I was upgraded from Y to J, on my birthday itself.... on not one, but two legs... SYD-HKG and again on HKG-PEN. Lovely.
On both flights, I was also handed a handwritten card signed by the crew and the pilots. Very touched.

Note: I am GO, and I proactively (and shamelessly) self-declared it was my birthday at the check-in desk, and (very politely, with a shameless smile) asked if I could be upgraded :)

On both legs, the upgrade only happened at the gate.

I have a friend that will be flying LAX-HKG on his birthday on paid business "I" class with his wife.
He just signed up for Marco Polo - this first flight as Marco Polo (Green) - for now he has his American FF # (he should probably switch the number to MP until after check in at airport)

What are the chances of an F birthday upgrade under the circumstances ?

Zero. MPC only offer birthday upgrade to SL and above.

My daughter who is MPC Gold was upgraded from Y to J at the check-in counter for her LHR/HKG flight. Nice surprise as I would've expected Y to PEY only.

I got Y-to-J for both LAX-HKG as birthday upgrade 3 years ago and IAD-HKG-CAN as anniversary upgrade this year.

Does anyone know if CX makes a distinction with birthday upgrades based on who the ticketing carrier is? Looking to book with JL on a CX operated flight and looking to hopefully snag a birthday upgrade.

I’m reporting live from SEA, got an upgrade from PEY to J for a flight departing on my birthday at midnight (checked in T-3 hours / day before) (yay)

I have a connection, and interestingly the machine spitted out J boarding passes for both legs, but the agent manually downgraded me back to PEY on the connection :(

I have a travel companion in the same booking who wasn’t upgraded, though EF is showing J/D/I 2. Economy appears to be overbooked tho so fingers crossed

Flew CX845 (JFK-HKG) PEY on birthday as a silver member - didn't get anything. Disappointed but not super surprised given that I never get op-up on 845 (it seems it's always super elite-heavy)

Especially heavy if you take a Sat or Sun departure.

Good call - it was indeed a Saturday morning departure

Got a similarly nice surprise on a HND-HKG segment last weekend, when I was upgraded from a discounted Y (booked by my company) to J, on a 4-class 77W. The check-in agent specifically mentioned this was an upgrade for my birthday (which I wasn't sure to really count on, with all the COVID-mania at the moment).
Of course I tried to push it and asked if there was any possibility to upgrade from J to F with miles, but no luck there :-).

Since the introduction of PEY on the HKG YYZ run I have been birthday upgraded to J from plain Y for the last 2 years.

I'm too chicken to book Y and take the chance, what if they don't! HAHA.

I am a Hong Konger so I will place my bet!

do you get upgrades for reaching 100 sectors?