I used to travel exclusively on Star Alliance, but unless you are on metal fr the carrier you have your card with, there is an extremely small chance of you ever getting an upgrade. Sure, people with Skyward cards are more likely to hope that they get an opup on EK because there is more of a chance of this actually happening that, for example, someone with a SAS Eurobonus Gold getting an opup with Lufthansa. Just doesn't happen.

So, yes, maybe the EK have more hope... I do now that I have switched