The day of week you travel on will be the biggest factor in either helping or hurting your chances. DFW-HKG is one of the toughest routes to clear. If you can shift your travel dates earlier by a few days to leave on Tues or Wed your chances will greatly improve no matter which route you take. If you must travel on that Friday, it will be tough as a Gold, but I'd just pick whichever of the NRT flights with the most empty business cabin.

Also, from PIT it adds an extra connection, but LAX-HKG is generally one of the easier routes to clear on.

What does coach look like? I've had a few flights over the years like that where the J number moves around a lot and doesn't really seem to match the seatmap load...upgrades have always cleared.

Ok, thanks for the help and the little light at the end of the tunnel. It does worry me a bit because I can�t even purchase a J ticket on the website.

I'm trying to drum up support for official recognition of this type of stress caused by the uncertainty of upgrades not clearing, especially when it comes to long-hauls. Interest for this in the psychology community seems to be limited for some reason so I imagine those folks must always fly in paid J.

Mrs EnPremiere puts up with the pacing, fretting, refreshing, anguishing, repenting, sacrificial offerings to the RM dieties, and surprisingly it sometimes works out. At the end of a trip, it's like the movie, Groundhog Day, and it all starts again.

It's part of the reason I gave up striving for EXP every year and just flying for fun. So fun, but the stress got to me! My flight is back to J0 for Thurs and it really doesn't look good. Weird how it can go from J0 to J7 over night, then back to J1. Coach is pretty damn full too, so that's what worries me.

Any way to upgrade for cash or miles to PE when checking in or anything like that? It's been a while since I've done all this and all the rules have completely changed. I didn't even know they had PE when I booked this flight or I would've booked directly into it. In fact, the only 2 seats left on the whole plain are in W. Ugh.

Depending on your budget, you could call and see if you can upfare to W ahead of any visit the airport. In the same call you ask about confirmable mileage space just in case they see it. It may help to inquire at every step along the way too (from airport check-in to lounge to gate).

Just cleared a Y-->J SWU for LAX-HND for this Friday (3 days from now). Continuing my streak of never missing a SWU while EXP.

Nice! I had good luck with LAX-NRT on the way out here too. It seems flights to Japan are much easier than PVG. When I looked for my flight to NRT, it was C6. I noticed a lot more availability for the outbound than my return from PVG, unfortunately. Even when it was J7, they never seem to allocate any C. For good reason, I guess, since it is now full anyway!

I am eyeing FCO at the end of September... anyone have insight on DFW-FCO vs ORD-FCO for a SWU upgrade? Am eyeing these two and would prefer to avoid JFK and CLT if at all possible.

Will be checking EF as well. Just curious if anyone had experience or thoughts on these.

For DFW-FCO: We (2 pax, both EXP) flew in late April, both got cleared with SWU at T24. Flight went out with full J cabin. On the return, we got no love, ended up in PE.
No experience with ORD-FCO.

So I had posted up thread about my Hawaii trip and decided that I would just pay for premium economy on the way back since I really wanted the meal service and better seat but just for giggles I decided to request s 500 mile upgrade ( which I was told here was nearly impossible to get) for my LAX-HNL flight tomorrow and lo and behold, it just cleared within the last hour. I did have to pay $240 as I don't have any stickers to my name. I'm actually sorta excited to try it out although yes I did read that it is nothing special but I am connecting at LAX from East Coast so after 5 hours in economy even though got MCE, figured it be worth the price to have a wider more comfortable seat for the next 5 hours and a meal. So yeah, it looks like there is still upgrade space available on EF.

I've actually cleared this route twice as a low level gold. Just luck of the draw.

When I flew DFW-KOA-DFW two weeks ago, everyone on the upgrade list (including me) cleared each way. Of course, there are plenty of Hawaii flights that are full up front with paid fares.