A method and system may provide automated passenger seat assignment procedures for an airline. A server device may determine passengers for a departing flight who are eligible to receive seat assignment notifications. When an eligible passenger is next in a standby or upgrade queue, the server device may transmit an electronic communication such as an email, short message service (SMS) message, push notification, etc., to the passenger's network-enabled device. The electronic communication may indicate that a seat assignment is available and may provide instructions for accepting or declining the available seat assignment. If the user accepts, for example, by transmitting an electronic reply message to the server device accepting the available seat assignment, the server device may transmit an electronic boarding pass to the user corresponding to the available seat assignment.