Best flight option for an upgrade
 

Dear FTers

Need your collective advise here....

I am a DM and am travelling to SF this Sunday (Oct 25) on CX870. Just wanted to get your thoughts on the best flight to pick for the highest chances to an upgrade on Sunday or even a day earlier (Saturday).

My flight back is on Oct 30 and your advise again on the best option for the return flight will be greatly apprecaited ! :)

Thanks a bunch in advance.

PS - sorry I forgot to mention that I am doing HKG-SFO :)

JJ

Fiest of all, I am a believer in getting what I pay for, in this case, in cash or in miles.

Are you flying Y or J? SFO J has been very full lately, but Y is not. There are usually a few DMs on this flight. I would not count on Y->J op-ups. The chance of getting a J->F op-up is higher.

I would pick the late afternoon flight to SFO if there is one, Sunday.

I get consistently op-up Y-->J on the Sunday HKG-LAX flight that leaves around 4:40pm

The night flight is hit and miss.

You need to find out which flight's Y class is overbooked. Unlike other airlines, CX will only upgrade you to J if Y is full.

Which of the two flights SFO-HKG would you recommend for a J-F upgrade?

I'm guessing cx 879(1:35pm) one, usually it has lighter loads than CX 873(midnight) one

Uhm, so you mean he/she should pick the one with the heavier load then. If the load is lighter he/she won't get upgraded.

Is there any easy and accurate way to find out if the Y class is overbook? Seat counter.com or amadeus.com only gives you how many seats are left, but it gives no hints on whether the flights are overbooked.

I've come across several experience that seatcounter/amadeus on a particular showed no availability for all sub-class, but it turned out that the flight is only 80% full; while several other experience that seatcounter/amadeus shows very abundant availability in all Y subclasses, but the flight was full at the end??

Unless you know someone who works for CX, there is no way you could find out exactly how heavily overbooked the flight is (or isn't). Seatcounter and ExpertFlyer use the US as the point of sale, which is why their availabilities may not be identical from CX's system.

Unfortunately only first-hand experience helps... (or if you know a CX staff). If you fly a certain route long enough then you will have a general idea of how full each flight may be.

All FAs have access to the pax situation with overbooking status as well as aircraft type on the CX staff website.