Morning all,

New to the forum and looking at Air China from LRH to PEK. If anyone can answer any of the following questions, would be great!

My customer will pay for premium economy. I am looking to fund an upgrade to Business. Looking for advice on the best options for booking and upgrading.

It’s just over a week before I will fly.

The flight I want (A350 vs the 777s they put in this route), the business prices have jumped up since I first looked. Premium is still at what appear to be the baseline for this route. So I will be booking premium and look for upgrades if at a reasonable rate (would pay up to around £800, this reflect what the business prices were vs premium when I looked at this trip a while back).

So my question and what I will update this thread with once I’ve flown is:

1) Booking through trip.com is coming up 25% cheaper for premium, if I book through them, am I limited on upgrade options in the Air China app or at the airport? All I see on the airline website is that tickets must start with 999 for their “Boarding gate upgrade”, any experience? - Search google for “Boarding gate upgrade” and Air China to see...

2) Has anyone upgraded at check-in at LHR?
I see this posted very recently for different airport to PEK, which would be ideal if available.
(Can’t upload image yet, need 5 posts, but it’s a photo of the prices to upgrade stuck to the check in window, premium to Business is £444.)

3) Do Air China still offer the upgrade in the app option, any recent experience?

4) Anyone paid for an upgrade after booking and before check in recently with Air China and how did the prices compare to online ticket prices at the time?