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No.

They experimented with a system a few years ago that went nowhere.

We hear of one-off anecdotes from outports (although I haven't seen any mentioned in the last few years), but practically speaking "no". CX doesn't auction off their front seats on the cheap like some other carriers.

Sadly, your really only option if you want a seat forward is to pay the difference.

Anecdotally, last year I was offered a $500 cash upgrade from Y to W (aisle seat) on CX873, SFO-HKG. At check-in, the agent told me that there would be a possibility of an op-up and to check with the lounge agent closer to departure. At the lounge, the agent looked me up and informed me that there wouldn't be an op-up, but after another minute or so of typing, she offered the cash upgrade. I declined and stayed in my exit row Y seat.

Other times, I've never asked for or been offered a cash upgrade.

Because of traffic i was one of the last to check in on a recent ORD-HKG. Overheard a lady in the next counter asking for and accepting a cash Y to W upgrade for $400 (some amount like that), she swiped her card happily...

I was originally very upset because the seat map was chock-block for W and Y and wide open for J until t-6 when W became ridiculously empty and J almost full. Turns out they already pre-op up'd ~15 DM/GO/IDs, but this lady made me the very last op up of the day - just minutes before we were about to board. Happy ending to my 4th op up on ORD-HKG this year :)

Another anecdote: from October 3, 2015 at MLE: Was offered to upgrade from Y to W for 300 USD. There was only 1 seat left though, so the wife and I stayed in Y. Otherwise, I would have taken that in a heartbeat for a ~6 hour overnight flight.

Happy to report that status + low BN + flight load seemed to be the secret recipe that got me 2/2 op-ups from Y to J this past weekend.

7/2 CX650 - A33E. SEC 1, GO. Op-up happened when airport check-in opened
7/5 CX715 - B773Z SEC 19, GO. Op=up at gate.

Y was zeroed out on both flights

How does one check availability for PE to J upgrades? Does J have to be available as an award or do upgrades come from another inventory? Thank you!

technically it's Asia Miles award inventory, but in practice it is slightly more restrictive. Normally if you see Asia Miles award availability - which you can check on the CX or Asia Miles website after logging in to your account, or using KVS - the upgrade redemption is available. However, in a few rare instances people have reported seeing regular award inventory available but not being permitted to use that inventory for an upgrade.

Obviously, goes without saying you must be in W or R class (not E) to use it. And only Asia Miles permitted for this type of award.

I booked a Y ticket on AA ticket stock that includes one code share and one CX flight number.

LAX-HKG: AA Metal (I used an SWU to UG to J)
HKG-CGK: AA8913 Operated by CX

CGK-HKG: CX718
HKG-LAX: AA Metal

My question pertains to the CX flights. One is a code share and one is an actual CX flight number.

Will I be able to UG these flight using money or miles? I have almost 100,000 Citi Thank You points that transfer to Asia Miles.

How would I check availability?

This will be my first time on CX, although I have an AA award ticket BKK-HKG-LAX booked on CX First next January. :)

I am not sure about the AA codeshore to CGK.

Some things to note:
*You cannot upgrade with money unless you pay the fare difference. I saw The Points Guy blog erroneously advertising to readers a day or two ago a bunch of carriers that allow cash upgrades using a bidding system. Just flat out wrong information. CX tried this as an experiment a few years ago on very limited #s of flights, and it went kaput without much explanation soon after.

If you're on a discounted economy class, CX has been known to not even waive the cancellation fees or whatnot, so you'll basically have to eat your economy ticket and whatever penalties and rebook in J. Generally NOT a cheap option.

*Upgrades are possible with Asia Miles provided you're in a valid booking class which = Y, B, H, K or M. No other sub fareclasses can upgrade. Unrelated to your situation, but in PEY, only W and R can upgrade, not E.

*You can only upgrade 1 class on CX. The upgrade-killer PEY is on many CX birds. True, CGK is often operated by a 2 class A330s, B773s and B772s without PEY (these designations are 33P, 73Z and 772Z and all feature the same regional J product), but in the event a 3 or 4 class long-haul bird with PEY (33K, 35G, 77G, 77H, 74K, 34J) you can only upgrade from Y to PEY. Your absolute best luck would be if 33E serves the route that day, because this is a somewhat special configuration long-haul A333, which only has two classes (Y and J, no PEY). https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...0-300-33E.html. These birds are mainly used for the ME, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives but could make an appearance on CGK in case of a swap or good scheduling luck.

A more likely scenario is you fly on 33P, 773Z or 772, all which are equipped with CX's regional J. Not really worth upgrading to, IMHO. CX regional J isn't comfortable. Ironically, thinking out-loud, I'd rather upgrade from Y to PEY than Y to regional J. So root for a long-haul aircraft.

You can check availability by making an Asia Miles account and checking online. Or, you can check using the KVS tool, which can search Asia Miles / MPC award inventory directly (Expert Flier cannot). A slightly more crude but generally fine way to do it is having a British Airways Avios account and checking there. Their partner inventory doesn't always have what CX has, but I find it's very close.

AA coded CX operated - pray for opup only
CX coded CX operated (your return) - can 001 stock do AM upgrade? I doubt it...

Is it possible to upgrade PE to J with Asia Miles if one is crediting to AA?

Change FFP after bookable upgrade?
 

I'll be over 1800 club points by the time I take HKG<>YVR that I used bookable upgrades to J class.

I'm also moving to LHR and will likely switch to BA. Does anyone have any experience changing FFP after using bookable upgrades?

Any brother (or sister) knows what "courtesy upgrade" means? op-up?

Situation:
Just flew CX to PEK on a 33K... Before ticketing called MPC to reset my membership year (finished the year ending Aug 16 with 1220 points... why not reset right ;)) Right after ticketing (which is actually STD - 18 hours :p) already saw my seat moved up from Y to PEY in MMB... At check-in I was told this is a "courtesy upgrade"... Therefore I don't know if this is an op-up or renewal upgrade or what...

Courtesy upgrade = op-up in CX ground staff / lounge staff / gate agent language.

Thanks. Actually all non-miles / cash upgrade are courtesy upgrade to me so... Anyway :D

ha. understood.

but yea...if you ask the staff about "op-up", they will have no clue what you're talking about. "courtesy upgrade" = their language.

I want to know about this, too...

while there are some AA knowledgeable folks in here, the AA forum is probably the right spot for these questions for the two of you. Practically, from Asia Miles / Cathay point of view, of course this (the act of getting an upgrade) is possible...just enter your Asia Miles # at booking and use AM to upgrade the ticket. Provided you're in the proper fare class (W/R) and redemption availability is there, it will process. However, I suspect your question is more "will I still get AA points for my underlying fare class when I do this", and whether or not the AA system will give you the points for the underlying fare class, or the systems will conspire to screw you over.

You'll definitely be able to strip the CX MPC/Asia Miles number from the booking once you're confirmed and ticketed, and presumably can add your AA number. However, whether or not AA mucks it up afterwards is another story and probably a question for that forum. Even if you strip the FF #, I've seen reports in here where the original program that was stripped is still credited, even though you changed the FF #. I am not sure what AA's systems are like in this situation.

AA's system seems to process partner upgrades reasonably well. Though the QF points upgrade was a while ago. The CX OPups (AA number entered at the gate) processed fine a bit over a year ago.

Always keep your BPs until the miles credit (properly) while wandering

Fred

Did you book tickets with CX FF number first, upgraded with Asia Miles, then switched to AA FF number at the gate?

Sort of. Mrs WF (no status) and I got Opups at the gate when I went up to change the FF # to AA. R class one way tickets booked online with CX...

Happy wandering

Fred

Here's a new one that I haven't seen asked... if a KA flight is booked with a CX flight number (like for example CX5802 HKG-PVG operated by Cathay Dragon) can you still upgrade with Asia Miles? Marco Polo service center is telling me no (this is part of a LAX-HKG-PVG itinerary in D upgrading to F -- they say that only the transpacific can be upgraded unless the KA leg was booked with the KA flight number). Is this right or should I go the call again until I get a knowledgable agent route?

Thanks!
744

Yes you can still upgrade. It isn't anything too tricky. You just got a dumb or lazy agent.

Done it plenty of times. Technically they'll have to change you to all be one "airline"....but just bother the MPC agent and they can contact reservations and do it for you while you're on the phone. It's the same thing with companion awards....both must be under either KA or CX flight #, but not one and the other. (CX+CX and KA+KA are both valid. CX+KA are not). It's a dumb legacy systems thing they haven't integrated yet or are too lazy to do. Tell them to switch you to either the CX or KA flight # so all your segments are the same.

Just did this two weeks ago. And many times before that.

I flew HKG to JFK recently on a non-AA earning fare code but was upgraded to premium economy... Does anyone know if it's possible to now earn AA miles for the flight? Or is it based on what your booked code was?

Also, where the heck is the ticket number on the Cathay boarding pass? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills and can't find it.

By 'upgrade', you mean either
1) you paid the fare difference between your fare code and PE
2) you upgraded using Asia Miles beforehand/at check in
3) you were operationally upgraded for free as a result of economy being overbooked

for 1) you will get the miles. For 2) and 3), no AA miles. I'm sure PE was enjoyable however!

Ahhh okay yup it was #3. Good to know, thanks a bunch!

And yeah, I've flown business a number of times but didn't expect premium econ to be as significantly nicer than normal coach as it was. Def made the flight much more pleasant.

op-up when cabin's not full
 

I've just got op-uped to J from PEY last night HKG-SYD. Received email from expertflyer about seat change at -2 hours. However, it still shows as 8J 1W 9Y at -1 hour, and there are still 2 seats empty (unselected) at PEY section.

Is this a normal practise for CX to op-up someone so they can free 1 seat at the lower cabin just in case?

That can be one of the followings:
* The 1W might just be J being sold as W at the last few hours, in which case W was already oversold. They were op-upping W passengers before boarding.
* There might be Y->W instant upgrades that hadn't been processed, and they had to op-up W passengers to make room for such upgrades.
* Or perhaps others...
It is difficult to imagine CX op-upping passengers for no reason.

I got op up'd once pey to J with pey 70% full because 'DM wanted your seat'

Talking about ultimate upgrade:)... and I suppose you took his seat instead:D

I think you're right, 1W should mean the actual PEY cabin's full, as there are few seats left in J cabin and CX surely wouldn't mind to sell some PEY cabin at full W fare and op-up some PEY pax to J

Hi, I'm a newbie here.

Just booked my flights to vegas in PE, and got one leg upgraded to J due to the aircraft changed.
TPE-(I)-HKG-(E)-LAX-(H)-LAS
LAS-(H)-LAX-(E)-HKG-(H)-TPE

Could someone kindly help checking the loading of following flights please?
HKG-LAX CX884 3-JAN 17
LAX-HKG CX883 9-JAN 17

As a OWS, I know I shouldn't put too much hope in op-up....
but still like to know the possibility.

Much appreciated, thank you.

J0 c0 d0 i0 w0 r0 e0 y0 b0 h0 k0 m0 l0 v0 s0 n0 q0 o0
f4 a4 j9 c9 d9 i9 w2 r0 e0 y0 b0 h0 k0 m0 l0 v0 s0 n0 q0 o0

Hi Percysmith,

Thanks very much!

Ok, since CX884 has no F class and seems already overbooked. I'm curious how CX gonna do?
CX883, W2 means PE overbooked (maybe?), however J seats are still widely open.
Could someone kindly analysis the possibility of op-up? :):):)

3 Jan: School flight rush? Every seat in the back sold and then some?

well first off, you're in the right "class" for a non-CX member op-up. PEY is hands down the best given the small cabin size....

...but I'd say your chances are NIL on CX884. J class is not open for sale. Bad bad bad sign. You're basically praying a.) one or two J seats are open, and b.) there are no other status pax in PEY above, which is extremely unlikel, especially considering the op-up chart I post below. IME CX doesn't cutoff J sales unless J is packed.

As for CX883 a few weeks later, this is promising so far for upgrades. But you're still counting on "b" above, so I really wouldn't get your hopes too high up. Assume at least a few people ahead of you in the op-up order, that means CX has gotta oversell EY by probably 10+ or so for you to score that IMO. That said, this is totally possible....just not something to bank on at all. If I were making odds I'd pin you at a maybe 10-20% chance given current loading. Watch the J class loading, particularly I fare. If F stays open and I/D fares fill up, that means J is going away and they'll consider overselling J to op-up to F. That's also bad for you.

Now, traditionally, the order is:

CX DM
CX GO
OWE
CX staff
Then maybe CX SL or OWS, I can't remember which. If SL are ahead of you, then really you should just can the idea entirely.

Fyi, CX has recently switched to a CIV score, which you'll need to search about in other threads. The gist on here is that CX is more willing to upgrade folks they seem as high value over others, or to incentive some people, or whatnot. However,a CX employee or consultant and permitted to speak on FT about these matters and has commented on CIV: he has specifically and clearly said CIV is a tie-breaker among tiers only. So, a OWS like yourself should not be able to jump staff, OWE, etc. However, other posters have said practically this isn't followed. In my experience I have not seen it broken myself, particularly at LAX. Post CIV I've still had LAX staff spell out precisely for me how op-ups works, and it definitely has nothing to do with using CIV to switch around the order. The order above is precisely followed there as recently as 3 months ago.

From CX secrets on Facebook:

"#6290
How to respond to GO pax ask me why EM pax upgraded before him??"

Some of the responses make me quite sad, as per the apparent lack of understanding of own vs other OW elite. One of them suggests to answer EM=DM.

Its as if i'd go flying AA asking for Complimentary Upgrades being a CX frequent flyer. They just wont even recognise you at all.
Unfortunately CX somehow likes OWE more than their own GO.

The correct answer should be "You spend too little with us and thus your CIV is too low"... But it's hard to explain CIV to normal pax...

Tell whatever lies it takes to make you move on and not assault them/escalate/block a flight from departure https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post26683982