Just wait it out. Worst some to worse, if you still don't clear by day of departure BEFORE you arrive at the airport - downgrade yourself. There is no rule that I've ever seen that says once you upgrade yourself you can't downgrade yourself. Then, if you clear the standby-waitlist in SFO, give them the cert. I wouldn't waste the SWU on a SEA-SFO flight alone.

Good luck!

P.S. - As for not clearing anybody else till day of departure, the agent is misinformed. United will probably clear a good chunk of seats about 3-5 days before departure. Currently I'm sure they're watching the loads and seeing how much more they can squeeze out of it.

[This message has been edited by mymiles2go (edited Mar 09, 2004).]