Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Op-up depends on travel companion?

I have a question regarding whether your travel companion affects your op-up priority.

We are a group of 3 pax travelling together, there is a DM, SL (me) and GR member in the complete group. Flight appears to be full.

As the SL member, is it more advantageous to check in with the DM at the airport (or Airport Express) without doing OLCI and hope for an op-up at checkin (happened before when I have travelled with said DM before) or should I do OLCI 48 hours before flight and try to secure low BN and then go to counter with said DM when I check in my luggage?

I am afraid that if I "lock in" my seat through OLCI, then my chances at the airport due to any connection with the DM are less.

Does the assigned BN depend on whether the BP is printed or not?

I am confused and not sure what is the best way to do this.

Assigned seats make no difference to op-up chances. BN is set when you check in; printing the BP makes no difference.

For the brief period when I was DM and my wife was GR or SL then there were a couple of occasions travelling together when I was offered an op-up and she wasn't, but none where she was also offered one when I was.

Hmm, if this is the case then I will do OLCI 48 hours before check-in to secure a low BN but will not print my BP.

For some reason, I recall reading somewhere that a BN is only assigned if you print the BP, and doing OLCI without printing BP does not secure a BN.

BN is definitely assigned when you OLCI whether PYOB or not. I used to cancel my OLCI and when I re checked in, I still obtained the same BN#

In Apr, I travelled with a GR who flew on CX the first time. Our itinerary was BKK-HKG-JFK. BKK-HKG, I was asked by check in agent whether I would take the op up by myself if my friend did not. I took it though we both scored op up on HKG-JFK. And, we both did OLCI. Having said that, we our reservation were under the same record locator code. I'm not sure about your case.

pretty recently (~a month ago) I was traveling with a colleague, on separate locators. I'm DM and he's AA Gold (= Ruby), and we got upgraded together at check-in without any asking, and seated together. we didn't do OLCI and arrived at the airport ~1.5 hours before departure. he also believes he wouldn't have gotten the upgrade if he's traveling by himself as Ruby is very low in the pecking order. just another data point...

Pls read the CX FAQ, Post #9, item 7.3

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11220620-post9.html