Seat Upgrades with Asia Miles
 

If you contact Asia Miles, will they tell you if there are upgrade seats available on a specific flight/date BEFORE you actually book the seats you want to upgrade?

Seat Upgrades with Asia Miles
 

No they won't. Is a painful process of buying the correct class fare, then call MPC to get yourself wait listed on the upgrade list. Usually 2 to 3 days before actual flight you will get an answer. After which if you did not get your upgrade you have to get on the last minute wait list on the day of departure at the check in counter or lounge.

I don't know what donald2993 is on about, but absolutely call AM/MPC and they will tell you upgrade availability for a desired flight, or even for any segment and time span you specifiy. They of course can't guarantee the availability will still be there after you've booked though.

marcuslai - they'll be able to tell you if available or not, but if not available, doubt they'll tell you length of waitlist directly.

Indeed they don't.. At least with my experience. Compare that to the likes of AA, UA and DL who have lists displayed so one can see how long the waitlist is etc. Though it's not that helpful in the situation of different tiers though - there could be a whole lot of people with a higher tier than you.

Is there any chance that they might release your upgrade up to two months or more before the flight departure date?

I used to fly EVA. They had a certain amount of Business Class seats earmarked as eligible for mileage upgrade per flight. I would simply call after booking my PE seat, if a upgrade seat was available, I got the upgrade right there and then. No "Waitlist". Sounds like Asia Miles doesn't work that way. Guess I'll find out.

waitlisting was neither asked by the OP nor touched upon by me.

Doesn't matter anyway. Just found out you can't upgrade from Y+ to C unless you buy a "W" or "R" classification seat. "E" ticket is $2,000, "W" is $5,200. Thus the Asia Miles are pretty useless. Good thing I read the fine print.

That's a ridiculous conclusion. The W is full fare. The one you want is an R fare (discounted, upgradeable PEY) which is usually only slightly more expensive (maybe $200 to $300 for a long haul) compared to an E fare. I've never seen an R fare for sale on the CX website, you have to call in, book through a TA, or visit your local CX ticket office to get one.

But if you still think AMs are worthless I'll be happy to dispose of them for you. ;)

Well, Sorry I didn't know how to get an "R" fare... Nowdays, who uses TA's? I'll check it out...

R Fare popped up for me on JFK-HKG-LAX on the CX website

Yeah I guess "never" is a bit strong a word. I've seen them before, but I've never figured out a way to force CX.com to show you R fares. They probably show up automatically when I fares are sold out but R fares remain in inventory. The easiest way to get an R fare is to call CX and ask for one.

It is a bit of Catch 22 (if you even remember that movie) with CX because ticketing and Asia Miles are two different departments. Here's what I've found that will work:

1) Call telephone sales and tell them you want to book a revenue ticket in (as an example) Business Class, and upgrade to First using Asia Miles. (Don't make the booking online -- use CX reservations. I'm USA based, and specifically have one particular CX Reservations person in the CX Vancouver reservation bureau assist me. YMMV).
2) The Res Agent can determine if upgrade inventory is available on your date(s). They cannot process the upgrade -- that's why it gets dicey. But they can check inventory -- I don't know if they see it directly, or if they call Asia Miles on an internal link, but they can do it.
3) If you find that the upgrade inventory is available for the dates and flights you want, have Res make the booking.
4) Immediately call Asia Miles and have them pend the upgrade(s). They will tell you that you have to be ticketed: that's true, but they can hold the upgrade for a limited time.
5) Call Res back, and have the revenue ticket issued.
6) Call Asia Miles back, and have them queue the ticket to be re-issued with the upgrade confirmed (for a transpac Business-to-First, the class will change from I or D to Z). In about 36 to 48 hours, you'll get an e-mail with a new ticket, and your upgrade(s) confirmed.

Complicated, no? But it seems to be the only workaround -- unless others on this board have found something quicker?

Sadly no one knows. The only thing we can pend on when it comes to upgrades is for a notification to pop up (via text or email saying that your wait list has been cleared) before the deadline, otherwise it'll just leave you having to call back to request an upgrade all over. That is why many are trying to find out on what is the likelihood of a notifying note popping up before that darn deadline, and whether it would be just days before it expires or months in advance. Can someone give us an answer to that?