Wow they don't make this easy do they!

1. There is absolutely no way to figure out if there is upgrade availability when buying a ticket. So you buy a more expensive flex ticket that potentially allows you to upgrade and pray that you are lucky.

I tried to check if there was reward availability - i.e. if I redeemed miles only to get a ticket and there was. But when I bought the tickets and tried to upgrade - I am on the waitlist ...... So really is there no way of figuring out upgrade availability? The lady on the phone was super unhelpful and very hard to understand, but apparently she wasn't even able to check on other flights whether there was availability. This is super annoying as I have no preference to the day or time I need to book!

2. The redemption group ... and the ability to share miles ... in BA in just goes into a pool and anyone can use it. According the lady on the phone this is not how it works on Cathay - whilst you can use someone elses points each person must have the total quota. i.e. if I need 40,000 a single person in the group needs the 40,000! It cannot be made up of say someone with 31,000 and someone else with 13,000!!!

This cannot be right .... What a joke.

Can someone clarify everything is correct..

Agree the first part makes things difficult. I thought agents are able to tell you if there are upgrade seats available, but I have not tried for a few years and will let others comment on that. For the second part, a lot of programmes work this way. BA may be more friendly but is not the norm.