jagmeets

Just got an email..

>>>
We are pleased to introduce a new bidding system that puts some of our premium seats up for auction.

Starting today, 17 July 2017, customers who have purchased Premium Economy or Economy Class tickets on selected routes have the opportunity to upgrade to the next cabin class via Upgrade Bid.

How it works
You can check your flight's eligibility on the Upgrade Bid welcome page by entering your booking reference number and family name. If your flight is eligible, you can enter the auction and place your bid for a flight at least 50 hours before its departure.

Alternatively, if you have opted to receive offers from Cathay Pacific,4 and your flight and fare class are eligible, you will receive an email seven days before the first sector of your booking inviting you to make an Upgrade Bid.

If your offer is successful, you'll receive an email confirming your upgrade 48 hours before your departure.

The benefit of club membership
Because you're a Marco Polo Club member, your bid will carry additional weight, which will increase your chances of securing an upgraded seat.

Things to note
Only certain flights, based on route and seat availability, are eligible for Upgrade Bid. Additional routes will be introduced in the coming months.
Lounge access and check-in and boarding priorities will be based on the upgraded cabin.
Club points and Asia Miles earned and baggage allowance will be based on the original fare class.
Bookable Upgrades and redemptions will not be affected, as they will be confirmed beforehand.
Other special upgrades will be protected and will continue to be awarded.

Herostratus

Looks identical to the Qantas system which works pretty well. Not sure why they didn't do this the first time they tried bidding for upgrades

G-CIVC

Not an anti-grAAbbing policy per se

bmtsang

Based on the highest bidder to use miles (or cash) to upgrade to Biz ticket? I wonder full redemption of Biz offers more value than upgrade from Economy

Herostratus

Op-ups will become much rarer as they will use the upgrade bid list to decide who is upgraded beforehand - I believe op-ups are very rare on Qantas

jagmeets

To the extent that it cuts down last minute award seats that ExPlats can change to, freely..quite possibly!

But likely, more anti-Asiamiles redeemer..

Let's see how this plays out..guessing that if the program takes off, op-ups will become rarer..and given that the op-ups seem to be determined by high CIV/expensive ticket these days, might annoy some of the more-valued-in-the-new-scheme of MPC things folks

AC340-541

Terms and Conditions
1 Customers with redemption bookings (fare classes Z, U, T and X) or group bookings (fare class G) are not eligible to use Upgrade Bid. Eligibility of other fare classes is subject to selected flights opened for Upgrade Bid.
2 Upgrade Bid is applicable per sector, and seats are subject to availability. Upgrade Bid will initially be offered on selected flights marketed and operated by Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon between Hong Kong and the following destinations: Adelaide, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Brisbane, Cebu, Chiang Mai, Chicago, Colombo, Denpasar (Bali), Dubai, Kathmandu, Rome and Seoul. Upgrade Bid is not available for bookings purchased in Mainland China or India at this time.
3 A customer must bid for everyone in the same booking. The same bid amount will apply to each individual, and if the bid is successful everyone in that booking will be upgraded.
4 You can check to see if you are opted into receiving Cathay Pacific offers by visiting your online Marco Polo Club profile.

jagmeets

Thinking a bit more..if they choose to fill the J cabin for any incremental revenue they can get..might just make for a bit of an increase in J->F op-ups

Edit to Add: I can hope/pray on

Herostratus

Adelaide, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Brisbane, Cebu, Chiang Mai, Chicago, Colombo, Denpasar (Bali), Dubai, Kathmandu, Rome and Seoul.

Do any of the routes listed where upgrade bidding is available have F?

More Terms and Conditions;

All Offers are exclusive taxes, fees and surcharges.

Baggage allowance will be based on the original booking class specified on the original flight tickets.

No further upgrade, whether by cash, loyalty reward or otherwise will be entertained after an Offer has been accepted in Upgrade Bid. For example, if a passenger successfully upgrades a flight sector from Economy to Premium Economy class cabin using Upgrade Bid, a further upgrade to Business class cabin for such flight sector will not be allowed, whether using Upgrade Bid or otherwise.

ashsong

- Bookable Upgrades and redemptions will not be affected, as they will be confirmed beforehand.
- Other special upgrades will be protected and will continue to be awarded.

G-CIVC

Redemptions are unaffected as they are confirmed beforehand. So instant upgrade is going away?

It will be a day if not years of extreme grief for me if ORD changes to 77G or 35K. But for now, I will take jagmeets' word and pray for more op up chances for J to F

BKK also has that once in a while 'scheduled' F, but we know better...

jacobsleather

Who proofreads these things??!!

btschang

Wait, what's wrong with the statement? Is it because they started a sentence with the word "because"?

It seems that they're only allowing this on select routes, so if it's operated in a similar fashion to the way they ran the trial, I would assume only certain flights with a lower load factor would be considered in which case they may be right...there may not be a noticeable impact on op ups. Let's see, but I'm actually quite optimistic about this.

lionelhutz

Interesting. I had previously heard from sources at CX that they were cautious about doing this because of the risk of "cheapening" the business cabin if every Tom, Dick and Harry can buy their way in. I don't necessarily agree that's what this does, but anyway I guess the extra revenue they should cull from was too attractive given CX's current financial difficulties.

Presumably this is the end for operational upgrades, why would they upgrade anyone for free if they can get even a modest amount of cash for the seat?

I am fine with the idea as long as it doesn't affect the availability of redemption upgrades. I'm a regular long haul business traveller so I have plenty of points to use on upgrades, but I'm less sure if I'd dip into my pocket for an upgrade. They've said it won't affect redemptions, but occasionally I've had a redemption upgrade clear only a few days before a flight, I wonder if it gets that late and CX effectively has a choice between dollars and points, who they will give the seat to.

keitherson

It marks the end of "courtesy upgrades" and most op-ups: it's gonna be like every airline operating on PlusGrade or Optiontown.

This is a pretty big devaluation for Marco Polo. Not that upgrades were ever guaranteed, but freebies were often given out to Marco Polo members.

Similar to when Emirates moved from giving free upgrades simply based on Tiers but also on fare classes.