Elites are eligible for CPU on award tickets only if they hold the Explorer or Club credit cards. This benefit (if it applies to you) is partially inherited along with your status. Here, "partially" means: award tickets booked with your miles can be CPUed at your window, but will not be upgraded (or appear on the list) after checkin.
It's sort of a bug within a bug -- we can't really complain about the no-upgrades-after-checkin bug, since the whole darn thing is basically a bug.
My MIL was upgraded ICN-NRT on an award ticket I got for her. Not sure why/how, but she gave me the credit
