Thanks, yes I already looked at EF and saw only 2seats reserved. Problem is my son is silver so he can't get on board upgrade. I also feel that most people reserve their seats when traveling F class so I do feel hopeful. According to the EK rep I got my auto upgrade on the system before it was locked down, now it's just a case of wondering how many others are in the auto upgrade before me. They can't see/won't tell that info. Last month my husband was in the same situation flying DXB - Cai and he was adamant that he would only go F, we did the auto upgrade, then it locked down and then at the airport they were like "oh we're empty for sure you can upgrade".