If you look on United.com for, lets say todays 6am flight, and look at the united business upgrade standby list you can see two things. First, business class is FULL, second is there are 9 on the upgrade list. Given the data from this flight I doubt business class will be available for non-revenue travel. Being a long flight this is when most people use their upgrade status. Most are not wanting to use points when the flight is 1 to 2 hours.