Originally Posted by N227UA

Purchased two tickets for the last holiday break. Ticket 1 was DTW-FRA-CDG-IAD-DTW and ticket 2 was CDG-IAD-ORD-EWR-ORD-IAD-CDG. The former costed about USD975 and the latter costed about USD575.

So I got op-up on the following flights.
DTW-FRA operated by LH (TIX1)
CDG-IAD (TIX2)
ORD-EWR (TIX2)
CDG-IAD (TIX1)
IAD-DTW operated by UX (TIX1)

The downside of op-ups was it fairly spoiled me. I've never realized that flying in Economy could be so painful during the short 7-hour flight from IAD to CDG. Took my second favorite seat on 772, which was 30J. I've been always happy with 30A or 30J, and one of NRT based crews even remembers me because I've always seated at 30A on the HNL-NRT flight. But the 30J on that IAD-CDG was such a pain. Small armrest. Little recline. Kids banging my seat on the back and so on.

The best op-up was DTW-FRA on LH. That was my second LH's trans-continental flight, I was quite surprised to get an op-up. At check-in, I asked for a seat on row 32, which is an exit-row on LH's 744. The agent said if I really wanted that seating, she could give me one. However she mentioned that I had 25X. Since I knew row 32 was the first economy row, I asked if I was upgraded and she said yes. LH's Business class was so nice, miles ahead of UA's Business. What made flight even better was Business cabin was quite empty. I would say only 1/3 or 1/4 of the Business seats were occupied so no one had to seat next to a stranger.

Also, while checking-in for CDG-IAD flight on TIX2, the agent did not even mention that I got an op-up. After leaving the check-in counter, I checked my BP and voila.