Mmmmm

Yes!!
We got the upgrade. Thank goodness.
We had almost given up hope of getting it, once we heard about the sale.
I will need to check with staff travel about this.
I have no problem with the company filling up business on the day by offering a one-price-fits-all upgrade. Great idea.
But.
Do they take into account the number of staff who have paid for an upgradable ticket, or ignore them?

With Qantas, they even limit the number of FQTVs that they allow to upgrade, based on the number of upgradable staff. Staff with upgrades, then FQTVs with upgrades. By the way, all of this happens at least 24hrs out.
With NZ, FQTVs get upgraded first, and then staff. I can't really argue about that, but the downside for both FQTVs and the staff, is that the confirmation doesn't happen till the boarding gate. Yikes!
Not very friendly, even for the FQTVs.

Now, the sale question. If the company sells all available seats on the day after upgrading qualifying FQTVs, there is no point in selling staff an upgradable ticket at all. Not only will we have no clue of our chances, but the chances themselves will be virtually nil.

Anyway, we got the upgrades, and got to sit in row 10. Front row of second cabin.

I found out about the upgrade by asking the lounge staff. While there, I started chatting to the French guy mentioned earlier. They had a set of the Premium economy seats there, and he took great pleasure in spending more than 10 minutes demonstrating them to me.
They are great! This is my first opportunity to see them 'in the flesh'. Very nice.
This is really going to be a popular option once it goes live.

Had a great chat with him, and he was very very accommodating. A wonderful asset to the company. The accent is still unexpected, but who cares.