Upgrade problems have been reported previously, but I just got burned by this particular variant of it, and had to spend 40 minutes on the phone, on hold, with an agent to get this backed out.

Certificate and Cash+points upgrades still don't seem to be processing correctly if all flights on the itinerary aren't upgrade-available, even though the website now says that they will be and allows you to proceed. See screen-shots below:

Tried upgrading my outbound CLE-LAX-NRT-SIN. LAX-NRT is an ANA codeshare, and not upgradeable. CLE-LAX is waitlist, but NRT-SIN was showing 9 seats available. (Note that this may be the bug right here, since if you search for that flight, R0/RN0 is indicated during flight search.)



If you try to burn an upgrade by either method, the next page shows you that you were successful... to a point.



Note the "United BusinessFirst Selected." It asks you to confirm your understanding that the CLE-LAX segment will be waitlisted. Once I did, it waitlisted me for F on the domestic segment, deducted my certificate balance, and then left me sitting in coach NRT-SIN w/o even a waitlist.

Going back, it's more than happy to let me try and upgrade again! It'll even let me burn another certificate if I want. Ironically, the available count dropped from "9 seats available" to "8 seats available", though R0/RN0 is still showing on flight search.

Agent was able to un-do this for me, but was unable to make it process correctly. His recommendation was to call back tomorrow. *sigh*