That must be it, thank you transpac-canuck!

Yesterday I checked biz class award availability over the next year and couldn't even find any -- it appears UA is holding on to all C seats for their popular ORD/PVG routes for paid tickets (fully paid or w/SWU). They do have lots of coach class awards on that route but that's not desirable by many. I guess I'd check how easy or difficult it is to redeem UA miles for business class award tickets to PVG on ANA, Air China or Air Canada etc.