So, after carefullly reviewing the ins and outs of this - it appears that I have to pay a service fee to upgrade on that non-stop from EWR - FCO. This is because the upgrade is to business/first. However, the chart indicates there is no fee to upgrade to business. So, two questions:

1. Does status remove the requirement to pay the fee?

2. If I fly KLM through Amsterdam can I then use miles to upgrade and not pay a fee? Will the upgrade be the entire way?