner at El Mezon in Harrison. So far as a new Platinum I have a 100% upgrade rate, 6 of 6 so far under the new program.