Originally Posted by
dfwrob
I've a milage run next month, JNB-HKG-JFK 12 July after arriving on the early Qatar flight from Dallas that same morning, with a return on 14 July. Earlier today I was wanting to check and see how much it would be to upgrade the JNB-JFK portion. Website gave me a fantastic price of ZAR 13,395 for J (I class ticket) from my current PYE (E class ticket) on the same flights numbers I'm currently booked. I quickly input my card info and received an email from AMEX for the "large purchase approval" during the online "we are processing your order screen". A couple minutes later the screen pops up saying they couldn't book my request and to go back and pick another flight option. Huh?
Went back to "change my booking" and lo and behold the same upgrade offer price was not available. It is now ZAR 39,432! Wonder what happened and/or what did I do wrong???
Firstly, you are talking about what we call an 'upfare' and not upgrade. Your first price is correct as current ex-JNB published fare for JNB-USA rt is around 48000 ZAR while E class is around 26000, and indeed upfare for one way is normally just half the price difference, but the fare rules change every few months so I'm not sure if you would have to upfare the entire ticket. However, bear in mind that JNB POS and ex-JNB inventory itself is very volatile and can change from moment to moment. I just looked and it seems that 830 and 840 are still available, but it is weird as C and D class are zeroed out. I suggest you to call HKG hotline to sort it out (don't bother with the ZA hotline - those agents are incompetent.)
By the way, I have done this before and it is a physical and mentally stressful experience to put it lightly (in both J and W). I would also look into free stopovers in HKG granted by the I fares if you have the flexibility to do so
(well, I believe E fares also have free ish stopovers included...)