To book flights that have upgrade space to BusinessFirst available at the time of purchase, and to purchase an eligible fare

1. Go to www.continental.com
2. Enter a flight search and select W fares (the minimum fare eligible to use an SWU) by clicking on the radio button for "enter specific class of service" and entering W in the box. Be sure the radio button is marked.
3. For flights you are interested in, click on the underlined "fare class" to show which fare classes are available. If you see R0 then you can not confirm your upgrade right awaw. If you see R1, R2, R3, R4, etc that indicates that the R fare class is available, and that is the class you need to upgrade to BusinessFirst.
4. Book your tickets, doule checking to make sure the fare class is W or higher (for example, Y, B, Q, and V are all "higher" fare classes than W, meaning they cost more and S, T, and L are lower fare clases which are not eligible for SWU's earned in 2011) for a flight with R>0.
5. Immediately after ticketing (generally a couple minutes after booking when tickets are purchased on CO.com) go to the reservation on your OnePass online account and click on "upgrade reservation" and select "use miles to upgrade" then select the box to use an SWU. You will instantly be confirmed in BF.
6. Make your seat selection.