To get any free upgrade with cathay do you need to be at least green?

No, OWE, OWS, OWR, AM may also receive upgrade. The chance is very slim for OWR, GR and AM.

My wife and I (both BA emerald) travelled HKG-CEB with our 4 yr old son (BA sapphire) and 6 month old infant (no FF). We had booked premium economy. Whilst at the Pier F lounge, I was paged and offered an upgrade to J. They were clear that only I could be upgraded and my wife couldn't have the upgrade instead of me (as she had our infant attached to her name in the booking). I offered to let my wife have the upgrade and for me to sit in PEY with the boys, but she passed!

What was interesting is that the lounge staff said that the infant and associated adult could not be upgraded, even if The associated adult were emerald or even CX diamond. It's only for a finite amount of time that we will have this issue, so I guess no big deal.

Has anyone been upgraded with an infant?

No, and afaik it is a rule that infants (i.e. adults with attached infants) will not be upgraded whatsoever, regardless of status.

Edit: IIRC, can't upgrade infants with miles either

Infants and children under 12 cannot be op-upped (but some FTers have experience that their children were also offered op-ups).

The accompanying parent for the infant cannot be upgraded for the same reason. However, as both parents are traveling, they can switched ONCE up front and the father can stay with the infant the entire trip.

Thanks for the responses. So it was very nice of CX to offer one upgrade to me. This was within the constraints of what you say as my wife (emerald) was linked to infant and my son (sapphire) is only 4 yrs.
it worked out fine as I got the last row window seat in J and my family had bulkhead window and aisle in PEY. So there was just the curtain separating us and landing duties etc could be assisted with.
I feel that CX offering me the upgrade was a great gesture and much more than BA did in an overbooked DXB-LHR, where they just overlooked all of us presumably due to the infant in our booking.
PEY bookings to CX in future where possible!

AA EXPs, MPC nothings, biz to first with Asia Miles?
 

Hi all,
Brand new to the CX forum and we have actually never flown CX before.

Looking at tickets for June 2016:
party of 2 in same record, both AA EXP / OWE, I have Asia Miles account, partner does not.
PHX-LAX-HKG-MLE
<open jaw>
CMB-HKG-LAX-PHX

These are all sold in I class and all as CX ticket stock / CX metal / CX codeshares (for the PHX-LAX portion).

We are interested in upgrading the TPAC portions only, since HKG to Maldives and Sri Lanka is a 2 class A333.

I recently opened an Asia Miles account in order to check award availability, and possibly to transfer in Citi TY points (approx 200K in the account).

Questions (and many apologies if this is covered in the thread ...)

1. I don't see any award redemption inventory for the particular flights we want (schedule not that flexible due to work commitments). Can I waitlist BOTH of us for a mileage upgrade from biz to F, even though only one of us has an Asia Miles account?

2. Do I have to have sufficient Asia Miles in my account prior to the upgrade(s) being cleared, or can I transfer them from Citi after the upgrade is issued? If so, how long of a window do I have to do that? My reading of the award chart seems to indicate I would need 85,000 x 2 pax or 170,000 asia miles to upgrade both outbound and inbound. Is that right?

3. It is critical that I credit these flights to AA for next year's status. Is it possible to use Asia Miles to upgrade and then switch out the FF# after ticket reissued?

Should we just take the business class flights and be happy, and not worry about jumping through all these hoops for two TPAC segments? LOL (Having said that, I have heard so many things about legendary long haul CX F that I really would like to try it sometime...)

Thanks for your insight

1) Yes. You can nominate 5 people to be on your redemption list for free, which means you can redeem miles for them (after 5, you have to pay to change the list). Nominate your wife and waitlist her under your account. No problem. It is called your "redemption group" or something like that, search the Asia Miles website for that.

2) I always thought "yes", but some folks report otherwise. The consensus seems to be you need something to be safe. Although that would suck to transfer some and then not have them clear. I recommend just trying to get on the waitlist now without any AM and see what they say, you'll only know if you try. Citi transfers in a few days, pretty quick. If they permit you to waitlist without enough miles, I'm confident if you clear at 14+ days out you'll be okay (they'll always give you a few days to ticket it). Where it will get tricky is if they dont clear until late, which is highly likely.....In this scenario, if you never want to use Asia Miles except for this, it might be best to then just pull your name off the waitlist.

3) here, there are no guarantees. Folks usually report it works and that's be my bet for the most highly likely outcome....BUT there are also occasional reports here of mess ups, where you get credit under Asia Miles not AA. I don't know AAs policy here my guess would be you're sol but you should check with the AA board. The usual disclaimer here is if you darn well 100pct need those miles for the original program then don't mess with it, because you are introducing the possibility that you'll be nearing Silver status (OW Ruby) on CX with that itinerary, which I'm sure will be zero solace to you given you'll probably miss out on your AA play or exec plat or whatever you're gunning for. (Aka you might get Asia Miles / Marco Polo Club Points not Advantage Miles / qualifying dollars or whatever they're called)


Btw, one final note. It is very very likely if F awards open they will come one at a time, and perhaps only one max. So maybe just use your AM for your wife to try F if availability opens, and you stay in J if you guys don't mind? This will also give you peace of mind for the AA miles situation in #3. Upgrading her I to Z (F redemption) won't affect your booking, even though you're using your miles.

Unless, of course she also needs status.

I would like to add a worse case scenario - segments are upgraded one at a time and one person at a time after you waitlist. That will become 4 x 50,000 = 200000 AM. It is not a corner case. It happens very often especially if your travel dates are inflexible. If that happens, you have to pay 200000 AM first, and when you finish flying all segments, you can ask Asia Miles to return 200000 - 170000 = 30000 AM back.

You don't need all AM to be in your account when ticket. You can top up your account if you have 70% of the AM in your account:
* If you can redeem all segments together, you need 85000 + 85000x70% = 144500 for redemption and top up the rest.
* If you redeem 85000 for one person and 85000 later, you need 85000x70% = 59500 AM and top up the rest to redeem for the first person. Then you can transfer 59500 AM and top up the rest to redeem for the other person.

Notes:
* You have to be careful about the expiration date for the upgrade booking.
* Top up is too expensive IMHO.

Thank you so much for the replies.

Having gone through this thought experiment, I realized 12 hours after I posted this question that June is high monsoon season in South India / Sri Lanka / Maldives and that it wouldn't be too much fun to sit inside the overwater villa and watch the rain pour down over the turbulent and murky ocean. LOL

I think we might go to DPS instead. But also on CX.

I very much appreciate your replies - given the complexities of upgrading with Asia Miles and the necessity to credit to AA, my primary program, I think the best choice for us will be to save the Citi TY points for a flat out AWARD redemption on a future trip.

Again, thank you for the thorough and thoughtful replies. This was my first time on the CX forum but it won't be my last - you guys are so civilized compared to some of the others! :eek::p:cool:

See you at HKIA sometime, in the Wing

Recently flew BKK-HKG on a CX ticket on a 4-class 773, ticketed in coach with Emerald status. Checked loads a few days before departure and coach was no longer bookable, which made me hope for an op-up. At airport check-in, was upgraded to premium economy and then at boarding, upgraded again to business. Better than I had hoped and enjoyed the short ride. This was my 2nd op-up on about 10 short-haul CX segments in the past year. Certainly willing to pay more for CX on this route to access the lounges and the occasional up is another perk.

You don't need to be Green for opups. A friend of mine (actually the driver of my friend) recently got oped up on his very first flight with Cx with only Asia Mile membership from PEY to J Hkg - Syd.
Y must be very oversold (that's why his boss had to book him PEY) and he must be the only single pax left after all the elite pax in PEY been upgraded.

Or if CX runs into a chaotic situation that they just scramble to put customers on flights after a storm or something.

Plus the status pax (families) with infants, which are edit: often skipped altogether

I was op'd from PE to J on BOS-HKG this week. My first as a Oneworld Emerald. The flight was not full in any cabin class. It seemed entirely random and even surprised the counter agent.

Terrific flight!