I have bought a class E ticket from Boston to Shanghai, via Hong Kong. I originally planned to fly on Dec 20, but now I found that I can leave earlier and want to depart on Dec 15. As there is no more class E available, the customer service representative put me on standby list. Does anyone know the likelihood to get on that flight CX811(Dec 15)? They also tell me I need to pay money if I want to downgrade to economy class. Anyone can help? My sincere thanks.

Not much. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...cx-ticket.html

For rebooking, PE (W, R, E) is a losing proposition.

I think the answer will depend on whether there is no E class (discount PE) or ANY premium economy. If there are PE seats on the flight, you have a reasonable chance. If not.... refer to thread percy listed!

Why would BOS route not have E class (or, PEY)?

Question would be what class (I suspect H or I) is OP booked into for HKG-PVG.

Anyway, don't worry, my experience is no matter to however yield-trashing outport, CX will clear revenue waitlists before releasing award seats. I've done it a few times as OW EM and it never took more than a week (more like 4-5 days) to clear. So if OP has status, eventually it should be ok. Don't forget you can WL for 3 dates.

Anyway here's whats on sale now: BOS-HKG-PVG, POS US

CX 811 0 BOS
12/15/17 1:30 AM HKG
12/16/17 5:55 AM 77W
M,F,Sa
92% / 45m F5 A5 J9 C9 D9 I1 W3 R0 E0 Y9 B9 H9 K7 M6 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

this can jump up and down every week so you just have to keep an eye out. If the flight is empty (and not like HKG-PVG should be worrying), it'll gradually go up closer to departure.

Thank you so much for your reply. My HKG-PVG sector is class H and my BOS-HKG sector is class E. As it is a time when students are going back to HK or China, I believe the seats will be filled up shortly. As I am now waitlist on the flight, when will they confirm my seat or until go to airport to see if there is anyone not coming? I personally believe my original flight CX811 on DEC20 PEY should have been oversold. Does it help me to get a higher chance to be on the DEC15 flight. I am also just willing to voluntary downgrade to economy, but they say no.

Okay, I just looked at BOS-HKG (forgetting about sector marriage to PVG - no difference it seems) - 12/15 is W3R0 and 12/20 is zeroed out. Using the seat map (a good conservative estimate for F/J/PEY), 6 and 4 seats left for the two dates respectively.

Here's the plot twist, J class looks wide open - 22 and 21 taken for 15th and 20th. If it remains light load until close to departure, I could see them selling more PEY seats still and just roll them over into J class

I would say control would (might) take into account whether it is worth it to release your seat on the 20th and give you one on 15th in return. As for downgrade, generally CX is unwilling to work on 'downfares' (as opposed to 'upfares' - ie if you go for R class or I class on BOS-PVG) - these are embedded in the fare rules.

Wait is there no PEY from here to PVG? Oh OK then OP may have easier time to rebook (just as long as BOS-HKG E becomes available)

* Your current booking class is sold out for your preferred date. It doesn't matter if you feel your current flight will be oversold.
* Even for the same booking class, fares can be different if the departure date is different.
* If you downgrade to economy, they still have to find a booking class for you. It can happen that the economy booking class can be of a higher fare to E.

ad others said, you might find that if you want to fly earlier on econony cabin, it would be an "upsell" from E clase to H class plus change fee.. so you effectively pay more for worse cabin...

Thank you all. I noticed that there are E class fare yesterday night and called the call center immediately. But they still rejected my rebooking requirement. One of them said this is actually not a E, it is a W selling as a E. The other told me that I need to check whether it is available for a round trip from Shanghai (my home destination). Does anyone know exactly what is their policy?

It would not match exactly what you said, but I think it is a POS (Point of Sale) and MSC (Married Segment Control) restriction. You need to check availability from a US POS source and make sure that there are seats when the availability query is BOS-x/HKG-PVG, not just BOS-HKG alone.

It is probably not a married segment, but a POS issue. I suppose OP is returning from a trip to US. I think OP checked the US POS, but he actually needs to check the China POS. ex-China fare is generally less expensive for the same class.

Thanks! I believe this is the reason. It is quite annoying that the E fare is only available at US POS but not at China/HK POS. I believe there is actually no these rules stated anywhere on the ticket or on the website. The fare rules have been more difficult to find once CX renovated its website.