I had this discussion with a bunch of people in my EMBA about upgrades and our experiences on different airlines, and one lady said she always calls CI and they tell her which dates have awards available according to the computer display, without having to enter particular dates.

Now when you call CX, it takes ages to find free award seats sometimes. I hear the agent typing away on the keyboard, then I suggest another date, more typing, etc. seems awfully tedious compared to CI's alleged "one-screen display of all available award seats for a period of at least 3 months". IN fact, finding an award (online or with the help of an agent) that suits my needs has become to tedious that I have all but given up. (Funny enough, it's a lot easier to book a oneworld carrier other than CX though MPC, even on busy dates.)

Can any enlightened soul shed some of that light on airline software? CX agents don't seem to see all award availability for a longer range of dates. Could it be that CI of all carriers is more advanced?

This is like comparing apples to grapes!

I mean really, WHO would be clambering to find seats on CI? CI's system most likely displays availability for their own seats when agents look on their screens.

For any oneworld partners, only their own CRS can display award availability codes and it is not just a free for all availability but rather a 'forced' entry. ie if you just ask for regular availability between London and HK on say 25Dec, it may display all seats F4 A4 J4 D4 I4 Y4 B4 M4 etc. But as we all know award availability on CX are Z, U and T. These has to be displayed seperately and hence the CX agent can only search per date.. or sometimes up to a few weeks in advance. They can in fact do a search for the 1st availability.

I would say that CI's CRS are so simple that they can just do a search for any dates. I mean who else partners with CI?

Oneworld carriers and CX have a more complicated system which permits access to each other's system.