OneWorldLoyalist

Never gotten an option to bid from lax to hkg. Fly business on this route every quarter. When I book PE i nearly always get opup'd, but company is willing to pay for D/I class tickets, so ill take the extra miles

midlevels

I'm flying HKG-LAX soon and I got an email offering upgrade bid for that sector. Y to PE.

qrctraveller

I scanned the blog quickly to see if this question was already answered - if it has, I apologise for asking again. I will travel from SGN to HKG in early April 2019 and was wondering if there is any information regarding any upgrade bid offers between these two sectors? My preference is not to spend more $ on a higher economy class ticket, if I will not receive a bid upgrade offer. Although, from reading former posts, it appears that even if I received a bid upgrade offer, it will be exceptionally expensive, thus I may have already answered my question .

blum81

I've never purchased or even placed a bid on an upgrade offer.
It's stupidly expensive. One time, upgrading two sectors + base cost would have been more expensive than me canceling the entire booking and just booking an I ticket round trip.

qrctraveller

Thanks blum, as an avid Air Canada loyal traveller, it certainly has been an eye-opener for me travelling on other airlines. A lot of people complain about Air Canada, and like any other airline, they all have their good and bad. However, Air Canada certainly does a much better job of being transparent with the cost of the bid upgrade and the lowest bid is usually substantially less than the difference between the lowest economy fare and business class fare. Based on my quick analysis of the bid upgrades on long-haul trips with Cathay and with Singapore, which is their prerogative, the Australians certainly benefit the most with their offers. Flying recently with these two other carriers have certainly made me appreciate my experience with Air Canada.

zhaobao

Agree with Blum. I have seen upgrade bids for trips to/from Chiangmai, Bangkok and Chengdu so far. The upgrade offer shows up a few days after I ticket normally. Looking at the actual offers, it is as if they just calculate the fare difference between my booking class and the going C fare and just slab on the price. This really does not entice someone to upgrade last-minute like an emotional purchase, unlike other airlines with business class upgrade bids. I seriously wonder if there have been any takers, and whether they have been able to avoid upgrading people with status when there is overbooking.

blum81

Funny you mention this. I'm currently on waitlist for my flight back home to Vancouver. I've been waitlisted for 3 months now and it expires in 2 days.
I do see the upgrade now option which tells me there are seats available still and EF tells me there's still at least 5 J class seats.

It almost feels like a game of chicken. Do I give in and pay the $2000+ for an upgrade, or do they confirm my waitlist... lol.

OneWorldLoyalist

This happens to me all the time! they tell me that an upgrade award is not available/sold out then i get an upgrade offer a few days later then usually come the time of the flight there is a 80% opup chance. I find it kind of silly on CX's part. Only times i have been able to pre clear an upgrade using points was longhaul upgrade from J to F (once from zurich to hkg and once from JFK to HKG ),. Most other times I use points at the airport

qrctraveller

I purchased an I fare and when I went to select my seats, the bid upgrade offer was available. The lowest bid upgrade fare is $390 (poor) to $960 (strong). As others have already eluded, the total cost of of the booking class that I reserved plus the maximum bid upgrade price is the cost of the business class ticket. For a 2 1/2 hour early morning flight, I will not be purchasing the bid upgrade offer.

Prizm

I'm looking at flights from Perth AUS to Vancouver via HKG. The airliner is an A350-900 on both legs. If I'm not entirely fussed about PE, would it be worth buying regular economy tickets now and taking a gamble on a cheap(ish) upgrade? Or do people find that the upgrades are costing as much as buying a PE ticket in the first place?

thanks

sxc

Zacnlinc

I 2nd the comment that one is not likely to see a cheap upgrade bid.

I just checked on the default bid for my PE fare from HKG to ICN $850+. Mind you that the RT fare was $1150-ish...

NetJets Germany

Data point:

SIN-HKG-KMG, original fare bucket V, upgrade options as follows:

SIN-HKG, V -> E, min. SGD245/USD181, max. SGD555/USD409
HKG-KMG, V -> I, min. SGD370/USD273, max. SGD970/USD715, plus SGD16/USD12 extra in tax

Meaning a combined minimum of USD466 and USD1,136, in other words, not that exciting...

If the SIN-HKG leg was available for upgrade to I at the same price, I might consider putting in the minimum bid, but as that's not an option I am going to pass on this one...

golfingboy

Myself + companion will be flying YYZ-SGN in September and we booked PEY (E) tickets. CX website says we can bid for an upgrade to business class for the HKG-SGN-HKG sector.

Minimum bid is $245 CAD ($182 USD) each way for both of us, which translates into $91 USD each.

From reading this thread this seems like the lowest possible minimum anyone has seen on CX.

Crisu69

I am flying the first time at all Cathy economy from BKK to HKG.

I was offered to place a bid offer to upgrade to business.

Can someone share some experience how high such a bid offer has to be on this routing to be successful? There is no indication of a minimum offer that i have to place.