I'm a long-time UA traveler slowly trying to adapt to the brave new world of our merged airline. Due to travel circumstances, it looks like I'll be taking a CO TATL flight soon. I would like to use my UA 1P (*G) status to secure an exit row seat in Y, and it seems like this will work. I would also like to request an upgrade to BF as I've never experienced that, but I'd like to use my CO miles to do that. Any advice on how to proceed? I poked around a bit in search but didn't see this particular case discussed.

Further, does it matter if I book the flight under its CO flight number or UA codeshare? Thanks in advance for your help.