Yes, another upgrade question, bear with me here please.

I'm planning to make a trip to China in October, ORD-LAX-HKG-PVG, planning to book on CX.com with the obvious codeshares on AA and KA. What I'd like to do is to upgrade the LAX-HKG portion of the ticket to business with Asiamiles and there is award availability for the flight I'm thinking of.

Is it possible to upgrade only one segment on a ticket, or would I need to upgrade the entire ticket? The Asiamiles calculator doesn't let me calculate ORD-PVG - tried to enter that in, was offered three airlines (AA, Air China, China Eastern), selected one, and then was told one way upgrade only avaiable for CX flights, so that didn't help much.

Any advice? Would love to get all the ducks in a row before I go book the ticket AND buy the starwood points to convert to asiamiles - yes, I'm a n00b to CX, upgrades, booking trans-pac flights, you name it. Tried to search past posts here for info, but couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

One segment upgrade on CX should be OK. Call Asia Miles - I know sometimes the holding time is looooong.

There were discussions on SPG to Asia Miles, search Starwood (not Starpoint) Asiamiles. While that is possible, there is a limit on how much you can do in a year. Note that Asiamiles will expire, transfer will take time, and availability of CX upgrade, esp long haul, is limited. I am neutral on whether this is a good approach.

Thanks for the advice!

The limit (# of points possible to buy and transfer) seems ok, but you raise a valid point with the length of time it takes to transfer. I saw posts mentioning weeks - yikes, not sure if I'm willing to risk the award availability running out. Guess I'll need to think about it some more. but again, thanks!

Depending on your ticketing deadline, you may be able to book first and wait for the transfer to be done to ticket.

In my earlier post, I am neutral because:
(1) If you cannot use the Asia Miles, you may end up losing money.
(2) If you change your itinerary, you may not be able to find another date that have U availability. You are stuck with that date!
(3) Besides, some business class fares, such as DONEx, and TPE-HKG-LAX/SFO roundtrip when there is promotion, have better values - they are much less restrictive, and not cost much much more. (This is not applicable in your case).

In my case, I have plenty of Asia Miles and SPG points, so I have no plan of buying any points or transferring any to Asia Miles.

Okay, that is spooky, my original post is gone. *shivers* And I swear, I didn't do anything!

Right, my main worry is that I won't be able to use the Asiamiles and I'll lose money on it. (I suppose I could redeem it for other stuff on the website, but at 1/5 of it's cash value, maybe).

You raised a good point with maybe being able to book first and wait to ticket until it's complete, which reminded me ... I'm stuck with my date (have a tour and need to get over the ocean one way or another by a certain date), but I still have a few weeks to book. Award avaibility looks pretty open for the couple of days before and on my target date, so hopefully I can buy and transfer the points while it's still there, and wait to purchase my ticket until the transfer is done.

Just one last question - how long does it usually take for an upgrade to clear? I'll probably give Asiamiles a call in the next few days or so to confirm the one segment upgrade as well.

Thanks tons!

I know you did not do anything to your original post. It is just strange!!

It may sound discouraging. If you see available LAX-HKG, better take it before it is gone. I suppose you should call Asia Miles - there are so many discussions here that lead me to believe that the information on the web may not be totally correct.

You asked about waiting for upgrade to clear - I suppose you meant waitlisting. Again, I am going to be pessimistic. Unless you have MPC or OW elite status, it is better not to expect it can get cleared. Even with MPC or OW elite status, it may still be questionable except for MPC Diamond/Invitation.

For your information, CX allows instant upgrade at some airports, but I am not sure about LAX. However, if you have to purchase miles ahead of time, then instant upgrade is not a good option - you may not be able to get it.

Sorry about being so pessimistic.

LAX can do it at check in, but you must have the miles in your account.

Thank you for the update. For OP's information, yes, there must be enough miles in the account, or at least enough so that OP can top-up.

hey, my original post reappeared.

cxfan, no worries about being pessimistic. It's always good to have someone playing the devil's advocate. And thanks again to you and hau cheng for the advice!

Erm... by the way. If you booked your CX economy class segment on AA flight number, you cannot upgrade using asiamiles.

In the original post, it sounded to me like that he booked on CX.com, so the flight numbers should be CX, with the AA flight as a CX codeshare.

Yeah, sorry, should have made that clearer - I meant the ORD-LAX would be AA operated and HKG-PVG a KA operated, with CX flight numbers for both, since CX doesn't fly either of those routes themselves.

Well they do actually - CX flies its own metal to PVG once a day: CX368 departs HKG 08:50; CX367 departs PVG 12:25.