to fakecd and correctioncx, interesting to hear. It doesn't surprise me that they'd try to avoid giving an op-up to someone who wanted to swap FFP, I guess that makes sense. I think it's a good point though that they are probably going to let you get away with it if you're under 50 minutes, because the station manager is usually taking care of a number of other things (and ensuring the flight departs in time), and I have to imagine the FFP swap is near the bottom of their priorities once the manifest is completed.

Nor does it surprise me that CX's system doesn't properly credit the FFP. They rarely seem to be able to automatically credit my miles when I use upgrade awards (which conceptually seems a rather simple task), so no doubt something odd like a last minute FFP switch would cause problems...literally, the last 4 flights I've used U and Z upgrades (paid for lower class and burned miles for upgrade) I have gotten 0 miles credit in the lower class and had to call to get them credited. Most recent was just a few weeks ago. Sometimes it takes multiple calls.