Whenever I buy Lufthansa long-haul business class, I buy it on 016 stock to maximize miles (although my loyalty taps out at 75,000 miles - different topic). Therefore I cannot use the online tool to apply my Global Premier Upgrades, but have to call United.

Last time when I had four segments, the process took well over one hour of phone time. Today, with just two simple segments (SFO-MUC-SFO) the call took around 35 minutes.

Has anyone figured out a way to get this done any faster? I tried emailing customer care so they do it, even provided my PIN, but they said I have to call.

Apparently, the reason it takes so long is that they have to essentially wipe out your ticket with the UA codeshare flight numbers, reissue it with LH flight numbers still on 016 stock, waive the new price and honor the original price, then call Lufthansa to apply the upgrades.