Power8 Expired UAK and 7.1 to 7.3 Upgrade

All,

I have a Power8 customer machine @ 7.1 and we're planning the upgrade to
7.3.

The firmware was SV_810 and has been updated to SV_860_165 via MH01767.
The UAK expired 06/2018, so I chose a firmware update published May of
2018. Active & Temp DPSFMWSTS shows the SV_860_165 and is at an acceptable
level for 7.3

The machine has an active hardware maintenance agreement as well as 7.1
extended SWMA and I'd like to perform the automatic OS UPGRADE from local
image catalog with an expired UAK, then taking advantages of 7.3, get the
UAK updated with ECS/PTF remotely without having to physically connect/use
ASMI.

- https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/687987
-
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/server-firmware-stand-alone-ibm-i-systems


To update the UAK at 7.1, we'd have to physically connect to the server and
using ASMI, update it - the machine is a 1,000 miles away and I'd prefer to
avoid updating it first.

Has anyone performed a 7.1 to 7.3 upgrade with an expired UAK, can this be
done without ending up in the ditch ?