I've been reading alot regarding op-upgrades. How does this work?
Do you have to buy a full fare CX ticket and be a silver member or higher?
IF there's an open J class ticket they automatically upgrade you for free?

Or it allows you to request for an upgrade and charge you points?
Some trip report people reference YO BO HO KO etc.. what do these mean?

Please read the CX FAQ for more info.

Op-ups do not deduct asia miles from a passenger nor does it ask them to pay for the upgrade. They are based on status (please check the link for the ranking system of op-ups). Because upgrades happen due to operational issues, you will not suddenly get an upgrade when there's a free seat in J class nor can you request for one.

Experience indicates that the fare class you buy does not affect your chances of op up.

However, in the events of several members with the same status, your boarding number (ie. the order you check in) contributes to your chances. It essentially means that if there is only one seat available for op-up from Y to J, and there are two diamond members on the flight, the person that checked in first (with the lower BN) will get the op-up.

Y B H and K are the top (in terms of revenue) fare classes for economy tickets. The 0 (not an O) behind it is the availability of seats for each fare class. So Y0 B0 H0 K0 would essentially mean that the flight is sold out in economy, thus indicating a higher chance for op-up.

Thanks for the info. Where do you find the Y0 H0 K0 info?

Use either the:

KVS Availability Tool:
http://www.kvstool.com/

or

Expert Flyer:
http://www.expertflyer.com/

...or FlightStats's free flight availability tool (but you have to create an account first). Go to www.flightstats.com and find it under the "Travel Planning" tab.

Interesting - I was not aware of this feature from FlightStats - thanks! ^

Learn something new every day. This is cool, thanks for the flightstats tip!

Hmmm... if it is really that good it's great. Save me the $100+ USD I need for ExpertFlyer. I know ExpertFlyer can do many other things but the primary function I need is availability of each individual fares.

i`m not so sure about the quality. Got op-upped on flights I didn`t expect and didn`t get it when I was kind of hoping for it.

Is the information on flightstats.com up to date? If I'm merely interested in the availability of a particular fare class, is it any different from KVS/EF?

In absolute agreement with Mrtnw.. The service, for me, was too unreliable to base any travel decisions around. Hence i cancelled my subscription.

A call to MPC usually does the trick for CX bookings.

If you check in while standing on your hands, you'll get an op-up.

Will the following factors affect the successful rate of getting an op-up?
1.Using Online Check in
2.Using the in-town check in counters at HKG

As said before (many, many times) the thing that does seem to have influence is a low BN, so online check-in at T-48 might help you.

Those check ins go quick. I checked in a minute late - no more than 60 seconds - and I am already BN 3. A few minutes and your BN could be in the teens or 20's.