Originally Posted by
Rami Tamimi
You should be able to upgrade at the airport for 700RMB, not USD, subject to seat availability ofcourse and noting that the upgrades don't include food and ground services.
This is what SHA-XIY looks like 3 weeks from now on a Tuesday, and the middle of October should be quite similar:
Economy
Business/first
The short of is that we're seeing a ~900 upcharge between economy to business/first. In that situation, buying the latter outright is a no-brainer, assuming you want business/first.
However, it's not completely uncommon to see biz/first fares hit 4000+ on similar routes, while economy is still less than 1000. In those cases, I typically resign myself to sitting in economy, but try for cash counter upgrade, for the hell of it. As you note, the price for that tends to be in the Y700 neighborhood for 2 hour flights ex-SHA, and it typically works.