what was the assumption they will move you.

No reversion to pre-2019 practice same day flight change/standby

I think it's mentioned many times already in this thread that post Covid same day flight change is just by discretion of airport supervisor and no longer a guaranteed benefit.

I'm at BKK right now and my original booking was saver award in first class. Business from BKK-HKG, then First from HKG to JFK. Original flight from BKK is CX702 departing at 7:15pm and CX830 the next day.I was hoping to catch an earlier flight to HKG so I could get a hotel and good nights sleep. I even called CP customer service a month or two ago to see if I could change the flight from BKK, and was told no. Today when I arrived at BKK from KBV I went to the Cathay Pacific checkin to see if I could catch an earlier flight. The agent said it could be done, and then she checked with her flight controller about additional fees. After a short wait the FC came back with no fees to change. BTW I have absolutely no status with CX.

I'm a happy camper now. I had a choice of catch the 13:05 flight or the 15:05 flight. It was already 12:15 and I was worried about making to the gate in time. So I chose the later option, but in hindsight I would have made the 13:05 flight easily. Oh well it isn't like I have a bunch of money left to do anything in Hong Kong anyway. LOL.

Another datapoint.

Originally ticketed on CX479/TPE-HKG (STD 2115). On my way to airport in cab, I saw that inbound flight CX402/HKG-TPE is delayed by over two hours, meaning my flight will be delayed at least two hours as well.

Got to check-in desk and had no problems requesting to be put onto the earlier CX531/TPE-HKG (STD 2015). Whole process took less than five minutes.

No mention of any change fee whatsoever when I changed my flight which was possibly waived due to the irregular operations situation. For the record I was flying on a J class redemption ticket which normally incurs a 50USD fee for any change whatsoever.

Slightly off topic but my experience also proved that it is possible to arrive at TPE airport 70 mins before departure and still comfortably make your flight (provided that you can use F/J class check-in counters). I even had 20 minutes in the lounge.

Off topic, sorry, but exactly because of that, I found CX's current policy to close check-in 60 minutes before instead of 40 minutes before is rather unfriendly for TPE. I think 50 minutes would have worked. Admitted, CI/BR/JX have the same 60-minute cut-off policy.

Yea too bad. Though I imagine it won't matter if you've got your mobile boarding pass through online check-in and will not be checking any bags.