Originally Posted by
swingaling
Yeah, that sounds about right. The "recommended" bid amount was ridiculous. $1,665 per leg (HKG-AKL). The minimum was $895, iirc. If you're comfortable paying the minimum bid amount for the upgrade, then that's what I'd bid. I'm guessing you'd have a pretty decent chance of it clearing.
The recommended amount is a bad joke. Seriously. If someone wanted to pay that much for the upgrade, they would've just purchased a J fare in the first place.
Similar experience here: the HKG - AKL segment of an upcoming trip is eligible for an upgrade bid from Premium Economy to Business, from £680 ("Poor") to £1750 ("Excellent").
The actual fare difference between PE and Biz on this segment is £1000 gbp at the moment, and I think the current "wisdom" on upgrade bids is for one's minimum offer to go a bit higher than 20 - 40 % of the fare difference.
While CX says they consider Marco Polo elite status in "weighting" an upgrade bid, not sure if they consider an equivalent OWE status in that "weighting."
Not sure if the bidding software essentially lowers the minimum offer threshold closer to their "55 hours before departure" cut-off, but I might wait and see......