Thanks for the suggestions. I'm definitely going to try those next time. I just hate to fly on a plane that I can't leverage my elite status with. This is going to knock my upgrade success down to 68% as I'm pretty sure I have zero chance with zero miles and no status in United Plus.

I think I'm going to have to do a mileage run after this flight just to get the bad taste of a non-skyteam flight out of my mouth.