I received a text from a friend who said she was having trouble upgrading BQN-EWR-CLE so I asked for her PNR and saw it was a basic economy ticket. I've never done BE, so I guessed that was the problem (and why I also could not apply for a PP upgrade) but I saw that there was a prompt to pay $49.50 to convert to Economy. (Since I was busy catching up on season 20 of Hell's Kitchen, I didn't check this thread).

She paid the 49.50, but I still can't put in for a PP upgrade (J=9, PZ is zero for that day anyway) - website says can't upgrade this reservation. She can pick a first class seat from the seatmap for $199.
from the link in the first post of this thread https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/tra...c-economy.html it says she should be able to "upgrade to Economy PlusŪ or a premium cabin"

After paying the conversion fee, her return is now T Class, but updated receipt still has the following fare rule :NRF-BE/NOCHGDAFTDPT

I understand "upgrade" to mean "upgrade" including instruments. Am I correct or are they using a different meaning, like "pay for a first class seat?" If PZ>0 like on the next day, I would have called, but this seems shady that the website says something like "pay $49.50 to change to Economy...so you can upgrade" and then say you can't.

Is this a glitch and it's worth having her call in to try and get upgrade pricing instead of seat map pricing - I saw an upgrade offer for like half price of seatmap price, but it rejected it as being "un-upgradeable", something I don't understand about BE conversion to E, or just a dark part of BE?

thx