Originally Posted by
1Aturnleft
My point being it's not ALL about the flat bed and your health as you'd suggested when cost is clearly a factor.
JAL is showing J redemption space via HND and NRT on multiple dates in July. Perhaps you can use your pile there instead? Not sure what the transit policy is for Japan at the moment.
Yep, sore back vs. the ever-shrinking bank balance, that's the trade-off. Thanks for the JL idea - I think I could do that all at NRT -- but the problem is that I already "invested" $2000 into the Premium Economy seat on CX months ago, and not sure how refundable it will be if I decide to cancel it and the flight ends up operating as normal. Hence the desire to upgrade that particular flight if possible, rather than look at alternatives.
I also need to worry about one or the other CX flights going tech, causing me to somehow miss the connection, because no way can I get stuck in HK for 14 days while the family (on SQ) are back in the US and we have onward travel plans in the US (which does seem to be opening up). So the smart thing to do would be eat the $2k, switch to SQ and gut out the 15 hours in PE. But I really, really like CX, and they often give me complimentary upgrades due to my OW Emerald status - something that SQ has never done despite being PPS.