Popular advice here for those booking multiple first class awards on CX is to take whatever is available in first, book the remainder in a lower class, and then hope to upgrade those close to departure.

I want 2 round-trip award bookings in first. Even with a pretty fair amount of flexibility in departure dates and airports, I'm having trouble finding the right combination. So, some questions.

1. Inbound availability in first is good, but I find outbound availability in economy only. Will CX allow me to book economy outbound and first inbound?

2. Assuming upgrades become available, can economy be upgraded to first? Or do you have to upgrade to first from business?

3. If I have to book both in economy, what are the odds of upgrading both close to departure?

Thanks in advance for any help.

1. Yes, but you will not be able to take advantage of the round-trip "discount".

2. I am assuming the economy ticket is itself an award booking. You cannot upgrade an award. You will need to cancel the economy award (small handling fee, USD 20 or 25) and confirm the business or first award that became available.

If it's paid ticket: You cannot upgrade from Economy to First. You can only upgrade to Premium Economy or if there is no PY, an upgrade to Business. The only way to upgrade to First is to buy a Business Class ticket.

If it's all award tickets, it can't be upgraded. You would need to rebook it into First. Not sure if you would get the roundtrip reduced mileage spend or not though.

ask percysmith. theres 1 way you can ticket them and then you can hassle them re fees

There is no economy to first upgrade on CX.

Was told by MPC today that upgrade wait list can only be there till 5 days prior to departure, after that, wait list will be canceled and we will need to call in to see if seats are released or not, regardless of status.

Is this the usual practice? I am wait listed on HKG-SFO and YVR-HKG F upgrade from my J revenue ticket in early January. I am only allowed wait list till 12/30. And I can see that on my scheduled flights HKG-SFO still has 3F open, and YVR-HKG 2F open. But they still won't release just one seat to me.

So what is their usual practice of releasing upgrade F seat and wait list policy?

My trip last August to LAX was a lot easier with upgrade cleared 1.5 month before departure for both legs. So very confused now!

Sounds right to me. Inability to waitlist (and keep status priority) up to departure is a known problem on this board and a foolish lapse on CX's part when most other carriers that allow waitlisting can manage this.

My wife was waitlisted for a upgrade to J for a SFO-HKG flight 2-3 weeks ago. The MPC agent said the waitlist would expire 4 days prior to ETD. However, her account showed her upgrade on request up to the day of departure, but just no luck confirming.

In the end, she did an instant upgrade at the airport... So CX may release F seats at the last minute.

Great thanks, cxfan1960, this is really helpful! I guess I'd just keep my fingers crossed