ELP to ANC on a d3

A friend and I are trying to plan a trip to visit some friends that live in Anchorage (we live in El Paso, TX). We were thinking about going sometime in late October/early November. I was wondering if anyone has suggestions about which hubs would be the easiest to use buddy passes at. We'll be flying American Airlines. An even better question would be, "How efficient is standby under the 2014 terms?"

The DFW-ANC flight is seasonal and when checking some random dates in Oct/Nov, it doesn't look like the flight operates during that time of year. US Airways does have a flight out of PHX. However, it does not appear that D3 travelers are eligible to travel on US, although that may change by the time you travel.

I remember reading something about the full network opening up til 2015.