Staff Upgrades
As a former employee of a US airline, our tickets were always on a standby basis. It was not usual to be placed in a higher class cabin than we had originaly requested because of space availability. However, we always paid the higher service charge for that cabin.
Conversely, I was denied boarding on flights because they had not catered with enough meals - even though there were available seats.
Staff travel was a wonderful thing and it allowed me to see and experience people and places that I would not have had a chance to do otherwise but like life itself, there were no guarantee you'd get a seat on the plane.
Sorry mods if this is too off topic but with the discussion both here and the CC thread about staff travel, I thought people might be interested in some background.
TB