I was starting to worry, so thought I'd write this up in the hope that others may find the same in the future

I booked a flight, HKG-DXB-MAN, deliberately choosing EK as some useful flights had the magic "Miles upgrade available" during the booking process, and rather than going with my default QR F option to earn Avios/nTPs (only available out of HK, not into MAN, and in this case ~15% more expensive than using some miles, of which I always have many). Alas on the way back my MAN-DXB-HKG did not show any upgrade availability.
So I booked with cash: Business Flex out, and First Flex back. The intention was always to be in First both ways (I really dislike the A380 EK in business as it feels like a bus)

The reason for this post is that I basically had to wait about 15-20 minutes before the skywards miles option worked. Presumably as in the background the systems were properly processing the ticket before they could then allow an upgrade, but I was getting annoyed and there were no google hits with the same problem. So, I am hoping by describing this process, in the future some other person will not be reaching for the "cancel" button too quickly. I happened to book this right as the Iran airspace closures caused massive disruptions, so I couldn't phone up, all the lines were busy. I suppose there is the chance that this has just slowed down all the Emirates systems.

Steps, and problems therefore described below with relevant messages:

• I book, I pay, I get my email and an option to "upgrade with skywards miles" is right there on the website, I press it of course, as quickly as possible, don't want that seat going anywhere!
• A bit of thinking, then, "Sorry you cannot upgrade with miles"
• I log in and out of my Skywards account
• I still get "Sorry you cannot upgrade with miles"
• I choose my seats, I think did it matter that I did a mixed class booking, oh I am so used to BA's rubbish systems and worse
• I enter my emergency contact, I select my car pick-ups/drop-offs [just in case that mattered]
• I still get "Sorry you cannot upgrade with miles"

And then, without doing anything else, I switched from passenger details back to manage my booking, had one final try, and it worked all fine, upgrade has gone through, and I'm in First all the way. Phew! True first world problems.

Something to look forward to, as long as I the airspace isn't burning as the flights are only in 3 weeks time.

Edit: Hmm: I just realised, my flight bookings here differ from those where I have done this before - My Skyrewards number is not on the booking email in the top right, even though I was logged in when buying the ticket and the number (no status mentioned) is in the depth of the email. And it doesn't show in "My upcoming bookings", though my rewards number and status points do appear on the booking itself. So perhaps there is a disconnect between the booking and Skyrewards system at the moment. Perhaps linked to the regional airspace closures/being super busy, or just coincidence.