When i was working I traveled a lot on United. Now that I am retired I only fly for pleasure (if there is such a thing). My united miles are decreasing rapidly. We need to fly from IAD to Venice Italy and then home from Barcelona Spain next spring. I don't want to blow my remaining miles on R/T coach seat usage but want to pay the coach fare for the flights and then use my miles to upgrade to Business Class. However it appears that the rules have changed. When I go to United.com and select economy and the dates and times I want I am coming up with United flights operated by Lufthansa from Dulles to Munich and then Munich to Venice and from Barcelona to munich on the return with the final MUC/IAD flight being a United flight. Fare code comes up as "S". From what I am able to tell I cannot use my FF miles to upgrade from this fare code to a Business Class seat as only certain fare codes now qualify to use miles for the upgrade. Is this correct? How can I get a coach fare code that might entitle me to do the upgrade. Can I get this code on the United web site and what would I then select for the Upgrade code i want to use from the drop down list? All help is appreciated.