goirulz

If it makes you feel any better, I only got 100% club miles/sectors for my 10-year "V" op-up going HKG-JFK, though an extra 2k asia miles certainly would've been nice! Maybe they're discriminating against us SLs

ChrisLi

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An upgrade is more important than anything so the miles are only negligible bonus. Not that I need that to renew my SL

All I want is more club sector. I generate more than enough asiamiles by all those credit cards :-P

Mrtnw

Which credit card gives you STATUS miles?

ChrisLi

I said Asia Miles :P I can only dream of requailify using Club Miles as all my travel are intra Asia

all I need is club sector nowadays and well I already got 3 this month and another 2 coming ..... em something is wrong with my boss to keep me flying like crazy.

l380

So I flew back to Hong Kong today on CX 889 from Vancouver. Upon check-in, the agent realized that my birthday (May 18) is on the day of arrival and she quickly offered me the upgrade (J to F) to "help me celebrate my birthday"! Then, the ground staff sang me the song...

Just before the plane landed, the flight attendants also came over to give me a cake (with candle of course), a card signed by the cabin crew and sang again...

This is definitely the perfect way to start the year! Perhaps I should fly on my birthday every year now just experience this!

Cathay Boy

Why the heck not? That's what I plan to do knowing this unpublished benefit. CX is really doing a good job of letting their frequent fliers feel at home and willing to go out of their way to stick with CX. Just a year ago I was thinking of splitting my miles to *A or AA, no more, CX only all the way!

As for getting only Y-miles for "V", yeah, I was GO and my birthday upgrade was only credited with "V" miles. Now, the funny part is in the itinerary it shows J miles, but the actual credit is only Y miles...

goirulz

Just out of curiosity, what has been the success rate for SL op-ups (non-"V") going HKG-JFK or vice versa, and at what stage in the check-in process was the op-up confirmed (anywhere between T-48 and take-off)? I'm guessing it's probably rare given all the GOs and DMs on that route, and depends on the time of year as well.

toyotaboy95

It really amazes me sometimes how CX & some other airlines can coordinate with catering to arrange for a birthday cake (and candles) to be loaded on such short notice.^

If I recall correctly, I got credited for J on a KA flight from FOC. I guess the outsourced ground staff at the smaller airports aren't particularly familiar with op-up procedures?

promethe

Ah, you lucky people.

I have flown in Y on transatlantic AF, SK, LX, and AZ on my birthdays. Heard Happy Birthday only once, and it was only upon checkin. Never got upgraded.

But then my birthday is in the second half of December. I guess planes are fully packed with Xmas shoppers and homegoers. Now I have one more reason to fly CX for my winter Asia trip!

maortega15

Agreed. I rather prefer a cake as a present than a bottle of Krug which was the latter that was offered to me on my birthday. I guess the cake on yiur birthday is a random thing. There is always next year! Cheers

KeepDiscovering

They must have worked very hard with their local catering provider to bake / source a birthday cake for you in such a last minute

maortega15

Probably the cake was for the dessert on the menu but extra touches were added like candles, etc.

Connecta

Yeah, same happened to me and my wife as well for HKG-DXB leg just last week. Have booked as V, Check-In mumbled something about "supervisor changed to biz" (didn't make any sense to me, since I read the op-up stuff by system, etc.) and saw afterwards on website that it was J, but only Y miles credited. But happy about upgrade anyways. No birthday involved.

But I guess we were _extremely_ lucky that the HKG-DXB was already our _third_ 'couple upgrade' (= group of two upgraded) from Y to J in a row (3 flights within 19 days):

End of April we were flying to ICN and with previous experience on B-Day upgrade to HKG-HKT (again wife and I togehter), I was indeed considering to move my flight. But due to work meetings before and after, I had to book the flights around my B-Day (-1 & +2 days). Upgraded Y to J HKG-ICN and ICN-HKG - both, my wife and I together! The latter with BN 180+ or so via CX Mobile OLCI in the taxi to the airport - At first I was super disappointed: Why the heck do I have to select from the last crappy seats way back in the plane although I've reserved nice ones at row 31?? Then I got the first upgrade for me and afterwards for my wife.

OK, we're both GO (she will drop to SL end of this month though). But for over a year there were almost no 'couple upgrades' - we've been discussing low chances of 'couple upgrades' in another thread some time ago. A nice way for my wife to end GO. However, she's bugging me now that she doesn't want to loose GO...

In all cases: No cake and no songs though. General Manager of Hilton Grand Millenium in Seoul however helped out with the cake on my B-Day

Mrtnw

Looking back it were 2 KA flights for me as well, from smaller airports.

chidori

Just like to share my experience yesterday...

When checking in at Airport Express, the CX staff told me that they would give me a complimentary upgrade to J as it was my birthday. Boarding pass was marked "V".

On the plane, was also greeted by the flight attendant who wished me happy birthday but other than that, no extra service.

As someone mentioned earlier, perhaps this treatment is only reserved for GO members and above?