I believe only LHR-NBO-LHR can be booked in T and HAJ-LHR-HAJ is booked in K. In this case, you can use 22500 AM to upgrade LHR-NBO-LHR to U. This by itself will also give you lounge access in HAJ (outbound) and LHR (inbound), but you will still sit in Euro Traveller for the short-haul flights.

Could anyone please help to check the following for me? Am waiting for a J class seat....

CX198 6 Jan AKL - HKG
CX118 7 Jan AKL - HKG

Thanks~~

Looks pretty full to me (Taiwan POS)

Thanks.

BTW what does L means? Limited?

"L" means WaitList permitted whereas "C" means Closed. Both can be written as "0."

Not sure how this happened but in chatting with my parents, my brother was once upgraded from Y to F with no status. This was probably 8-10 years ago. Anyone else heard of this happening back then? I'm guessing this never happens these days.

I've had it twice when I used miles to upgrade from Y to J, and then op-upped from J to F, but not a direct op-up from Y to F. Perhaps some details were missing from your brother?

HK POS:

CX () 198 0 AKL
06/01/18 15:00 HKG
06/01/18 21:15 77W
Daily
61% / 20m J0 C0 D0 I0 W1 R1 E0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0

CX () 118 0 AKL
07/01/18 9:00 HKG
07/01/18 15:10 359
Daily
57% / 18m J0 C0 D0 I0 W1 R1 E0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0

Am traveling with my wife from HKG to YVR on March 21 on CX 838 on PEY (Class Ticket E).

We are unable to redeem AsiaMiles to upgrade to a higher class based on our ticket restrictions but was wondering if we still had a chance (however small) for an upgrade once we've checked in. We are MPC Silver if that helps.

Thanks!

As you discovered already, E class cannot use miles to upgrade. W or R only for premium economy sub fareclasses. (E is the cheapest, followed by R, and W is most expensive).

However, premium economy is the best shot of an upgrade by far. I still think it's way too far in advance to take EF seriously, but essentially you're just rooting for a) Open J seats and b) oversold Y or PEY about a week or two before the flight.

Any status, even Silver (or Green!) has a good shot from PEY to Biz, simply because PEY attracts an odd lot of passengers who have no status on CX. The way it is marketed and its target customer seems to be, in many cases, different than the typical frequent flier profile. The more non status people in PEY, the better for you.

I've seen countless posts in here by low and no status folks getting upgraded in PEY. If you're DM or GO, the upgrade rate out of PEY to J on certain routes seems to be north of 40pct. It's high relatively speaking.

Thank you for the insights [MENTION=745172]windchaser777[/MENTION] and [MENTION=155338]QRC3288[/MENTION] !

Guess we'll find out at check-in or at the lounge if we've been upgraded haha - fingers crossed!

J9 C9 D9 I9 W4 R4 E3 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0
L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

I'm booked in Y with the wife, CX918. Is there a chance of being upgraded to PEY? I would love to try the PE seats of the 359, even if it's just a short flight.

It would be interesting if people started posting their successful uprades in a central thread to see which routes really do have a higher chance of op-ups.

As a OWE, I'm 0 for 3 on HKG-SFO. No op-ups on Y to PE either - for that it's 0 for 5.

Only of an op-up was on HKG-PEK on KA when we requested an earlier flight due to across the broad delays. But that was probably due to the fact it would be easier to switch us into J seats as Y was probably completely full already.

If anything, ask at the lounge what your op up chances are, and ask them to change if slim.

Well that sucks! Tough going with those travel patterns, economy class longhaul are the real road warriors.

The odds are obviously quite dependent on many factors. But I still think PEY is your best shot for an upgrade. Of course, given the huge number of flights CX has and different situations, you could easily hit a streak as bad as yours.

I will add, one of those variables is aircraft type. 35G and 77G have less shot of an op up to J versus 77H just based on sheer numbers; PEY cabins very close in size, while 77H has 53 J seats, considerably more than both 35G and 77G. Plus 77H has 6 F seats, essentially meaning there are 59 seats in front of PEY for CX to use as excess "inventory" for PEY and Y oversales.

+1 on this. I think routes and travel times are also important. A lot of my colleagues are GO, like me, flying out of NYC, EWR or JFK. As both an SL and GO, I've received way more opups, PEY->J, than my colleagues. Perhaps because my travel patterns are a little different.

I tend to take EWR CX899 01:00 on a Friday morning to arrive Saturday morning in HKG. Then depart HKG on Sunday evenings. The rest of my colleagues want to minimize weekend time in HKG, arrive HKG Monday morning, depart HKG on Friday evening. I feel that my travel pattern may be luckier to avoid DMs in the race for opups in overbooked situations.

Perhaps also less DMs using EWR vs JFK. I've read on this forum that SFO is probably DM heavy, lots of Silicon Valley executives.

I tend to book my flights within a week or two of departure. I always use EF to check the loading and pick based on that. If I'm booking PEY and the section looks crowded then see if J is lightly loaded. If I don't think theres a good chance, I try to pick a flight were PEY is light, usually an EWR flight. If I'm not going to get an opup, I'd prefer to have an emptier cabin (not surprising)

As OWE, I had about 6/8 op-up from deep discount Y to PEY; but 0/8 for PEY to J. EWR/JFK-HKG for the last ~20 months.

I originally felt that PEY->J op-up should be easy as there are only a few PEY seats, but I feel differently now:
* I only had very few PEY->J op-ups.
* I have been purchasing J in $ or W/R->U recently to secure a J seat lately. If everyone is thinking the same way as me, CX does not need to op-up anyone to J.

In the past, CX may put you at the bottom of the list if you ask, but my wife asked the check-in agent on her birthday (about 2-3 years ago) and was upgraded at the gate. My feeling was that she was already picked for birthday upgrade but CX just needed to make sure not all F seats were taken before upgrading her.

I fly regularly from MEL-HKG and return, buying R or W class tickets and using points to upgrade to U, usually on the night flights CX178 and CX105. I'm a MPO Gold. Over the last 3 years as a Gold, I've been getting upgraded probably 80% of the time (out of roughly 20 flights over that 3 years). Typically the upgrade comes through about 3-4 weeks before departure, sometimes more and sometimes less.

I have a trip in two weeks' time. The Expertflyer seat maps show 19 seats empty in J on the MEL-HKG and 9 seats empty in J on the return. That's not counting the 6 seats marked as blocked. But two weeks out, my redemption upgrade still hasn't cleared. This seems strange - I'm used to the upgrade clearing 3-4 weeks out if there are even half a dozen empty seats in J. With that number of empties, I will probably just be able to upgrade at the airport, but I'm just curious as to why the system hasn't cleared it yet. Has anyone noticed redemption upgrades getting more difficult lately? Could this be a side effect of the new upgrade cash bidding system?

Anything to do w/ CNY?

Don't think so, flights are on 5 & 10 Feb, well before CNY.

Second guess...wasn't CX105 changed to 35G in the last year or so? Does the equipment change maybe have anything to do with it? Maybe slightly altered what you were familiar with? That's all I can think of, outside CX is holding seats back for some reason.

10 Feb HKG-MEL should be pretty hot. All those parents and grandparents from HK and China.

I am Marco Polo Green member with some 200points, and with some 60k asia miles. I recently travelled from TPE to CEB via HKG. Upon check in at TPE, i was told that my HKG to CEB seat was upgraded to premium economy. Well, there was surprise I wasnt expecting. But during boarding at HKG (on the way to CEB), scanning my boarding pass resulted to an error, and I was given a new boarding pass upgrading me to Business.

Well what a delight! It was the long haul business class product. great experience, for too short a flight.

Another data point:
MPC GO travelling with MPC SL on same PEY ticket. On SL's birthday, both got upgraded from Y to J (no PEY in aircraft). On day after SL's birthday, no upgrade, remained in PEY.

Was that particular segment also ticketed in PEY (i.e., from PEY to J instead of Y to J)?

Well, I flew on CX178 on 5 Feb. The redemption upgrade never cleared, but on check-in I used points for an instant upgrade. There were 3 spare J class seats.

PEY was also half empty on the flight, so it seems like redemption upgrades depend more on your original class being almost full, and less on the class you're upgrading to being empty. Whereas instant upgrade will be available any time there are spare seats in the class you're upgrading to. I guess that makes sense, with redemption upgrades they are shuffling pax around to make space for more revenue pax. With instant upgrades, they may as well get some value out of seats that would otherwise go empty.

Does anyone know whether instant upgrades cost less if you upgrade both legs of a return trip? By that, I mean that with redemption upgrades, upgrading MEL-HKG costs 12,500 one way or 22,500 return. Do instant upgrades also give you a "discount" if you upgrade both legs or do they just charge 12,500 each way? EDIT: Found a post by cx1960 which answers this question! Answer is yes, return discount applies! Nice!!

First segment ticketed in Y (H fare class), second segment ticketed in PEY (E fare class). At time of booking, the first segment's aircraft clearly did not have PEY available and it stayed that way till actual departure.

Flew on KA760 HKG-KMG booked in I as a CX DM. Earlier that day I had noticed in MMB that my seat number had changed from 15A to 1A. Very pleasantly surprised by that. There seemed to be a few places left in the standard J cabin, and we were only 2 pax in the F cabin.

Returning tomorrow in (wh)Y, am hoping that the upgrade fairy will smile at me, alas so far no cigar...

Has anyone ever had an opt up from premium economy (E) to business on a long haul flight from HKG to YVR? Wasn't able to purchase a W/R class ticket this time around, and just wondering what my odds are on a check in upgrade. I've had lots of E to J upgrades within Asia flights but this will be the first time I'm flying E on a long haul.

Does ordering a special meal limit my opup opportunities? I've read anecdotally that they generally skip over folks who order special meals just because they can't cater those meals in the new class in such short notice.

I heard about that too. That may be the case as they often do op-ups at the last minute (i.e., just before boarding). OTOH, I think they can still re-package your Y/PEY/J meal in the new cabin (PEY/J/F).

From my experience, this is false. On the two occassions I was upgraded ( from Y to Business), I had pre-ordered a hindu non veg meal. They simply asked me if I still wanted the meal I reserved or wanted to have the "normal" meal. The first time I said I wanted to try the normal Business class meal, the second time I said I wanted by hindu non veg.

Does the time you check in (SEC Number) still have an effect on whether you get upgrades or not?

I'm on CX888 tonight with an premium economy E ticket.

F0 A0 J1 C1 D1 I1 W7 R7 E5 Y0 B0 H0
K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

Anyone know if I still have a chance for an opt up with these numbers and gold status?

Consensus is that SEC number (formerly BN) doesn't have an impact on op ups anymore--within each status group, pax are prioritized by CIV score (measuring customer importance and/or commercial value to CX, or similar).

As for your odds, I'd say pretty low. It ultimately depends on how oversold Y is, but even then, with F0 and J1, doesn't look like there's much room up front to be upgraded into.