I just booked an transpacific flight to Hong Kong in May of next year. I am a 1k with all of the SWUs in my account expiring in January 2010.

Even though i thought i couldnt upgrade using SWUs until i got my new allotment, united.com allowed me to apply two SWUs for this May 2010 trip! Even 2 segments cleared.

I checked my SWU balance and I still have the same number of SWUs (expiring in Jan 2010) before requesting the upgrade. So what just happened folks?