I'm looking to purchase an Economy class flight LHR to HKG on Cathay Pacific and use Asia Miles to upgrade to Business class. Looking at the award charts it says it would cost 22,500 miles to upgrade to Premium Economy and 43,000 to upgrade to Business.

But at the bottom of the chart it says: "*An upgrade from Economy to Business Class is only applicable for flights without Premium Economy Class."

I know I've previously done CX upgrade awards from Economy to Business, but it seems this will now be impossible as all flights on that route offer Premium Economy.

Could someone confirm that my reading of this restriction is correct and that I won't? Would I be able to upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy and then again from Premium Economy to Business for the same flight? Even if allowed, that sounds a risky proposition as it relies on awards for two classes being available on the same fight.

Your reading is indeed correct - they never allow us to upgrade on a redemption inventory. Quite a bug relative to UA / AA / BR / CI / SQ etc.

You are reading it correctly. CX only allows for one-class upgrades within a given aircraft. Therefore, if Premium Economy is offered on your aircraft, then you can only go from Economy to PE, but not to Business.

1) only one upgrade allowed per sector, only to the next highest available class
note: if you can upgrade from Y to J (initial aircraft has no PY), then an EOQ happens to an aircraft with PY, congrats you've struck gold!

2) no double upgrades allowed whatsoever for any sector, even if you have an airport upgrade coupon

3) no upgrades allowed for any sector(s) redeemed via Asia Miles (cash+points flights can be upgraded via Miles, but rarely would a sane person use cash+points)

4) upgrading via Asia Miles is subject to the same availability as if you were redeeming an award outright
I.e. if you can't redeem a certain class for a certain flight, then you can't upgrade to it either
(Edit: this point has been contested by another long-time FT user)

5) eligibility for upgrading is dependent on your initial fare class


Hope this clarifies things!

Mostly yes but not 100% yes on this one?

Previous understanding (mine):
- upgrade inventory > redemption inventory
- not every redemption inventory is available for upgrade

percysmith If you've got reservations over that point I'd take your word for it!

Of course the airline(s) won't stipulate inventory in their T&Cs, so it was a personal observation:
- I've never been able ot upgrade when there wasn't inventory
- After upgrading, their inventory number reduces correspondingly
- I've had a waitlist upgrade (using miles) clear several weeks before a flight, without any inventory being made public - I'd guessed that they created one unit of inventory, but used that to clear my upgrade?
- CX redemption / upgrade inventory varies depending on membership tier

Thanks for all the replies.

I guess I'll just have to go for a full Business award ticket rather than an upgrade.

Sorry to dig up this old thread! I was just wondering, is there any way to check if there will be upgrade seats award available in advance before booking? A bit like BA where they will show the available dates before booking. Prefer not to book to only find that it isn't available

Yes, you can. For further details, pls see this thread

Can a CX direct award reservation be upgraded using cash or bid to upgrade from coach to business (no PE) if so how can I do this?

Reissue US$50