Beef Of Ages posted:

Based off what you posted, I think you're perhaps not aware of the disconnect between revenue seat availability and award seat availability. As a rule, the airlines want to sell seats for revenue rather than give them away on awards so award seats are always going to be far, far less available than what you see when you search for revenue availability.

With that principle in mind, what you're seeing in the award search reflects the awards that are available right now. It is common for business class seats to not be available on awards, especially for the busy summer travel season to Europe, because the airline would rather sell them for a profit. You can continue to watch the flights and see if award availability opens up (which can happen at any time or never) and also look at alternatives like leaving out of EWR or IAD. Flexibility is often the key to finding award seats that will work for your trip. Only leaving on 6/19 and only out of ORD is going to significantly limit your options, up to the point of not ever finding anything.

Similar to award availability, upgrade space is also controlled. The likelihood of a mileage award clearing the wait list or being available in the first place is fairly remote. This, again, is exacerbated by having one flight one one day to choose from. The comedy option is to pay the exorbitant rates UA will charge for an anytime award to book into business anyway. Wildly fantastic waste of miles in that case.