I purchased a ticket on CX's USA website back in January for JFK-HKG-KUL-HKG-JFK, with a stopover in HKG. This was in V class (except for a codeshare on MH for the KUL-HKG segment).

I'm currently in HKG, and am trying to change the date of my final HKG-JFK segment from Mar 6 to any day on March 12-16, but there is currently no V availability (CX 830). There are occasional pockets of K availability, and one agent mentioned that I could pay an extra USD100 (on top of the USD100 change fee) to upsell my V to K, but I didn't take it when offered as I had to discuss the extra fee with someone else offline before confirming. The CX agent held it for me though, as I saw it as "Confirmed" when I viewed my booking online.

When I called back to proceed with the V to K and date change, I was told that actually, this could not be done. Since my ticket was based on an NYC-KUL fare, they could not upsell it since I had already flown the KUL-HKG segment. Is this what is referred to as the "married segment" issue?

So, I'm stuck waiting for V availability, but from watching the fare buckets on ITN, it looks like CX doesn't release availability in the lower buckets until a few days before departure. The problem is I would have to take my confirmed flight before V availability is likely to show up.

Am I pretty much SOL? Not a MPC member/no status with CX so I can't use that seat guarantee benefit. Wish I had known of this restriction before I flew the KUL-HKG segment...