So I called United and asked "do I have Basic Economy?" Immediate response - no this is not Basic Economy. 10-15 minutes later after various holds, actually YES this is Basic Economy. This is new, this is different, this is weird, etc. etc. We now have to look in a different place to determine if a fare is Basic Economy or not. She said the CPU indication was most like a glitch on the website as neither of the United flights were eligible for Premier upgrades. She also wasn't able to definitively tell me how PQMs would be earned.

I called Lufthansa and after a couple of tries was able to get the ticket canceled for a full refund. I think if Lufthansa is selling Basic Economy on United, they need to state that specifically during the booking process. My main beef here was that I would be earning only 50% PQMs on such a long trip, and there was zero way of knowing that was the case before booking was completed because fare class alone does not determine Basic Economy anymore (per footnote which as was mentioned just recently appeared on earning tables: Effective for travel on or after December 11, 2018: All Basic Economy tickets will earn 50% Premier qualifying miles and 0.5 Premier qualifying segments. Basic Economy tickets may be booked in various fare classes.). Per United's website and without knowing this was BE, the fare classes I booked via Lufthansa would earn 100% PQMs, but that was not the case at all in reality. Non BE W and T on LH should earn 100% PQMs, and non BE W and T on United should also earn 100% PQMs.