The original post hints at a more interesting question: why is it that Asian and Middle Eastern carriers fly so much more often with empty premium seats? Taking ORD-HKG as an example, on UA I have never seen an empty seat (except maybe for a very late no-show or something aberrant) whereas on CX there are routinely at least few empty seats. I remember flying ICN-HKG on KE last year and I swear 1/2 the upper deck of A380 was empty. Then flew Qatar long-haul last week and 1/3 of the business cabin was empty. Somehow I never see this kind of thing on UA international long-haul flights.
Maybe they're convinced that offering mass upgrades devalues the product and is ultimately deleterious to both revenue and brand positioning?