Hi guys,
Just got off the phone with a Cathay Reservations agent. She had called to inform me that either I would have to pay the higher fare difference of revert to my original ticketing in economy...
To take you back to the start of this story was when earlier today I called up the reservations department asking them to upgrade me from Economy (V) to Premium Economy (R-class) for one sector (SYD-HKG). I was happy to pay the price they quoted me (approx HKD$4000) so that I had an upgradeable fare ad subsequently used my miles to upgrade to business. So far I was a happy chappie.
Later during the day I get the call from the agent informing me that the original change was done in error and if I wanted to upgrade to the fully upgradeable fare then the cost was HKD7000 being the cost of upgrading all sectors (SYD-HKG-CCU) to the Y class ticket. If this was not acceptable to me then they would revert me to my original booking. Now at this point in time I had no choice and reverted to my original booking but at the end of it I was quite unhappy.
In the past I have upgrade one sector by paying the fare difference. However those time did not involve an open jaw. I normally fly PER-HKG-CCU and return and have often upgraded (from economy to premium R class and then to J class using miles) just the PER-HKG sector or vice-versa and had no problems. So this time I was taken aback when I was informed I had to upgrade the whole first half of my journey.
Would love to hear from you guys if this is the case as per their fare rules or did someone again stuff up and cancel my upgrade. And if so what would be my recourse.
Looking forward to your thoughts,
Thanks in advance
Smooth
P.S. I'm Gold with Marco Polo

Have you tried calling someone else.

PER originating fare may not be the same as SYD... CX fare rules allow R+V for PER-HKG-CCU doesn't mean R+V is valid for SYD-HKG-CCU... Maybe E+V is OK, R+M is OK, but not R+V or E+M... Departure date (Weekday v. Weekend) also matters

Anyway, just an illustration, I don't know the real reason behind

If that's really fare rules issue, even DMP has to follow... Why not ask reservation directly what's the lowest possible combination? If R+V is a no-go for your itin, how about R+L? R+M? etc etc

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I think r is the 6 mths full fare and w the 1 year full fare. Can only combine with B/Y accordingly...
I had a ticket as such earlier this year as only Y/B was available one way and hence i can only ticket ias a y+y or b+b. Since Without E, im only stuck with w+y or r+b

Thanks for the input guys. Will speak to the reservations team and will see if I can get to the bottom of this. ANd of course let you konw the outcome :-)
Cheers

Just a quick update.
I had called the reservation center and checked back on the times I upgraded and it turns out that all the previous sectors in the past were upgraded all the way through i.e. PER-HKG-CCU.
It was just that the upgrade cost was ridiculously high this time and the initial confusion/doubt that took place made me want to double check this. Looks like I learnt something new
Thank you for all your inputs.
Smooth