Originally Posted by
thijsseh
Thank you for the explanation. If you don't mind, I would like to try to unpack this a bit more as it will clarify the process to all of us.
My understanding has always been that 'auto upgrade' means just that; they take your miles and put you in the higher cabin (F in this case). They would let you know so that you can select a seat (and look forward to the experience!).
But in that case, I would have expected that 'the system' does not know / look at what you have already upgraded and charge you the SYD/DXB (non through) rate. So my question is really: did 'the system' combine both upgrades into a 'though upgrade' by it's own accord? It almost has to be the case, as I have been told that once you have two 'leg only' upgrades in place they can no longer be combined.
I hope I make myself clear and that you can give the extra detail! I have never been successful with an auto upgrade and have avoided them where they were 'missing leg' upgrades as I was worried about the above.
Thanks.
I am also curious to understand the details, as I currently have a two segment trip upcoming, where I was able to upgrade the first leg (HKG-DXB) to F from J by checking MMB regularly. I had auto-grade set & sufficient miles available for the first leg upgrade, but the system did not auto upgrade, rather I had to upgrade via the "Upgrade with Miles" function of MMB. I do have auto-upgrade for set for the second segment (DXB-ORD), but currently am short of miles to upgrade based on the miles required for the second leg only upgrade... I am reluctant to move more miles into EK unless I know there is availability..... however, the combined total miles for the original J award plus the miles used for the HKG-DXB upgrade is greater than the "through award mileage" for a HKG-DXB-ORD award in F.
Based on JudeS' s experience, I think I will let the auto-grade remain on the DXB-ORD leg, in case the "system" independently/magically provides the upgrade for the second leg and hopefully would recognize they have already collected the requisite miles based on a through award number of miles. Make sense to anyone??