My husband and I are Silver on United. We always purchase the seat we want for flights to Europe rather than hope for an upgrade. We are often able to upgrade from economy to economy plus on domestic flights at check-in. For a flight in April from ORD to CDG we paid miles and some $ to be waitlisted for Premium Economy. If we don't get it I'm ok with Economy Plus. But for a trip later next year ORD to MUC, I'd really like to fly business on the Dreamliner but I can't quite bring myself to pay the price.

Can someone walk me through the most economical way to "upgrade with Points" or whatever I should be doing to not pay $8000 a seat for business. I feel like I am late in life to this game and really don't know what to do. I read about all the great deals and upgrades others have gotten but I don't know how. My husband and I each have around 100,000 United Points right now. We don't have a Chase Preferred card. We have Capital One Venture so we can book travel there but I've only ever used it to erase already purchased travel expenses.

We typically need to fly on specific dates or within a few days, rather than jump on deals that might appear randomly. Thanks for help on this.