Free upgrades would be too much to ask even for Platinum - that would kill the revenues in F.

But what would be a decent compromise is to have all unsold seats in F/J be available for mileage upgrades from J/Y regardless of fare bucket. A 100% tier bonus would be the minimum to expect for Platinum - but it will not be very effective if redemption keeps getting harder.

What I think Platinum should reasonably have (champagne and strawberries in the car is wishful thinking!):

1) A 100% or more tier bonus

2) F lounge access for self and family (or 2-3 guests) with a J ticket; F lounge access for self only with a Y ticket; J lounge access with family (or 2-3 guests) on a Y ticket

3) Much greater non-peak redemption rate inventory availability (Gold should also have some advantages here)

4) Highest priority for op-ups (obvious) but no op-ups if booking class is not oversold. Instead, Platinum should offer:

5) 4 upgrade vouchers/year that are redeemable for confirmed upgrades as long as even a single seat is open in the higher class

6) Reciprocal arrangements for lounge access with at least their bilateral partners (this would help address the BIGGEST weakness of Skywards, which is the lack of membership in a global alliance). This would make a big difference to US residents who EK presumably wants to attract with more gateways in the coming years.

7) Soft landing to Gold for Platinum card holders for 1 year would be awesome.

To make the qualification criteria easy to understand, it should simply be the following:

a) 150K tier miles with at least 100K tier miles in J/F classes, or
b) 120K tier miles in J/F

It might even be easier to just use (b) - sort of like the old SQ PPS system. Having the tiers be 30, 60, 120 has a nice sense of progression!

Look forward to the details!