Originally Posted by
rankourabu
There are currently 766 flights with PZ space to Europe and 1720 on the way back. I would call that pretty damn good upgrade availability.
Good luck finding this many upgradeable flights in advance on other airlines.
Yes, Asia and Oceania is lacking more than a month out - but you can still find a flight pretty much every day within the next month, which is more than can be said about other airlines.
In the past 3 years, I have cleared (x2) to or from SIN, HND, TPE, AKL, PPT, CPT, JNB and a dozen European flights, as well as ORD-KOA and back on a 787, never higher than a W fare - I consider that very generous, and will miss it. My friends who fly AC for example, have had no such luck, and their eupgrades can only be used on expensive fares to boot, or come with insane copay.
I can currently find DL1 UG space on most of my upcoming international flights, on UA it's zero. With DL, if you're far enough out, using your GUCs/RUCs is pretty easy.
Edit: I just checked the routes on the date of my next TYO trip and found availability on ATL-HND/DTW-HND/MSP-HND/LAX-HND and SEA-HND. I looked at the dates adjacent to my travel date and found the same availability. It appears to be wide open for the EOY schedule.