Guess I haven't been elite long enough, six or seven years both Gold and Silver depending upon the year. My wife is 5 year silver. Have never understood how standby upgrades worked, because it has been my understanding that Plat, then Gold, then Silver are placed on the standby list if FC seats are not confirmed and because of the timing of that placement Plat comes first, then gold, then silver. BUT, if we don't make the list we can ask to standby at the gate and all should be equal. Always understood that it was 1st come, 1st served and color of the WP card didn't matter and it seems to work that way in practice.

Last spring we were returning from CDG and were told that Station CDG could not place us on the upgrade list. By the way that is a frequent statement from NW agents in Europe. They told me that I should immediately upon arrival in DTW get my name and my wife's on the standby list which I did. A standby cleared in my name and we claimed it. None other cleared and we all boarded. After the flight had closed, the gate agent came on board and paged my wife to claim a seat in first. Note: this occurred in DTW where NW is not known for being super friendly. So NW can and does move people into first without standing at the podium (although they insist that we do). This happened to a fellow passenger on a PDX-DTW flight the month previous to this incident. I commented to him when he got up that he must be platinum or perhaps an employee to rate such service. He said, no he was silver and had called reservations early that morning to be placed on the airport standby list (something I thought we could not due because airport standby by NW's own words would be futile under the automatic upgrade system).

So what really is NW's policy or does it have one?