Okay, so she didn't get upgraded in the end. I feel kinda bummed out, and want to figure out what I may have done wrong so that I can fix it next time, whether 1) something was wrong with the booking 2) I didn't do a good enough job at the airport convincing them 3) it's just not a good idea to do try this leaving TLV.
I thought the booking was okay- I had switched it from a stopover to a direct flight (which I understood above was okay), and it was listed as X class requesting I class until this morning, when I received an email that she would be added to the upgrade list, as no I class had opened up. At this point the reservation said X class requesting R class.
We got to Ben Gurion 3.5 hours before after doing online check-in, only to find that there is no United Ticketing counter in the airport and the desk agents only arrive about 3 hours before the flight. We spoke to the desk agent as well as the supervisor, mentioning the fact that my mother was a displaced business passenger who had payed the business award rate, asking for PR-1 waitlist status, and mentioning "gg onestandby". The supervisor said that she understood that "gg whatever" was part of their system, but claimed she couldn't look it up and that we'd need to wait for a ticketing agent, who would be arriving shortly.
The ticketing agent came and told us that my mother would be at the bottom of the waitlist. I mentioned all of the above again, and she said that the reservation said that she was placed in economy and asked for an upgrade. When I said that she had payed the business rate and that didn't make sense, she said that their records showed the reservation had been changed, so that must have been the cause for the confusion. When I mentioned a friend had said we should ask for PR-1 status, she was confused how we knew what that was (and even seemed a bit upset), and said to tell our friend (hi Dan!) that her reservation stated she was to have PR-3 status.
Since she seemed to be the only person who could do anything, and didn't want to help us, we gave up. I called United from the airport using the Web Callback option to see if there was anything to do on that end, but they said there was not.
I would really appreciate any advice for the next time, especially if people have actually been able to take care of the Plan B at TLV itself.
TIA