Upgrades by Oneworld partner airlines

I have top status with AA, DL, and UA, therefore with all 3 alliances. I get courtesy upgrades on a fairly regular basis from Skyteam and Star Alliance partner airlines on transoceanic flights. I have never, not even once, received a courtesy upgrade by any Oneworld partner airline. I'm curious - is this a familiar experience by other frequent fliers, or is it just my luck of the draw?

Yes. With BA & QF they do NOT give complementarity upgrades to their own top status frequent flyers, let alone to others. There have been reports that Cathay CX very occasionally give complementarity upgrades to top status OW frequent flyers.

It is very much luck of the draw. If you don't expect to receive an op-up then you won't be disappointed when they don't happen, and delighted when they do.

As a generalisation, non-US airlines seem to have less need for op-ups than US-based airlines.

In the event that the airline needs to upgrade someone due to cabin being full, having top tier status will increase the chance of receiving one

Don't expect to get an upgrade just for the sake of it by the airline

MY wife and I received upgrades on a JAL 767 from Kaohsiung to Narita last week. I assumed it was due to (1) a low load factor and (2) several grade school groups on the way to Japan.

If an upgrade is expected, it'll sour the process when it doesn't happen - which is almost all of the time. The most you can expect is to have priority boarding, a personal greeting on board and fancy coloured tags on your bags (which are meaningless). But that's all.

QR comp upgraded my party of 3 a year or so ago (BKK-HAN). It was 2 x WP and 1 x NB status. Tickets were the cheapest possible. The main cabin on the 77W was about half full. Apart from that, I cannot recall an op up in at least 5 years prior to that.

I've only gotten a free upgrade on JAL once. Definitely a nice surprise when it happened.

As an EXP, I've had two upgrades on partners. I don't fly partners a lot though, so it is actually a high percentage:

1. BA LHR-GOT, Y appeared oversold (I think there was a canceled flight the day before) and I was bumped to J about an hour before departure.
2. CX MNL-HKG, booked W but bumped to J when A350 turned into A330 with no W cabin a few weeks prior to departure. CX reissued the ticket into J, so when it turned back into an A350 a few days prior to departure the bump stuck.

Both were really op-ups. Fun, unexpected, and nothing I'd count on happening.

I've actually had really good luck lately with CX (as an AA EXP). in the last 2 months I'm 2/4 for Op ups from W to J on LAX-HKG routes and even got a Y to J bump on a KA 330 (very unexpected).

I think the sweet spot is LAX routes and booking PEY. I generally fly Sundays out and Saturday returns so probably a bit lighter on elite travelers too. If I don't get a bump up they do try and block a seat next to me as well. That said, my initial luck has spoiled me a bit. I don't expect it, but always check my reservation 10 minutes before boarding now to see if I got moved, almost wish I could forget I ever got one so it would be a fun surprise every time (it's still pretty fun).

Never had any luck on JAL, and don't fly too many other affiliates. That said I think it will be interesting as I know of a few AA EXPs (myself included) who are booking affiliate carriers in PEY instead of AA economy tickets. I figure with fewer SWU's and at least a decent seat coupled with the better EQD and RDM equation a lot of Oneworld partners will likely see an uptick in PEY loads from the US...

It finally happened. After opening this thread, CX upgraded me to Premium Economy on a flight from JFK to HKG. Very nice! Almost like Business Class seats before the lie-flat seats were introduced.

I get the same impression. Hardly ever do I see a US airline with empty seats in Biz. The opposite is true with BA/IB. In some instances the Biz cabin was empty except for 2 seats. I get the logic of US airlines to move people up to the front of the plane and sell extra seats in Y. Why don't BA and IB copy this strategy? Fixed costs stay the same anyway so it's better to squeeze some extra people in. OK, there's a slight variable cost involved due to the more expensive soft-product in J but that's not that expensive. + those people you upgraded will become more loyal customers I would think, that's an extra benefit.

They must be reading flyertalk :-D

Many non-USA airlines sell premium seats for much higher fares. Selling just one at last minute brings in much more profit than selling several more economy seats. When airlines frequently upgrade for free this reduces the incentive for people to pay for premium seats.

I've gotten a number of upgrades, both points and operational, but most (all but one) have been on QF flights with QFFF. (in fact, my first ever flight in J was an op up SYD-LAX, points upgrade to PE, op up to J)

That one upgrade off QF was on CX.
Was booked CBR-SYD-NRT. Weather problems in SYD were leading to rolling delays and I noticed while waiting for the CBR-SYD flight that the continued delays would lead to missing the connection.
After alerting QF found staff to the problem, they finally redirected me onto CX via MEL and HKG. I lost the op up I had gotten on QF21 and was given boarding passes for the CX flights in PE (the original booking class for the QF NRT round trip).
As soon as I got to the CX MEL lounge, they reprinted the boarding passes on CX stock and gave me an upgrade to J.

Got op-upped on CX back in April -- SFO-HKG, into J from W. I was quite surprised because Y seemingly had a fair number of open seats (though W had been sold out for weeks). No op-up for me on the return, though the guy boarding just ahead of me was op-upped.

I've always CX to be very good at recognizing OW elite status, even for partners.