I had a similar problem with my upcoming flight. Booked an "upgrade eligible" fare on UAL.COM then called 1P reservations to upgrade, only to be told that the fare I booked wasn't upgrade eligible. I still had the screen up on my computer, and the CSR was very nice and helped me throuhg the process of rebooking (~$150 more) but couldn't explain why the little upgrade "poof" showed on my original choice. The nice part was that she was able to talk me through which flights and connections had availability. Now if only the website could get its act together and deliver