Hi all,
Brand new to the CX forum and we have actually never flown CX before.

Looking at tickets for June 2016:
party of 2 in same record, both AA EXP / OWE, I have Asia Miles account, partner does not.
PHX-LAX-HKG-MLE
<open jaw>
CMB-HKG-LAX-PHX

These are all sold in I class and all as CX ticket stock / CX metal / CX codeshares (for the PHX-LAX portion).

We are interested in upgrading the TPAC portions only, since HKG to Maldives and Sri Lanka is a 2 class A333.

I recently opened an Asia Miles account in order to check award availability, and possibly to transfer in Citi TY points (approx 200K in the account).

Questions (and many apologies if this is covered in the thread ...)

1. I don't see any award redemption inventory for the particular flights we want (schedule not that flexible due to work commitments). Can I waitlist BOTH of us for a mileage upgrade from biz to F, even though only one of us has an Asia Miles account?

2. Do I have to have sufficient Asia Miles in my account prior to the upgrade(s) being cleared, or can I transfer them from Citi after the upgrade is issued? If so, how long of a window do I have to do that? My reading of the award chart seems to indicate I would need 85,000 x 2 pax or 170,000 asia miles to upgrade both outbound and inbound. Is that right?

3. It is critical that I credit these flights to AA for next year's status. Is it possible to use Asia Miles to upgrade and then switch out the FF# after ticket reissued?

Should we just take the business class flights and be happy, and not worry about jumping through all these hoops for two TPAC segments? LOL (Having said that, I have heard so many things about legendary long haul CX F that I really would like to try it sometime...)

Thanks for your insight