Well, here is my outbound trip report (from Almaty, Kazakhstan):

After calling both United and Lufthansa, it became crystal-clear that I would have to wait until day of departure to upgrade my code-share flight. So, on August 28, I went to JFK with two SWUs (one for me and another for my business colleague). Lufthansa happily took the certificates and put us on the wait-list to be upgraded to FRA.

I asked about the continuing flight from FRA to ALA. LH staff (two people separately) insisted that I would need two more SWUs. Supposedly, LH requires one per flight, not the familiar United rule (origin to destination, without stopovers).

I really couldn't believe what they were telling me, so I called 1K customer service to get the real rule. The very nice woman did not know the answer. She put me on hold while she checked with a service coordinator. That person didn't know the rule, either, and suggested that I READ THE CERTIFICATE (like I hadn't already done that)! So I gave up.

As it happened, LH's check-in computers failed that night, wiping out all the information about passengers already on board. All tickets had to be reentered manually, resulting in a 1-hour departure delay. That delay caused us to miss our connecting flight, and we had to continue to ALA on the following day, August 30. Coach was overbooked on that flight, and my colleague and I were both operationally upgraded to business class!

I can't wait until the return flights!

Bruce