Just a few relatively quick questions - I've never flown NW Transpac, so please bear with me. Thanks!

1) I was thinking about going to TPE & I found an M-Fare I can live with. Is it upgradeable?

I ask because of this at NW.com:

Upgrade options are valid on most published fare types (and on many Northwest Airlines WorldVacations unpublished fare types) except for the following: frequent flyer program free/discounted award travel, VUSA passes, Visit USA fare, Round-The-World, Circle-The-Pacific, infant/child, Asian origin spouse fare, companion fares, Asian consolidator ID tickets, Denied Boarding Compensation, free, no value, agency/industry discount tickets, chart flight tickets, senior discount tickets, student fares, Fly Later-Fly Free vouchers, CATY International, most unpublished fares, consolidator tickets issued on 01298 ticket stock, any certificates, coupon, Bonus Miles or promotional offer/ticket, trans-Atlantic fares beginning with S/K/V/Q/H//M and U.S. point of sale trans-Pacific fares beginning with H/K/V/Q and H/K/V/Q/M for flights between the U.S. and Hong Kong/China. Northwest will determine the eligibility of new fare types as they become available.

So - pardon my ignorance when it comes to geography & history - but isn't TPE considered to be part of China (they separate Hong Kong on the website) - I think its a territory or something to that extent, but I don't know if an M-class is upgradeable.

Of course, I could be a complete dumbass & be completely off base. Which if that's the case, I'd appreciate it if someone could advise me.

2) So for this trip, I was thinking about doing flying through HNL (staying less than 24 hours, of course) both ways. Would the 25K one-way upgrade (if upgradeable) upgrade me from DCA-MSP-HNL-NRT-TPE?

3) Currently, for my return, I've got it scheduled to have more than 24 hrs in HNL, so I'm assuming that 25K would not cover it - However, if I drop it down to less than 24 hrs, it prices out to an Q-fare (which is non-upgradeable).

Will NW price out an M-fare one direction & a Q-fare for the the other?

4) How bad of a flight would it be in Y?