Hey everyone,

I'm new to FlyerTalk but am enjoying it thoroughly so far!

I know that upgrades from economy to business class using Asia Miles are restricted to a few booking classes. For my upcoming flight from HKG to JFK, I have a V economy class ticket--and I know that this is officially not upgradeable. Is there any way to work around this restriction? I'm a Silver member if that helps.

Thanks!

You can pay the fare difference to H or K (if available), and then use miles to upgrade. Or pray that Y is full, and there aren't many DMs/GOs/ etc etc on the flight so you get op-up.

You can? Last time I had M class ticket and I wanted to use my miles to upgrade and I told the agent I'm willing to pay the difference up to K, and he simply looked at me with a blank stare and say "can't adjust class differences even if you are willing to pay"

I've had the same experience as Cathay Boy: been told that they couldn't adjust class differences. So once ticketed, I assume the only way to upgrade a non-upgradeable ticket is to have status and be offered an op-up. That happened to me; flew May '08 on the All Asia Pass, which is M fare, as Silver member - an hour before the flight, while in the BA terraces lounge checking e-mail, my name was called. Flight was oversold, and they upgraded me to J, the new J. Was a great experience; I had sat through a 8 hour standardized test the day before (US Medical Licensing Exam Step 1) and that was a nice end to that awful experience. Flying out the next day was my gift before transitioning to the 3rd year of medical school.

Checkin agents can not handle ticketing matter.
So if you want to upgrade V to K, you need to contact original ticket issuer, CX ticket office or travel agent.

+1 ^. There is the answer. You need to arrange this ahead of time. Calculating fare difference may take some time. It is not trivial.

You can...but in a round about way. You basically need to get a refund for your original ticket, pay any cancellation fees, and then buy a new ticket in the new class.