Weird thing was said to me yesterday at SeaTac that I thought I would share with everyone. I kind of take this with a grain of salt, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

I purchased a ticket SEA-DTW-xxx-DTW-SEA last Thursday for travel on Tuesday. Obviously I was within the 5 day EUA mark for Plats but the SEA-DTW leg was already P0 F0 and Y0! (I bought the last seat on the plane - in fare bucket 'B').

When I checked in at SeaTac (thanks very much to the no fly list, I am guaranteed to have to talk to an agent every time), I asked where I was on the standby list. The check-in agents face went from smile (he always seems happy) to weird to astonishment to "holy cow". He never told me where I was on the list but said the platinum wait list was LONG. I reminded him it was the day after a holiday.

I apologized in advanced that he had to go off and call the powers that be to let me on this flight and he made a comment to me that he was going to call someone and see what he could do about a seat in F. Long time goes by and he comes back with bag tags and boarding passes and tells me he got me moved to #1 on the list. Odd as I thought I should have been #1 or 2 on the list anyway as I'm a Plat on a B fare (yes, I know golds & silvers on Y fares would have beaten me - but let's assume there were none of them). I have NO clue who he called to get my position moved.

So I inquired about this and said I was curious about how the process he worked. He told me, "Well, there's an A and B list for the upgrades at the airport. Everyone goes into the B list but I was able to get you onto the A list." Huh? Excuse me? I have no idea what he means by this and maybe the "A" list is really for employees who snag upgrades from some elites who are waiting patiently. I don't know. Either way, all 24 F pax showed up and I got no upgrade, but I happily enjoyed my exit row seat in row 40 Since I was way in the back, I have no way of knowing if they actually upgraded anyone from the plane.

Anyone else ever hear of this "A" and "B" standby upgrade list?

-RM