Originally Posted by QRC3288

haha to be fair, it's not generosity so much as the way the PEY cabin is sold and how CX does op-ups.

Generally on long-hauls CX upgrades from Y to PEY, even for their DM and GO members. Indeed there are exceptions where pax end up from Y in J, but generally this is how it works. To use an extreme example, if PEY is filled with 100% zero status pax, Y is filled with 50 DMs, and Y is oversold by X:
*X number of DMs will be upgraded to Y to PEY.
*X number of no-status pax will be upgraded PEY to J.

Reality isn't as extreme as above, but CX heavily discounts PEY at outports. Data I've seen in the past for the US, and make sense to me conceptually, indicate that CX prices PEY at prices that aren't much more, or even comparable to mid-priced REGULAR Y ticket buckets UA sells ex-SFO and EWR. What CX is trying to do is incentivize flyers from outside HKG, including those on *A and SkyTeam, to try CX. The calculus for those passengers is "well, I can collect my miles on UA in Y class (which we all know is a total disaster), or I can say screw it to miles and for the same price fly CX in premium economy". The latter is hands down more comfortable. There are a lot more complexities to this than I'm letting on, and these ticket buckets seem to be in conjunction with tack-on destinations in Asia, but the point remains.

As a result, the dynamic I've noticed is that PEY cabins tend to be the least elite-heavy cabin on the plane. (on a side note, I think this totally justifies the demand for PEY: CX is getting non elites, and even other alliance fliers to try CX because the value for money is there in PEY, when priced at a discount). Until recently, Cathay PEY is just horrendously priced ex-HKG for the most part. Maybe this will change going forward but history has been so far, CX says screw you to HKG fliers - where the greatest # of its own elites are based - and instead fills PEY with connecting traffic from outports. So CX's own elites especially Diamonds (CX equivalent of OWE) tend to be clustered in the other cabins, particularly in J class on long-haul flights.

So this is why, as even an OWS, you're already in a decent position in PEY. If Y gets super oversold like happens from time to time, and the cascade of op-ups start occurring, you'll be positioned for a potential upgrade to J.