Originally Posted by
hl176
Speaking of op-ups, how come I was op-upped on nearly every time I fly yvr to jfk and vice versa? This was before I was eligible to register for Marco Polo so I was just an AM member.
I would be ticketed in either L, M, V, or sometimes in K when flying Y and only in R when flying on PEY on that route. I would never have more than two trips booked in advance.
Usually op-up happens during check in or upon boarding where the red light flashes.
I thought this was a pretty elite heavy route? Correct me if I'm mistaken.
This route is a rather peculiar one as it is a HKG-YVR-JFK vv route.
The front cabins (F/J) tend to be full on the HKG-YVR-HKG sectors and empty on the YVR-JFK-YVR sectors. Those flying JFK-HKG-JFK in F/J tend to prefer the non-stop flights. This leaves F/J rather empty on the YVR-JFK-YVR legs. Note: This route is probably the easiest to redeem F awards on the entire CX network.
The back cabins (at least for Y) tend to be full of passengers who live in JFK flying to HKG and onward to non-premium destinations such as FOC (Fuzhou) and MNL (seems like a lot of ethnic travel agencies in the NYC area have contracts with CX that say "CX888/889 only" as it stops in YVR both ways and calls for a discount compared to the non-stop).
For Y passengers travelling ex-YVR (YVR-HKG-YVR), they tend to prefer CX 837/838 that operates in the afternoon.
During non-peak seasons, CX is able to sell cheap Y tickets YVR-JFK-YVR vv. However during more peak seasons, the Y cabin tends to be oversold (due to the ex-JFK traffic to Asia), so it is easier to simply upgrade passengers travelling only on the YVR-JFK-YVR sectors.
As for YVR being elite heavy, I don't think this has been the case anymore since most of the HKers who came from HKG in the 1990s have went back to HKG to live permanently. YVR isn't really a destination worthy of HKers to visit anymore. The YVR area is now full of mainland Chinese and has service from from many exotic mainland Chinese carriers such as Xiamen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines in addition to the usual MU, CZ, CA. Those who want a cheap price in Y tend to go with the mainland carriers. While those who tend to fly paid premium cabins tend to take a detour via HKG as they know how bad the premium cabins on the mainland carriers are and fly CX (some prefer CX889 as it leaves late at night and they can sleep until arrival in HKG in the morning for their connection on KA to PEK, PVG etc).
The non-premium Cantonese "lo wah kiu" tend to prefer CX and take the afternoon flight (CX837 [838 returning]), arriving in HKG in the evening.