Originally Posted by lionelhutz

I fly regularly from MEL-HKG and return, buying R or W class tickets and using points to upgrade to U, usually on the night flights CX178 and CX105. I'm a MPO Gold. Over the last 3 years as a Gold, I've been getting upgraded probably 80% of the time (out of roughly 20 flights over that 3 years). Typically the upgrade comes through about 3-4 weeks before departure, sometimes more and sometimes less.

I have a trip in two weeks' time. The Expertflyer seat maps show 19 seats empty in J on the MEL-HKG and 9 seats empty in J on the return. That's not counting the 6 seats marked as blocked. But two weeks out, my redemption upgrade still hasn't cleared. This seems strange - I'm used to the upgrade clearing 3-4 weeks out if there are even half a dozen empty seats in J. With that number of empties, I will probably just be able to upgrade at the airport, but I'm just curious as to why the system hasn't cleared it yet. Has anyone noticed redemption upgrades getting more difficult lately? Could this be a side effect of the new upgrade cash bidding system?

Originally Posted by lionelhutz

Don't think so, flights are on 5 & 10 Feb, well before CNY.