Thanks for the input.

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) they called at about 2:00 a.m., confirming our upgrades for next weekend. Really, just how urgent is this news???

Usually, I try to book flights that I can confirm at the time of booking, but sometimes that is just not possible. In those cases I make sure that there is a lot of open space "for sale". This particular flight had one leg that worried me because it got down to 6 open seats "For Sale" about three weeks out. Then, Friday, there were magically 12 seats open for sale. Sup with that??? And on Sunday (actually Monday morning) they called with the confirmation of the last two upgrades.

LHR Tim, what is this Oz fare code to which you refer???