Well, first you can buy a BF ticket for her, because regardless of your years of loyalty, CO's attitude is if you want to fly in BF, pay for it.

Next you can buy a coach ticket for her at a higher price than necessary, and use miles to upgrade it. CO will deduct the miles, and put you on a waiting list for BF upgrades. You'll know if you you got the upgrade within 30 days of the flight, but probably sometime shortly before you board. If you do not get the upgrade, CO will allow you to pay them to put the upgrade miles back into your account.

Or you can ask for a BF award ticket entirely on miles, and if it's available, go through the same 30 day - maybe by boarding mess as above. But in this case, you can't get the miles back if you don't get the BF seat...you'll have to fly in coach.

Or you can choose to fly an airline with a reasonable international upgrade policy, and tell CO what to do with their awards.
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