Well, I flew on CX178 on 5 Feb. The redemption upgrade never cleared, but on check-in I used points for an instant upgrade. There were 3 spare J class seats.
PEY was also half empty on the flight, so it seems like redemption upgrades depend more on your original class being almost full, and less on the class you're upgrading to being empty. Whereas instant upgrade will be available any time there are spare seats in the class you're upgrading to. I guess that makes sense, with redemption upgrades they are shuffling pax around to make space for more revenue pax. With instant upgrades, they may as well get some value out of seats that would otherwise go empty.
Does anyone know whether instant upgrades cost less if you upgrade both legs of a return trip? By that, I mean that with redemption upgrades, upgrading MEL-HKG costs 12,500 one way or 22,500 return. Do instant upgrades also give you a "discount" if you upgrade both legs or do they just charge 12,500 each way? EDIT: Found a post by cx1960 which answers this question! Answer is yes, return discount applies! Nice!!
Last edited by lionelhutz; Feb 5, 2018 at 12:59 am