wrote

I have a gold record card that I got via my annual travelcard. One of
the benefits is the ability to upgrade a standard ticket 1st (only in
the NSE region?). Is there a limitiation on the type of standard
tickets that can be upgraded? and how would one go about upgrading.
Just get on the train and pay the ticket inspector? or get it from the
ticket office before you travel?

The latter. AIUI it is just on NSE, and there are restrictions on peak
journeys to/from London. They seem to be available on all tickets - when
they were available with an ordinary Network Card I even managed to get one
on one of the Network Day tickets.

Peter