I've been told that you can upgrade to these classes from coach. i believe yu put your name on a list and if there is availability, you can upgrade costiing between 100 and 200 dollars. Two poor school teachers would like to upgrade their V ticket from newark to toyko on dec 21 and return jan 3. Is this possible if there is room and how much?>

you have to have an upgradeable fare class, so call the airline and ask them

We need more info.
What Airline? What Flight #?

If tis CO (EWR-NRT)... $100 or $200 wont do it. In CO you have these options:

1. Pay the difference in fare to First

2. From your V fare, pay $450, AND use 25,000 or 30,000 to upgrade 1 way, IF Award upgrade availability is avilable.

I have been offered a $500 upgrade to business from W fare. From NRT to ORD on UA

When was that? I believe now UA wants something like $650?

To OP, if you are flying UA, when you check-in, ask for UFC (upgrade for cash). They may or may not offer it based on the load.

Forgot to add one thing.
If flying three class plane, normally one cannot upgrade from economy to first.

Upgrading from coach to business class might be either impossible or impossibly expensive, depending on which airline you're flying. We'll need more info to give you anything but generalizations, but to set your expectations: Forget about upgrading to first class (most airlines only allow one class upgrade), and if you want business class, expect to pay $500-600 or more, if it's even allowed on your fare.

Typically on United, cash upgrade is an international flight segment option only, as on domestic flights, plenty of elites have upgrade rights. Also on United, V class is not upgradeable on international tickets with miles, you'd need at least an H fare (although the good news is that there is no charge beyond the miles if there is availability). So, again on United, you'd be talking about upgrading from your U.S. gateway onwards.

If you're on American, my impression is it is miles (30,000?) + $250 each way.

Don't know about Northwest, might well be the same rules as Continental.

All of these only apply if you are actually on a plane operated by the company who issued your ticket. Some United flight numbers, for example, are on ANA aircraft and no upgrades are typically available on those without paying the entire fare difference.

There is no realistic hope of getting this upgrade for $100-200 or under any circumstances on a non-U.S. carrier.

For specifics, you can start by checking stickies at the top of the forum for the airline you are flying on.

I believe that there is an aptitude test for first class. One has to
be able to spell "professor" and to use punctuation.

the proffessor may be from japan and english may not be their first language