I fly DXB-PVG or HKG every week and the flights always seems to be full but have never got upgraded from Shanghai or Hongkong. Most of the upgrades happen in Dubai or London. Has anyone else experienced the same?
I sometimes notice people get upgraded, is there anyone who know if there are 2 gold members to and one upgrade required who do they give it too?

I agree about the upgrades. I get upgraded much more ex DXB or LHR/LGW than ex KHI/MCT/FRA etc

Upgrades tend to be a mix of luck and status, so if there are two Gold members on a flight and only 1 J seat available for opup, the one that checks in first could get it, the one that checks in last could get it, or even a silver member could get it

Cheers

In short you are telling me there no real logic on how they work the upgrades
This is not a good stratergy i feel

I'm sure it has something to do with status + fare paid.

it should, but I have seen many examples when people on cheap fares with low status have gotten upgrades before people on high fares with high status etc.

I beleive there is a system to Free upgrades.

This is how i see it:

1: Economy class is fully booked. And either/both First & Business Class has few empty seats.

I can better explain with an example.

Lets say,

First class has 4 seats available, and Business class has 12 seats available.

Emirates will begin upgrading Gold members from Business to First Class. If there are only 2 gold members, they will move on to Sliver, then Blue, until the 4 seat in first class are filled.

Emirates then does the same procedure for Economy class, Gold first, then Sliver.

This System works only if Economy class is fully booked.

IF there happens to be 5 gold members on Business class then the top 4 Gold members based on Tier miles are upgraded. And normally if they are alone.

In addition, Emirates employees flying on thier own time (for example vacation) are required to dress in a certain manner, otherwise they won't be allowed to fly business or first.

Try to dress nice and you might get an upgrade.


NOTE: This system is not set in stone, and only relying on my expereince.

I hope this helps

Bee