Thanks for the advice. It seems that the flight is overbooked in both coach and business (two class only) -- so virtually no chance of an upgrade.
Turns out the husband's ticket was frequent flier miles, but the wife's was purchased with a credit card. They're talking to the CC company to see what insurance may have been attached to the ticket.
In the meantime, I went on seatguru.com and advised them on the best possible seat requests.
Again, thanks for the suggestions.