Guys, thanks a lot for the reply. I really appreciate it. It's a but frustrating to know that if I spend an additional 10,00 yen, I would have probably gotten a class Q ticket for my first round of flights, too. Would have saved me some money and PTO, as well.....

Yeah, that's what I noticed. However, I do have very slim hope that I'll be able to get something still. At least when I checked other partners' mileage credits (award and PQM) on UA's website, classes, such as v class, that did not earn any award miles, were listed as 0% miles in the award section, but were actually listed under PQM to have at least 70% PQM under the PQM section. Now, class v is listed as 0% in the award section of UA's Thai Airways website, but there's no mention at all under the PQM section. This comparison with other partners' mileage charts is the hope, however slim, that I have