Redeeming for Companion Flight
 

I travel to Hong Kong on business fairly often. My company pays for my business class flight. For an upcoming trip, I would like to use some of my points for a family member to join me, in business class. I found out from Cathay Pacific that I need to find out first if there is an award seat available in business class for the companion redemption and put it on hold and then book/pay for my business class flight and then redeem for the companion flight. This won't work since my business trip will be on specific dates with little flexibility. I was thinking of booking an economy flight for my family member (the same flight as my company paid business class flight for me) and then use my points to upgrade my family member up to business class. Would this work? Anyone have any advice on this?

If there's availability for the upgrade then there's availability for the companion ticket. If anything companion award tickets may get slightly higher priority. The problem is that the availability for either may not happen until within a few days of the flight - this varies by routing. Where are you flying from, and roughly when?

you will have to add your family member to your redemption group first. next you will not be able to upgrade them from Y to J. cx only allows 1 class upgrades so if you want them to join you in J you will have to purchase a Y+ ticket. good luck

Companion tickets have much higher availability than regular redemption tickets (full or upgrade) space availability. Also companion tickets are much cheaper. For example HKG-BOS is like 85,000 miles OW in Business Award, but only 90,0000 miles RT for a companion ticket.