Very very few. However, they would be more likely to tell their parents that they want to fly Cathay Pacific next time they go to Asia.

My gut feeling tells me that the usual demographic for CX F is not going to be watching YouTube channels of some db with a backwards cap for luxury travel advice.

Exactly. It's not about quantity it's about reaching the target market.

I'm not at all saying I'm typical in this regard, but... I've made decisions on thousands of USD worth of ticket spend based in part on YouTube videos. On a couple recent trips, it's become clear that I had the choice of paid J between a couple carriers with which I haven't been familiar. A quick YouTube search from some trip reports has allowed me to see what the seats look like away from the gloss of the airlines' own websites. Now to be clear, this has only been when price and schedule were roughly the same and I had reason to be especially fussy (work the morning of arrival, so less willing to risk not sleeping well). But YouTube marketing can matter.

Still, Neistadt pushes all the wrong buttons for me.

ha yea, my feel is

1.) The Neitat guy probably booked those seats with AA, AS or maybe AM currency. Him and his friend landed 1A and 2A, I'd be surprised if those two seats were both wide open on the day he happened to be flying. And frankly I can't fault them! Good choices.

2.) The second fellow at SFO (posted later in the thread) probably asked for the upgrade in some form. Either at the airport, or emailed/contacted CX beforehand. That's just my read on the situation. He arrives so darn early, doesn't bother showing any video of the check-in process, whinges in a slightly passive aggressive way for not getting the lounge, got a two-class upgrade (??), etc. The only other possibility I think is this guy is an AA EXP who was flying PEY and got a genuine op-up, although this would mean he was basically lying saying he was flying "economy class", and if he were a Oneworld Emerald then he would know darn well that PEY on CX is not Y, and he would also know how lucky he was to get the double upgrade. I just find it too coincidental that he put up a video recently of him flying F on Asiana, and then lands a double upgrade on his next flight with CX. I know CX well enough to know they didn't proactively recognize him, so it's either an insane fluke (unlikely), he's more of a status/higher class flyer than he lets on (more likely but still seems doubtful), or he just pimped to get the upgrade and sold them hard on the idea of his blog, effectively begging for it (most likely).

Admittedly, I've also watched youtube prior to booking....a cash F ticket. !! Haha sorry if I let anyone down.

My guess is these guys probably aren't eager to show "how it's done" on the blog, as that kinda destroys some of the magic.

Speaking of op-ups, how come I was op-upped on nearly every time I fly yvr to jfk and vice versa? This was before I was eligible to register for Marco Polo so I was just an AM member.

I would be ticketed in either L, M, V, or sometimes in K when flying Y and only in R when flying on PEY on that route. I would never have more than two trips booked in advance.

Usually op-up happens during check in or upon boarding where the red light flashes.

I thought this was a pretty elite heavy route? Correct me if I'm mistaken.

This route is a rather peculiar one as it is a HKG-YVR-JFK vv route.

The front cabins (F/J) tend to be full on the HKG-YVR-HKG sectors and empty on the YVR-JFK-YVR sectors. Those flying JFK-HKG-JFK in F/J tend to prefer the non-stop flights. This leaves F/J rather empty on the YVR-JFK-YVR legs. Note: This route is probably the easiest to redeem F awards on the entire CX network.

The back cabins (at least for Y) tend to be full of passengers who live in JFK flying to HKG and onward to non-premium destinations such as FOC (Fuzhou) and MNL (seems like a lot of ethnic travel agencies in the NYC area have contracts with CX that say "CX888/889 only" as it stops in YVR both ways and calls for a discount compared to the non-stop).

For Y passengers travelling ex-YVR (YVR-HKG-YVR), they tend to prefer CX 837/838 that operates in the afternoon.

During non-peak seasons, CX is able to sell cheap Y tickets YVR-JFK-YVR vv. However during more peak seasons, the Y cabin tends to be oversold (due to the ex-JFK traffic to Asia), so it is easier to simply upgrade passengers travelling only on the YVR-JFK-YVR sectors.

As for YVR being elite heavy, I don't think this has been the case anymore since most of the HKers who came from HKG in the 1990s have went back to HKG to live permanently. YVR isn't really a destination worthy of HKers to visit anymore. The YVR area is now full of mainland Chinese and has service from from many exotic mainland Chinese carriers such as Xiamen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines in addition to the usual MU, CZ, CA. Those who want a cheap price in Y tend to go with the mainland carriers. While those who tend to fly paid premium cabins tend to take a detour via HKG as they know how bad the premium cabins on the mainland carriers are and fly CX (some prefer CX889 as it leaves late at night and they can sleep until arrival in HKG in the morning for their connection on KA to PEK, PVG etc).

The non-premium Cantonese "lo wah kiu" tend to prefer CX and take the afternoon flight (CX837 [838 returning]), arriving in HKG in the evening.

Is it just me or does anyone else prefer 889 over 837 when travelling to hk? I personally have no jetlag travelling on 889 to hk.

Just to clarify, the times when I travelled on the yvr-jfk route were always during peak travel period and there were numerous DM's and a lot of businessmen travelling.

However, you are right about premium loads really light on that route. During those times, J was never more than half full but F would be 5/6

I also prefer the 889 from JFK. Even though the lfight is broken up into 2 sectors, I'm able to get more than 8 hours of sleep. More like 13 hours of sleep. Take off, haave a meal from JFK, sleep for about 3-4 hours, wake up for landing, take off again, have another meal, sleep for about 10 hours or 3 hours prior to landing, wake up and have breakfast, land.

another Vlogger got OpUp...Not sure if he has any OW Status, he did say he was on EY and got upgraded to J....what happened to PEY?

Repeat of post #19

Distasteful presentation of CX J. Sounded like one of of the bumpkins from the motherland up north.

And from the way there was no lounge access and it being a 2-class upgrade, he should have grovelled his way into the cabin.

Another one? This time it looks like this guy is travelling with his mother to Bali and somehow he ended up in a CX F seat (he boarded the plane with an Economy Class boarding pass in 43K).

There was no mention of visiting any lounges at either LHR or HKG. So op up?

That's a strange one. He went to Pret in LHR,yet his Y BP did not beep as it should have been if it was an opup? Maybe he was in F and his mom in Y?...but then again they had the F tags and were both in J for the ex HKG flight.

You can even see him filming from way in the back in Y when he's sitting behind the wing?! No PJ's either and only a cheese plate + chocolates + snacks?!

I assume:
- Either his mom was in F, she let him have the cheese+chocolate.
- Or F was empty and he mooched the FA's to let him film it and they even let him have the cheese?

Either way no idea and very strange!