rdurlabhji

Booked on CI for the first time from CGK to TPE in Premium Economy on the new A350. How does upgrading work on CI, to upgrade from PE to J? Is it even possible?

Virginia Emery

Pay the fare difference and everything is possible

tris06

Yes it will be quite expensive. You would pay full price. The airline does not encourage last min upgrades unless people want to pay full fare. 1 way business class would likely cost 500USD or 1000USD return.

rdurlabhji

Doesn't seem worth it for a 5 hour flight. Thanks for the info.

Edit to add: I don't have Skyteam Elite status any more, but would that help in any way? Might help other people.

SilverChris

If you mean scoring an op-up, forget about it as CI elites are at the top of the list, and even then it's uncommon.

Spider

I have read in a couple of places that if one flies from long distance in PE and has a short flight to connect to then they often get upgraded to J if there is availability. Any truth in that?

coolfish1103

When you book it you will see if you are placed in J or Y (or PE sold as Y). It depends what route and fare you book.

tris06

Usually this is how it works.

Premium economy tickets are ticket with 4 different booking codes.

E class: Cheapest Premium economy, You cannot upgrade with points. You also will not get a business class seat on any short haul flight before/after a long haul flight.
A class :2nd cheapest Premium economy, You can upgrade with points. You also will not get a business class seat on any short haul flight before/after a long haul flight.
U class :2nd highest priced Premium economy, You can upgrade with points. You will not get a business class seat on any short haul flight before/after a long haul flight if D class (business class ticket) is no longer selling on the short haul flight. If business class D is still selling then you may get Business class seat on the short haul.
W class :Full priced Premium economy, You can upgrade with points. You will not get a business class seat on any short haul flight before/after a long haul flight if D class (business class ticket) is no longer selling on the short haul flight. If business class D is still selling then you may get Business class seat on the short haul.

We have both booked E class and U class in the past.Concerning U class we used our points about 1 year ago to upgrade the long haul and we were given Business class HKG-TPE as the flight at the time of booking was still selling D class ticket in Business class. However note that U class is usually 300-600 USD more expensive than E class for a return ticket.