MtRoot

I did some search but couldn't find anything similar to my situation. I'm also new to the CO upgrade system (looks a bit more complicated than UA to me...) so forgive me if this has already been covered. I'm a UA 1K and recently matched CO Plat.

I have a IAH-EWR CO operated flight coming up in Nov (B fare), although I purchased the ticket with a UA flight #. It's on a CO 757-200 with BF seat so I thought that it would be cool if I can get an upgrade.

When I booked the flights on co.com, this particular segment didn't show "Elite upgrade fare" like other segments. It kind of made sense because it's sold as a UA flight (although I couldn't find the corresponding CO flight among the choices). Anyway, I went ahead and booked the flights. Sure enough I got instantly upgraded on the other segments, which now show the fare class as PN.

Now when I look at the reservation, there is "Elite upgrade fare" note on the IAH-EWR segment and indeed the availability says PN9 (all FC seats open).
However the system doesn't let me pick a FC seat without paying 10,000 miles and looks like it will still be waitlisted.

So I'm wondering what's going on. Is PN the correct bucket to look at? If so, why can't I upgrade? Can any of the following be the reason?
- UA flight #
- less FC seats due to intl configuration

If I can't get instant upgrade, would using some instrument help? Actually I'm connecting to a UX flight (EWR-PIT) so perhaps I can use a UA CR-1 to upgrade IAH-EWR-PIT?

Thank you for your help!

Cuse44

If it says Elite Upgrade Fare, then the B Up is available. Try looking for a link right below the flights in the reservation that says ">Upgrade". Click this and the website should let you process the B Up.

Hartmann

An if the above does not work, just call the elite line.

MtRoot

Ah, I completely missed that (tiny) link---I was assuming that the upgrade will show up around the seat map.
Thank you for the information!