[Master Thread] How to Use Asia Miles to Upgrade Your Flight
 

Here’s a step-by-step guide to upgrading your flight using Asia Miles.

Step 1: Check the amount of Asia Miles Required

Refer to the Asia Miles redemption chart for a detailed breakdown of mileage requirements based on destination and travel class. For example, upgrading from premium economy to business will cost you 42,000 miles from HKG to LHR.

Step 2: Check if your ticket is eligible

Not all tickets are eligible for upgrades. Ensure your ticket is booked in an eligible fare class. For economy tickets, the "Light" fares are not eligible. For premium economy tickets, the "Essential" fare (Fare class E) is not eligible. All business fare classes are eligible.

For a long haul PEY (E) + short haul EY (H) ticket, Light/Essential/Flex determines whether you are eligible for the short haul flight, not the fare calls.

Step 3: Is there upgrade availability?

Flight upgrades are subject to availability, and award inventory can be limited, especially on popular routes such as JFK and LHR. Call customer service to check if you can upgrade using points. Either they'll proceed with the upgrade or put you on a waitlist.

Before you purchase your ticket, you can call customer service to check if there is any upgrade award inventory. You need to be clear that you are checking for an upgrade award, not redeeming an outright ticket. Please call using the membership details from the points-deducting account. As mentioned, availability differs between membership tiers. Once you confirm the availability, you can have customer service issue the ticket and apply for an upgrade simultaneously.

How can I find out if there's availability aside from calling an agent? AM upgrade award availability, the number of seats, is exactly the same as AM redemption availability. You can upgrade whatever you see available for redemption, no more, and no less.

Also, you can help your redemption group nominees redeem an upgrade or waitlist. Crucially, points will be deducted from the nominator's account. Once your waitlist has been cleared, you cannot request it to be deducted from a different account. However, before your waitlist request has been cleared, you can call CS to sort out the details.

Step 4: Understanding the Waitlist

If an upgrade is not immediately available, you will be placed on a waitlist. Here’s how the waitlist works:

1. Fundamentals: Cathay Pacific prioritises upgrades based on factors such as your Cathay Pacific membership tier and seat availability. If business class is fully booked, res ipsa loquitur. Usually, having I class and E class open is a positive sign.
2. Notification: If your upgrade clears, you will be notified via email. If someone helped you waitlist, the nominator has to issue the ticket.
3. Deadline: Waitlists are typically confirmed, at the latest, 96 hours before departure, though this can vary. If not, you'll be removed from the waitlist. You can call Customer Service to waitlist again if you desire. The hard cutoff is approximately 3 hours before departure. However, it is very unlikely that they would clear waitlist requests between T-48 and T-3. It's more likely to happen between T-96 and T-48.
4. Miles Deduction: Your miles will only be deducted once the upgrade is successfully confirmed.

Step 5: Upgrade at the Airport

If you were unable to secure an upgrade in advance, you may still have a chance at the airport. Check at the check-in counter if miles upgrades are available.

Important note: As of 2024, there is a new SOP. This might not be available and you might have to call customer service to get the seat award cleared.

Step 6: Confirm and Pay Taxes (if Applicable)

To issue the upgrade, you’ll have to call customer service. While the upgrade itself is covered by miles, you may need to pay additional taxes.

Step 7: What if I need to change or cancel my flight?

Once the booking is upgraded using miles, there will be differing fare conditions that need to be adhered to.
- Cancellation and change of route, cabin class or carrier is not permitted for a partially used ticket.
- CX considers that you have used a designated amount of AM to purchase an 'upgrade coupon', which (same as a redemption ticket) requires US$50 to change or US$120 to cancel. That is of course on top of your original ticket's change fee & fare difference.
- You can only change an upgraded flight to another flight which has award availability on your upgraded class.
- If you upgrade multiple legs in an itinerary then cancel the entire itinerary, the cancellation fee for the upgrade part will only be charged once per itinerary.

From experience this year, to change an upgraded flight (date &/or port(s)) you'll need to;

1. Book your desired new flights;
2. Check that availability exists
3. Call CX to apply your 'upgrade coupon" to your new flight;
4. Pay the change fee; &
5. Cancel the old booking (if you no longer want it)

Overall, it is not recommended to upgrade in advance using points for any traveller requiring flexibility or on a highly uncertain schedule.



Editor's note: Special thank you to pf007 and percysmith for their contributions.

[Reserved for Q&A and additional content]

Frequently asked questions:
1. My flight does not have award availability but the next one has, can I apply for that award seat?
Yes, you can change your flight and hold that upgrade award inventory at the same time. For example, I have a business class ticket on CX254 and can see CX252 having 3 first-class seats available. In this scenario, you can call customer service to check if there is any upgrade award inventory. If it is very far away from departure, it is unlikely you'll get the award seat. However, if you call the night before, that is highly possible. You will be asked to cancel your online check-in (f applicable) and the agents will proceed with your request. Do not worry, they will hold that F seat for you and then call the relevant department to action on the upgrade award. Once the upgrade award has been cleared, your miles will be deducted and your old business class seat will be wiped from the system. Do note that you'll have to pay departure taxes again, this is non-negotiable and not a fee the agents have the discretion to waive.

2. Can I use Asia Miles to upgrade one leg of my trip?
Yes, even for married segments. It is still subjected to fare class restrictions.

Nice summary! Will you make one for bookable upgrade? :D

I think you’ll have more expertise in that realm than me :D. I’m not a regular 1600 flyer.

Also, I think there a huge thread on that topic but many individuals one for points upgrade. This topic should be useful to more users.

thanks for the summary!

might I just quickly add, that earlier this year I successfully waitlisted for an upgrade using another person's AM account (I'm one of their redemption group nominees),
however the agent refused to allow me to use points from my own account, saying that the waitlist was entered using a different FFP no.
therefore it's probably best to decide from which account the miles should be deducted from (if you're in someone's redemption group), and stick with it!

Yes, that is a fantastic point. Another person, provided you are their nominee, can waitlist it for you. However, if I recall correctly, miles have to be deducted from the person who did the waitlisting. Many thanks, I'll add it to the post.

My previous advice was for pax to call to check upgrade availability and if yes, book over the phone and apply the upgrade in the same call https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post36732256

If pax chooses to book first (an upgrade-eligible fare) then upgrade later the $300+ fare premium is essentially a lucky draw entry ticket with roughly at most a Mark Six Consolation Prize of actually clearing.

The chances of clearing are almost 0 these days. Especially for long haul where the premium cabin fills up quicker than Y.

might I also add that trying to change a flight upgraded using AM is a pain in the neck :rolleyes:

CX considers that your have used a designated amount of AM to purchase an 'upgrade coupon', which (same as a redemption ticket) requires US$50 to change or US$120 to cancel. That is of course on top of your original ticket's change fee & fare difference

From experience this year, to change an upgraded flight (date &/or port(s)) you'll need to;
1) book your desired new flights;
2) check that availability exists
3) call CX to apply your 'upgrade coupon" to your new flight;
4) pay the change fee; &
5) cancel the old booking (ifyou no longer want it)

So personally I wouldn't recommend upgrading in advance using AM to any traveller requiring flexibility or on a highly uncertain schedule...

That's a good point, I've never had that happen to me. Mostly because in the past few years, I've only managed to get one short-haul flight confirmed before T-96.

real pain in the neck, it was either that as above, or pay US$120 to remove the 'upgrade coupon' plus the initial ticket's change fees & fare difference

Assuming the initial ticket's change fee & cancellation fee are the same as per its T&Cs it made more economical sense to purchase a new set of tickets altogether & cancel the old one

Curious if anyone has thoughts on this - traveling HKG-KIX. Booked an Economy Essential fare. W=0 at booking and has remained 0 but open seats on the seat map. Wait listed mileage upgrade for PE, which did not clear in advance. At Cathay check-in, W still shows 0 but I ask about mileage upgrade, agent makes a call and in less than 30 seconds, says no problem and uses my points to upgrade. Any idea why Cathay may have been blocking W in advance/even hours before flight with open? Only thought was a potential plane swap or forecasted IRROPS…

Is Y overbooked? They would have to op-up people but revenue decided to take your points instead?

Y was not - if it were, would’ve rolled the dice for an op up.

If I buy a premium economy ticket from TPE-LAX (with a layover in HKG), would I be able to use Asia Miles to only upgrade the HKG-LAX leg to business?