Odd upgrade experience
 

Was on an evening EWR-SFO yesterday, had a PP seat but put in for an upgrade by points. Packed flight and I was like 5 or 6 on the upgrade list. About a dozen GS flyers board ahead of 1K so figured my upgrade chances were extremely slim since biz was also showing as full. Took my seat and dude next to me *was* monitoring the upgrade list as he was now #1. We had some delays waiting for a crewman and noticed a couple of open seats in PP section that weren't filled even though there was a large PP upgrade list.

Anyway, at some point, a young dude rushes up our aisle from back in Y saying he got an upgrade. Guy next to me says ..., how did that guy get an upgrade from Y to biz? I look at the upgrade list and i'm now #2. Biz still shows full but seat map shows 2 empty seats in front. Hmmm, guy tells flight crew WTH, how did that guy get upgraded. They say they will look into it. Nothing happened for a while and I can see up the aisle the door is still open so I go up and inquire. Flight attendant says they are checking with the gate agent and will com back to inform us of the upgrade. 5 minutes later, gate agent comes down and grabs both of us for an upgrade. Get up front and young dude is booted back to his Y seat asking if he can get any kind of upgrade. Hopefully they stuck him in PP at least as there was like four empty seats.

Good for us, bad for him but screwy upgrade process and not sure why it was so clumsy for everyone. Seems like some PP upgrades went unfilled also. Things are generally a show at the major airports including EWR so perhaps it was a symptom of the overtaxed systems and people....

Iʻm glad to hear the cabin crew sent it up to the GA to sort it out, rather than just shrugging it off, and that you and #1 got your upgrades of course :)

Sounds like #1/#2 got the UG. Makes sense; glad it worked out. GS may have not applied +Ps to the reservation?
Strange dude claims to have an upgrade ... could be anything IMO.

There's a dozen things that could have happened here, including as you said overworked staff making a mistake.

However, there's also a really dumb "travel hack" that makes the rounds on TikTok occasionally. It says if you see an open seat after most people board, just pretend you have an upgrade and take it.

Actually saw someone try a self upgrade from the back to the front last week and the FA caught it while doing a count before takeoff. Could maybe pull it off in April 2020 but good luck with full flight loads.

That's my guess, it was a self-upgrade, hoping no one would notice. Glad he was caught and hopefully a note was put in his passenger profile if indeed that was the case. Odds are he'll try it again.

Perhaps the individual saw ABC, Z shown as cleared and thought that's me - yea
Not realizing there are others with those letters and once the real ABC,Z showed up, it unraveled

Doubt a self upgrader would have made such a fuss, Better to do that quietly.