Originally Posted by
HongKonger
Also OP, as far as being "upgraded" on TPE-NRT, this was almost certainly an oversold flight on which you were upgraded to make space in Y for passengers that wouldn't otherwise have been able to be accommodated. I wouldn't count on this happening, especially on the longest segments. If anyone is that lucky on a long segment it will be a DM.
I'm not sure if this is an exception or the norm, but the one experience that I had was that on an oversold flight, after bumping the elites to BE, they start bumping non-elites who purchased Economy Comfort to BE as well. This happened to my elderly parents whom I decided to pay $160 per person for EC between JFK to NRT. Pleasant surprise indeed - they ended up in row 10, in BE, on a 14-hour flight in an old 747 (no AVOD).
So, OP, perhaps buying EC would give you a better chance for an upgrade?