I discovered upgrade awards back in 1997 and since then I've had a 100% success rate on every transpacific segment (where I always request an upgrade) and the 100% success rate for every transatlantic segment (for the times when I asked for an upgrade).

I only made 1K in 2005, was 1P before that.

In fact I think there was only one occasion (in March this year) where the upgrade only cleared at the gate. There might have been a couple of other times when the transpacific upgrade cleared when I checked with the RCC at NRT.

The transpacific segments are mostly NRT but also include some HKG and one ICN. (I average 1 1/2 round trips to SIN from the east coast every year since 1997.) The transatlantic segments are all LHR.

Is this typical or have I just been lucky?