From Standby to FIRST??
 

Was watching the upgrade list closely before boarding last night on a flight from SEA-ANC as there were 2 open FC seats and my wife and I were number 2 and 3 on the list. I usually watch the standby list as well to get an idea of how many of the empty seats will be filled from standby passengers. Before boarding the FC open seats went from 2 down to one. I quickly looked at standby list and realized one seat taken in first was from the standby list. How can someone go from the standby list to FC??

I did approach the podium and asked the agent about this and her answer was completely vague, However the next time i looked at the standby list the person moved to first was no longer listed.

Strange
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4f082adcc3.png

Displaced F passenger would have priority over upgrades. They could’ve opted to standby next flight for F and confirm for later flight.

Could also be a same day standby from a paid F ticket

Or RUC/GUC standing by on an earlier flight.

A couple of people have posted this recently, but my experience seems to suggest otherwise (not saying you are incorrect, just wondering why my experience is different).

Over this past Christmas, I was on an F award ticket, and there was a flight cancellation. Upon rebooking via the app, I chose itineraries with First saying confirmed, only to find out I was put on the standby list for a seat. In both cases, people were cleared off the upgrade list into F before standbys were cleared. So in December I went from having a seat in F to a middle seat; they cleared the C+ upgrade list too, then cleared standbys. Looking at the lists in the app, I'm in 15E with cabin listed as "First" while someone in Main 2 is sitting in 15D, 17C, etc. The flight was coast to coast, so sort of a big deal; not just a short flight...

Then in January, I was on a flight with an RUC cleared at booking, and T-9 hours my flight was canceled. Again, rebooked via app and was lucky enough to get a seat in F immediately on the longer flight (it was a Saturday morning flight and I jumped on the app immediately, so that probably helped) but was put on the standby list for the short connecting flight to ATL. Again, upgrade list cleared before standbys cleared.

My experience with IRROPS is that I'm always put on standby, even when I see "confirmed" in the app when I rebook, but given a seat request card. Seat request is understandable since it is within 24 hours, but why am I not put on the upgrade list? I seem to be treated like a true standby passenger, but #1 on the standby list due to IRROPS and Diamond. I wrote a complaint in December and they gave me a $100 eCredit. I asked about downgrade compensation and they never wrote back again. Didn't even bother sending in a complaint for the second one since it was only an hour flight and not worth the hassle.

Sounds to me like a DL IT glitch. If an F seat was available, and you were a confirmed displaced F passenger, an agent should have been able to move you to F if a seat was available. Did you ask?

And for the OP’s question, most likely a displaced F passenger as well.

My understanding is that it's not unheard of for GAs to forget that it's possible someone on the confirmed-but-awaiting-seat-assignment list to be booked in F. Such a GA will clear upgrades into F/C+, then assign seats to confirmed-but-awaiting-seat-assignment, and then clear standbys. The DL app and gate screens combine the standby list and awaiting assignment list.

I personally have a near-100% success rate at getting a redcoat to correct things by unupgrading someone who hadn't boarded, though it generally means missing a PDB.

Who has priority for the F seat - a standby (non-IROPS, just standing by) F passenger or a complimentary upgrade?

Someone who is confirmed but without a seat assignment will show on the standby list until they are assigned a seat. Just like Basic Economy shows on the standby list even though they aren’t flying standby.

Paid F on standby would have priority over a comp upgrade due to underlying fare class but as noted above if the GA doesn’t process things in the right order (clear standby before clearing upgrades) it can mess things up

My understanding is that if you do SDS from a FC ticket (either paid FC, paid upgrade, or confirmed GUC/RUC upgrade), you are put on the standby list for coach, You can't be added to the upgrade list until you are confirmed on the flight, which is extremely likely to happen only after the GA has cleared all upgrades for the flight.

This is for voluntary standby, not someone trying to be rebooked during IROPs or someone who (for whatever reason) is a confirmed FC passenger without a seat assignment. Also, in the hypothetical case where someone with a FC ticket (paid, paid upgrade, or confirmed GUC/RUC) can't do SDC onto the new flight in FC, but can SDC into a coach seat, the person would be confirmed on the flight so that this would be a DM on the upgrade list with a very high fare class (above all coach and C+ fare classes), but I think by the rules they would fall below a coach passenger trying to use a GUC/RUC on the upgrade list.

by "right order" do you mean "the order specified by policy" or "the order needed to get this to work"?

in general, if you're in paid F, and you want to get onto an earlier flight that doesn't have an available F seat, the way to go is to CONFIRM into Y, then you will be ahead of everyone on the standby list for F if something opens up.

if there is already an open F seat, there is no need to standby, you can SDC directly into that seat.

When it comes to D1 international, non-revs are cleared off the standby list directly into D1. There are not "upgraded" because they never held a coach seat.

There are definitely codes in standby for confirmed F or displaced pax w/ F that are the highest priority. There are also upgrade priority codes for the same. You probably found a rare instance of someone who was coded correctly.

The code in question is, IINM, "FIRST", as displayed on the standby list in the first column ("BASIC ECONOMY", "MAIN CABIN", vs. the boarding zones in the last column.