Special Beep
Jan 8, 2015 | 10:59 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Australia
Programs: Asia miles
Posts: 52
Special Beep
Just flew HKG-ORD on J, got to boarding and bang ! The special beep upgrade to F.
I am just curious, why does CX wait till the boarding gate to do this? Don't they know 2 hours earlier who and if they are going to upgrade people?
I am just curious, why does CX wait till the boarding gate to do this? Don't they know 2 hours earlier who and if they are going to upgrade people?
Jan 8, 2015 | 11:22 pm
#3
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: MPC,CA,MU,AF
Posts: 8,171
Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. They probably wait until there is no upgrade redemption request before processing op-ups. There are only six F seats so they can be taken by upgrade redemption easily. I got a J-F opup about four weeks ago and was notified only about 20 minutes before leaving the lounge for boarding.
Jan 9, 2015 | 5:10 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist and Ambassador: The British Airways Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Diam, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 33,214
This is standard practice for opups across the airline industry. They will only tell you before if they are sure (e.g. vastly overbooked) but most cases of overbooking only deal with small numbers and will only be confirmed for sure when check in closes as no show could alter upgrade needs (typically less than 1 hour before departure and a mere few minutes before boarding starts).
Jan 10, 2015 | 2:56 am
#6
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Hong Kong
Programs: CX DM
Posts: 1,144
Jan 11, 2015 | 6:39 am
#11
formerly gemini573
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: LAX, HKG, and BKK
Programs: CX Emerald, WOH Globalist, Marriott Platinum, AA Lifetime Platinum, Virtuoso, Prive, STEPS, STARS
Posts: 2,233
That special beep doesn't always mean upgrade. There was a period where I kept getting SSSS on my BP. When they scanned the BP, it would come up red but it was document check.
Jan 12, 2015 | 9:08 am
#12
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: JFK/HKG
Programs: CX SL, AA EXP
Posts: 21
Congrats to OP. I was traveling on the same date Jan 8 HKG-JFK, got an Y-PY opup on a AA Rev ticket (AA code AA stock) about T-24. At the airport I tried to convince the checkin agent to let me do asiamiles upgrade to J class but no luck since i already received an opup to PY (was told Y class overbooked). However when i arrived at the boarding gate and i got the "special beep", gate agent handed me a new boarding pass in J class. What a rare double opup, man i really missed the old day when they don't have PY class.
Jan 12, 2015 | 8:53 pm
#13
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: HKG
Programs: MPC, Hyatt, Marriott
Posts: 410
Congrats to OP. I was traveling on the same date Jan 8 HKG-JFK, got an Y-PY opup on a AA Rev ticket (AA code AA stock) about T-24. At the airport I tried to convince the checkin agent to let me do asiamiles upgrade to J class but no luck since i already received an opup to PY (was told Y class overbooked). However when i arrived at the boarding gate and i got the "special beep", gate agent handed me a new boarding pass in J class. What a rare double opup, man i really missed the old day when they don't have PY class.
And then, I end up checking my balances for the next week to figure out if it was an op-up or a miles upgrade. :P