Thrilled to report back that they changed my ticket this morning for no charge and my wife’s ticket was $21.50 +/- after an hour on the phone. More space opened up this afternoon and I callee back tonight and after being on the phone for 1 hr and 23 minutes everything was changed to the exact flights we wanted. 9:50p departure from JFK means our friends can drop us off at a reasonable time. We have 1:30 layover in Vancouver and between that and the longer travel it’s about 20 hrs in the CX biz seat. Due to not as tight time constraints we don’t have to worry about skipping the final leg and missing out on points. Now we’ll have enough for first in CX for the way back or if not them JL first.

Question - seats are blocked on the JFK-YVR-HKG leg in the mini cabin. Doesn’t look like they’re occupied, just blocked. Can CX be called to see if they can put us there or are they always blocked?