Upgrading to LH Premium Econ. or Business if purchased coach with miles?
 

Recently booked ORD-ATH with LH for 60,000 UAL miles. Does anyone know if I'm eligible to purchase a premium economy or business class seat with cash?

Simple answer: No, awards are not upgradable. You only could modify your booking to PE or C and pay the additional miles and the change fee.

You may be able to purchase a better seat at check-in/gate at a fixed price.

Will definitely inquire at check-in for availability. Can't imagine LH refusing to sell a seat if its empty just before the flight, although I can understand them refusing to sell you the seat weeks/months in advance as they'd want to charge someone the full value of any premium seat.

It's true that you may be able to purchase a better seat in the Economy cabin, but it's also very true that award tickets are not upgradable to another cabin without spending the additional miles. They will indeed, gladly keep a PE or J cabin seat empty rather than dilute the integrity of the award ticket system or, of course, the fare structure for paying customers.

Olivier will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong, but the "the no diluting" days are long over.
You can bid on upgrades for 220 award tickets as much as you like, and for non-LH tickets, they will sell an upgrade to PE or C on day of departure for a fixed sum.

Hmm...good to know. Maybe I should stop buying my F tickets! But then again, I don't want to leave anything to chance. So, it's all good I suppose.

I think F upgrade are a bit more restricted. And of course they calculated it high enough not to cannibalize revenue tickets, so the upgrade route is often not worth it if you can shop around for a ticket in the desired cabin.

Oh, I can....

... and because it is an UA-ticket, the online bidding option is not possible.