I just got my five-year anniversary upgrade. Flew to JFK via YVR in J five days ago and at check-in the assistant picked up the phone as soon as she typed in my name. She was speaking Cantonese, which I cannot understand, but I got some of the gist – there were no F seats. For the return leg, checked in at JFK and again I could tell something had come up as the guy was looking around for a supervisor after typing in my name but could not find one and gave me my J boarding pass. In the lounge just after boarding had started, I got a message to see a CX rep and there it was – my first class boarding pass all the way to Hong Kong!

As others had noted – the letter V was on the boarding pass. Also – I was able to print my boarding pass on both occasions – so that is not always a telling sign. IMO – First is much harder to snag than J. I think CX has a strict policy of holding onto F seats until the last second so there was no way for them to give it to me at check-in. I imagine Y or Y+ to J is much easier as more seat availability.

Cannot comment if I had got upgrade on outbound then I would / would not have gotten it on inbound – but hey – it was an amazing experience that everyone should get once in their lifetime. The hours just flew by. No recognition on board that it was my five-year anniversary but ISM’s on both flights were not the best. However, First crew were immense!