In June, my wife and I flew ORD-SFO-PEK on UA and returned PEK-ORD on UA. We booked award tickets in coach and actually got upgraded to Business on the outbound SFO-PEK leg. On the way back, we were booked in A&C seats in Economy Plus with an empty seat between us, and actually managed to end up with the seat remaining empty even though there were only about 6 empty seats on the whole plane. My wife had gotten minimum status on UA in 2003, and still had status when she called their Elite Desk to book the reward tickets. We were initially booked on an outgoing Air Canada flight from ORD-YVR-PEK, but after a schedule change made that connection impossible, the UAL Elite desk rebooked our outbound flight on UAL. Although my wife's Elite status expired early in 2005, it still showed on our tickets as we had booked while she still had the status. As a result, we were lucky enough to end up with an upgrade to Business outbound and the empty middle seat in Economy Plus on our return. We were very pleased with our Reward tickets.