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.