Just booked a few flights for the end of this month and came across a really strange situation:

While I was making the reservation, I had two flights show up as UA (UA4739 IAH-YUL and UA4748 YUL-EWR). I couldn't see the seat maps on either one of those flights. As soon as I booked it they changed to CO1282 and CO1288. I can now see the seat maps.

I called the CO Plat line and asked about how would upgrades be processed, and the lady told me that even though the plane and crew were UA, the boarding process was CO controlled now. I sent my itinerary to TripIt and it says "Aircraft Embraer 170 (Operated by Continental Airlines flight 1282)".

Is this new? CO1282 shows up when I check it out on flight status (although the upgrade standby list doesn't come up) but CO1288 simply doesn't exist yet.

Am I good to go in terms of upgrades? Will CO be the one processing EUA?