It is confusing but to clarify:

First status passengers requesting WITH THEIR OWN CREDITS are cleared. After this they move to the nominees. Once they are onto the nominee's that have requests using other peoples credits, these individuals are processed according to the status of the person nominating them NOT their own personal status.

Thus at the gate an E35 requesting an upgrade on their own credits will trump a superelite being nominated by an E75, E50 or E35!

And to take it to the extreme:

A SE nominated by their E50 spouse will lose out to a no status passenger nominated by their SE friend because if you are a nominee your status doesn't count!! (Well, it probably does if there is tie, but I have no idea in that case if status or fare or OLCI is the factor. Haven't tested this one)

Jesus... I am going to call in a few favors from some PhD Mathmatics friends of mine to develop an algorithim for us.... ;)

This is absolutely not true. Mrs. YVR is E50K and I routinely use her credits to nominate me on my flights. When I'm on a flight pass, I almost always clear even if it's J1.

On Monday night (YVR SFO AC 565) It was J2 R0, and I can confirm there were at least 4 people on the waitlist:

- myself (S100K), nominated by Mrs. YVR (E50K), Flex M
- friend (E50K), requested by himself, Flex M
- friend (E50K), requested by herself, Flex M
- random pax, S100K, unknown who requested

The two upgrades that cleared were myself and the other S100K I did not know (I saw his boarding pass at the gate next to mine).

If your hypothesis is correct, then one of my friends would have trumped me as the requested the upgrades themselves.

From my experience, the nominated pax status is taken into account, not the requester. Perhaps that what the concierge meant to say? Although I've found that concierges themselves are confused exactly over the protocol.

If the GA rolls snake eyes, the higher status nominees get upgraded. If the GA rolls boxcars, the higher status nominator's nominees get upgraded. If anything else is rolled, no one gets upgraded.

19A or F perhaps. By far the best seats on the Embraer.

It has always been my understanding that prior to OLCI opening, the nominee has the nominator status, but after OLCI opens (and likely goes to the gate), it's individual status no matter the nominator. Which is why I often face my SE upgrade clearing and Mrs fin 645's E50 not.

It's simple really - eat dinner before the flight, don't pack carry on and arrive early at the gate. A lot of the benefits of J no longer matter in this situation so the upgrade is virtually guaranteed.

Lots of expertise here based on personal experiences no doubt which may leave some confusion. I think the original breakdown is correct for airport clearing of upgrades:

1) Revenue tickets before award tickets; within that:
1a) connection bonus YMMV - seems that in my experience, connecting pax are upgraded before tier kicks in based on limited data set; my wife (was Prestige at time, now 50K) flying in from EZE connecting through YYZ to YYC. Only 2 upgrades available, I got one and she got the other despite there being other presumably direct flight SEs waiting around for upgrades that didn't clear. We were flying on pretty low Tango Plus fares on top of it.
2) By status tier (SEs before E75s, then E50s, etc); within each tier:
3) By fare class (higher fare class goes first)
4) Time of upgrade request in case of tie

I have been lucky getting 100% upgrades that I have wanted since the early 2000s (when I missed 2 transpac ones).

Previous discussion for reference.

I had also thought that cnx pax had some sort of priority after my wife (E50) and I (SE) were both upgraded on a cnx flight with 3 seats left, but I now doubt that after since missing two upgrades as a cnx pax.

And as posted up thread, I believe it is check-in sequence that governs in case of a tie. In my recent case, I had requested the upgrade within seconds of the window, but missed out to an earlier OLCI.

You are correct Row 19 ACDF and 12 DF are my favourites!

I went to the concierge desk recently and asked directly about this.

The wonderfully helpful concierge was direct and crystal clear; boarding WILL NOT remove you from the upgrade list. If you've boarded, and a space opens up, then someone should come onboard and move you up.

Now, she observed that even though that's the rule, and the way the system works ... it requires extra work for someone to board and get you - and if you happen to have a gate agent who's taking shortcuts, there's a chance that they won't bother to come on board and get you, they might just let the flight depart with a possible upgrade unfilled.

However, to the direct question of "Will boarding, remove you from the upgrade list?" -- her answer was a direct and unequivocal "no".

Can anyone confirm the priority status of a Million Miler in all this?

For example, does an A75K who is also a Million Miler "trump" a regular A75K who is not a Million Miler? Similarly in other tiers? A life time MM A50K trumps a regular A50K?

I can picture it now. People on the waitlist use priority boarding to stow carry on then swim against the tide to exit the aircraft to assume gate lice position.:D