Here is my situation. I just got my first set of 6 SWUs as a new 1K. I have some business travel planned for 2011 including international trips. Typically I will not be paying out of pocket for these trips but I am somewhat restricted - I have a limited business travel budget - most of my colleagues buy coach tickets and I have to go through some hoops to get C class cabin covered. At the same time I really don't have any personal trips I want to take in 2011 especially to region 2. I'm expecting to get at least a couple of CR1s once my flight to Australia clears in January.

I've read the SWU threads and I think I understand the rules. I have to book in certain fare classes - in fact the UA website has this as a feature when booking tickets - you can say you want to try to buy with an SWU and it dumps you into certain fare classes. But at the same time I have no guarantee I get upgraded until the NF space clears for that flight, if I understand the system correctly. I did switch my MP account to expert mode so I now know how to look up the available fare classes on each flight.

Specifically, I have two business trips coming up where I could book in Y etc and try to upgrade with SWU : one is a trip to LHR in early June and another is a trip to NRT in late June. Dates are very fixed i have essentially no flexibility on dates to fly. If I could save $$ and do it and be guaranteed a seat in C I'd likely do it.

With moderate gymnastics I can probably buy Z fare and get that covered completely so no worries about upgrades. It costs me a trip to the Dr to get a note and also more $$ from my travel budget which is a reasonable size but not unlimited. If I save money I can use it to fly others to conferences etc.

However,
I really don't want to be stuck in E (even E+) at all on these long runs.
Best case scenario is I'm annoyed, and worst case is that I'm in bed taking pain medication instead of working when I get to the destination.

Under the circumstances,
what would you do with the SWUs? I requested them early in case a good option shows up on the flight list for my particular travel days.

I could also use them on some transcons later this year especially the LAX-IAD runs where even 1Ks sometimes don't make the UDUs.

Thanks for advice this system seems very complicated I'm not sure I have all the nuances down yet. I'm not even sure I understand the differences between SWUs and CR1 as far as region 1 travel goes. At the moment I can not think of any personal travel I want to use any of these certs on right now - in fact I can not think of any personal travel I want to take, period. I travel enough on business that I get to see my family because they live close to places where I do business. And Mr BT2 is likely using up all his vacation time following me to places like Australia and Utah this spring.