To tie-off on my situation, I had booked CDG-ORD-LAX in saver economy, wait-listed for business on both legs. Due to a death in the family I had to move up travel several days and ended up with CDG-IAD-LAX, although saver biz was available on the CDG-IAD leg. Since they had already taken out biz class miles, it was a pretty seamless change with only the small fee for making a change within 21 days.
But I couldn't get on the PR-1 list for IAD-LAX. I tried at CDG and all I got was a lesson on how I was trying to upgrade an award ticket and that's impossible.