my sister recently suffered a spinal fracture at school in the uk, and i'll need to call CX to have her xmas return flight moved up end of this month so she can return to hk earlier to receive physiotherapy, etc etc.

she's wearing a back brace and has a cast on one leg, it would obviously be more comfortable for her to fly in J or F, so i was hoping to use my miles to upgrade her, except one-way LHR-HKG upgrades to either cabin are all but gone for the rest of the month and most of the next.

before i call the MPC hotline, does anyone know how much discretion the CSRs have in situations like these ? or know of someone at CX who might be better able to help ? i'm a cx gold but i guess we don't have any undocumented benefits in securing upgrades ...