FlyingScientist

I once stood behind the lucky guy at check-in who on a massive irrops day received the Y->F upgrade

willphillipson

It's happened more than a few times to myself or colleagues... CW -> F on LHR BOS or BOS LHR.

msm2000uk

6 Op-Ups from CW to F on my flight 10 days ago.

5 paid upgrades from CW to F on the same flight.

Circa 24 passengers moved around the various cabins, which meant we flew out of AUH without a single empty seat.

M

alexwuk

CW->F does happen but it really is very route specific. LAX, JFK, HKG are the hardest (in that order) as the F cabin gets sold out more often than the J cabin. Routes with better success rates are places like IAD, BOS, ORD, BDA where there is a reasonable amount of business and leisure traffic to fill the back of the plane enough to require op-ups but not so much F demand as to preclude the OpUps happening.

fotographer

I have been lucky twice LHR to BOM, Club to F, and this is has a EXP on AA
the first time I thought the gate agent was kidding, and well that applies to the second time too

crazyanglaisy

I've only enjoyed one such upgrade, but my hit rate on CX is much better - weirdly, really, given how they privilege their DM members and the size of their F cabin. As CWS says, the super-hi J makes upgrades to F even less likely, not least because you'll likely be competing with more very high status passengers.

On the other hand, upgrades from Y/W on this plane appear to be very commonplace, especially if you book strategically (late weekend evening flights in both directions appear to be the sweet spot in my experience). My recent flights to JFK in Y on one of the cheap 10K Avios discount fares saw me being upgraded through WTP and into Club in both directions. The CSD confirmed that over 30 people had been upgraded from down the back; they appear not to be able to fill the J cabin on super hi-J 747 flights that don't facilitate the working day regimens of business flyers on the NYLON route (which makes it even more odd that it's the earlier flights back from JFK that are typically scheduled with the 777s). Given the size of the WTP cabin, this can easily mean status passengers being upgraded twice in the last few hours before the flight.

gypsyjaney

Upgraded from PE - J travelling LHR-CPT for two of us a few years ago - we got the ping on the way to the gate. Does anyone know which cabin gets busiest on the LHR-CPT route? Trying to decide whether its worth going for the PE Cabin in the hope of a poug or a ping - any views?

Ziggy1

Think the Gatwick flight is the 777 (so no first) - the 2 from Heathrow are the 747 (so all cabins). They seem to put the oldest 747s on this flight as there's often a problem with them (!). I have never been upgraded on a CPT flight. Obviously flying in school holidays makes it super busy, or in the SA summer months. I know PE is v busy on JNB and CPT routes as people try and avoid 11/12 hours in economy where they have the cash to do so, so I suspect an upgrade from PE to J is most likely, mainly because business full flex/semi flex fares on these flights are often ruinous. I'm going there Saturday and booked PE and waited for the upgrade offer to come in and have paid to upgrade (as it wasn't too bad) but when I first booked, it was £7,742 a ticket (return) in J.