Gold plus?
Maybe this is just a senior memory malfunction, but there's a dim memory of reading somewhere in these pages that EK has a "Gold plus" level, not part of the overt tier ranking, but known to the reservation system and maybe to cabin crew. If the ancient grey cells have it right, this kicks in at something like 75,000 miles.
I'm but a lowly gold, and generally just about qualify, so total tier miles are usually below 75K, but now and again I fly a little more often and miles reach into the higher seventies, eighties or nineties. At these times upgrades seem to come much more often, both from economy and from business. Sometimes, quite surprising ones - for example from Saver Y.
My only route is MAN-DXB-TYO, and upgrades have always been on the MAN-DXB leg, both for MAN and DXB departures.
I've speculated that EK may have some reason of their own to upgrade Gold Plus (if such exists) or maybe that they have some special consideration for old farts such as I? ... and that the dearth of upgrades on the Tokyo NRT and HND -DXB legs is just a consequence of lighter loading levels than on DXB-MAN?
Maybe it's just that EK's upgrade systems are as deeply dark and incomprehensibly arcane as their pricing?