I thought it would be helpful to separate the RUs and elite APD upgrades from the one ups as it's easier to see the value of status and success rate of RUs. Ultimately the success of RUs and one up clearance is related to paying passenger loads which is a challenging assessment. Anyway I've copy pasted some results from the other thread - mainly kiwicyclo.

Personal experience. All of my RUs have cleared to IAH, LAX, PER, SIN. PE-->J with gold and elite. I didn't realise Silver expired when moving to Gold so lost that one. Had 1 or 2 RU / elite APD upgrades declined PER-AKL PE --> J. Partners silver RU cleared PE --> J to SIN but I was flying with him. I gifted RUs to relative AKL-PER return Y - PE accepted.

I've only used elite APD RAR and Aussie but cleared Y --> PE. Short haul RUs accepted first time around to Aussie and RAR with one gifted.

10/2/2018
AKL-LAX NZ2
PE -> BP
$1000 (with Gold Elite uplift)
"OneUp Upgrade Registered" 75 hrs 35 minutes out :-P

13/2/2018
LAX - AKL NZ5
RU (With Gold Elite Status)
"Upgrade Pending" � Declined

24/2/2018
BNE- AKL NZ136
PE-BP
Short Haul Recognition Upgrade
Accepted at time of submission

02/03/2018
AKL-LAX NZ6
Economy to PE (2 PAX)
2 x $240 Elite A$ Upgrades
Accepted at time of submission

8/3/2018
LAX - AKL NZ1
Economy to PE (2 Pax)
2 x $240 Elite A$ Upgrades
Accepted at time of submission

23/4/2018
AKL - LAX
PE - BP
1 x $480 Elite A$ Upgrade
Through call centre
"Upgrade granted at Check In"

13/5/2018
IAH-AKL
PE - BP
1 x $480 Elite A$ Upgrades
"Upgrade Pending" as no award seats released as yet


If people could follow a similar format
Date: Would be useful
Route:
Class upgrade: Y - PE, PE - J, Y - J
Type of upgrade: RU / elite APD upgrade
Status:

Personally I'm thinking Y - PE has the better chance of clearing however the consequences of not clearing may not be so appealing.

I've only had one declined and that was a packed school holidays flight SFO->AKL in 2015. Was silver.

Date: Wed 6 Jan 2016
Route: AKL-> RAR
Class upgrade: Y - J
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Silver
Cleared 5 Days out.

Date: Sat 9 Jan 2016
Route: RAR -> AKL
Class upgrade: Y - J
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Silver - Bonus upgrade Westpac CC
Cleared 5 Days out. Partner upgraded to PE on return in lounge due to overbooking Y, Arrived Sunday - Last day of school holidays.

Date: Wed 18 January 2017
Route: AKL-> SIN
Class upgrade: PE - J
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Cleared at checkin, along with gifted elite RU to partner, 1 spare seat in J. SIN flight - surprised when cleared

Date: Friday 10 Feb 2017
Route: HKG -> AKL
Class upgrade: PE - J
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Cleared at checkin, along with gifted elite RU to partner, J cabin full. Friday night flight - surprised when it cleared.

Date: Sat 1 Jul 2017
Route: AKL -> PER
Class upgrade: PE - J
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Cleared 8 Days out.

Date: Sat 8 Jul 2017
Route: PER-> AKL
Class upgrade: PE - J
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Cleared 8 Days out.

Date: Mon 18 December 2017
Route: AKL -> HNL
Class upgrade: PE - J
Type of upgrade: RU x2
Status: Elite
Cleared online instantly.

​​​​​​​Date: Tue 26 December 2017
Route: HNL -> AKL
Class upgrade: Y -> PE
Type of upgrade: APD180 x2
Status: Elite
Rung call centre to confirm availability. Told available, put through while on phone and did not clear. Agent read wrong date, had supervisor manually put through.

Date: Sun 18 November 2018
Route: AKL-> HND
Class upgrade: PE -> J
Type of upgrade: APD480 x2
Status: Elite
Rung call centre to confirm availability. Told 1 available, put through while on phone and both cleared instantly.

Date: Sat 8 December 2018
Route: SIN -> AKL
Class upgrade: PE -> J
Type of upgrade: APD480 x2
Status: Elite
Already been told no R available. Lodged online. Upgrade Pending.

Date: March 2017
Route: AKL-LAX
Class upgrade: Y - PE
Type of upgrade: Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Silver
Upgrade confirmed at check-in close

Date: March 2017
Route: LAX-AKL
Class upgrade: Y - PE
Type of upgrade: Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Silver
Upgrade confirmed 7 days out

Date: April 2017
Route: AKL-NRT
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Silver
Upgrade confirmed at check-in

Date: April 2017
Route: NRT-AKL
Class upgrade: Y - PE
Type of upgrade: Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Silver
Declined

Date: June 2017
Route: AKL-MEL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed 7 days out

Date: June 2017
Route: MEL-AKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed 7 days out

Date: November 2017
Route: AKL-MEL
Class upgrade: Y - BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed 7 days out

Date: November 2017
Route: MEL-AKL
Class upgrade: Y - BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed 7 days out

Date: March 2018
Route: AKL-SFO
Class upgrade: Y - PE
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at time of booking

Date: April 2018
Route: SFO-AKL
Class upgrade: Y - BP
Type of upgrade: RUx2
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at time of booking

Date: June 2018
Route: MEL-AKL
Class upgrade: Y - PE
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at time of booking

Date: July 2018
Route: APW-AKL
Class upgrade: Y - PE
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at time of booking

Date: June 2017
Route: AKL-LAX
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Silver
Declined

Date: June 2017
Route: AKL LAX
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed 14 days out


Date: nov 17
Route: AKL-SFO
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed 7 days out

Date: nov 2017
Route: SFOAKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Gold
Upgrade confirmed at check in at SFO

Date: Aug 18
Route:AKL-IAH
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at booking

Date: Aug 18
Route:IAH AKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at booking

Date: Sept18
Route:AKL-LAx-LHR
Class upgrade: PE-BP (both legs
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at booking


Date: Sept18
Route:LHR-LAX-AKL
Class upgrade: y-J for LAX AKL and Y-PE LHR-LAX
Type of upgrade: Elite APD and RU double stacked
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at booking

Of note the two trips booked as Elite I called up and R class was wide open the whole month give or take. Out both times Friday night and back Sat night fr Monday am arrival. I was prepped to be flexi ish but didn't need to be.
I could have gone Nz1-1 or NZ1/5 and 6/2 or 2-2 with r class available. I Biddled it.



NZ butterfly why a $1000 one up when EAPD would have been cheaper and worked?

never tried for a upgrade while a "jade" ?

I copy pasted kiwicyclos info from the one up thread. I thought it was going to be too messy to look through that for RU/elite APD upgrades.

My first thought with that first $1000 post was maybe it was for 2 people but it certainly does look like it's for one. PE can go for $1200 on that route on sale whereas J, I don't think I've seen it down to $2200, or < 3k. I guess that's more of a one up but paying $500 cash with the 50% elite uplift to make it up to $1000 would still have been reasonable value. The elite APD upgrade would have been 480 on that route so they only bid $20 more so not a huge difference between one up and elite APD upgrade. Maybe they didn't have enough APD at the time? They certainly didn't lose out or spend too much actual cash.

Indeed I have - way back in 2012 when anyone could request APD upgrades. AKL-HKG and HKG-LHR both cleared Y - PE. With LHR-HKG and HKG-AKL both declined on the return trip Y - PE. Although I did have my VA Platinum in FQTS.

I don't have the recall to give the details as some of you have above. But since 2010 I have been Silver, Gold and Elite. I've applied RU's to legs to and from HKG, LHR, LAX, IAH, SFO, RAR, and PVG. Most of these have been from Y -> PE with a couple of stacked RUs to go Y -> J. Not once have I ever had a RU declined. Where possible I have tried to pick flights to North America based on approximate number of available seats according to a dummy booking (very rough I know). For example toggling between NZ5/6 and 1/2 or choosing between LAX and SFO to get to the US. So my experiences agree with those above in terms of success rate.

Just Lodged one more, be interesting to see how the Trent issues continue to play out later this year...

Date: Oct 2013
Route: AKL-HKG
Class upgrade: Y-(PE)-BP ie double class upgrade
Type of upgrade: 2x Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Jade
Upgrade noticed when checking set allocation about 5 hours prior to departure whilst loafing in WLG lounge. WLG lounge staff confirmed the upgrade and re-issued BP


Date: Jan 2018
Route: HND-AKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP (TK and Mrs TK)
Type of upgrade: 2x Elite APD (gifted)
Status: Jade (TK and Mrs TK)
Upgrades at the gate (noticed seat allocation change about 90 mins prior to boarding when loafing in the ANA lounge)

Just my last year detailed here - over the past 5+ years as an Elite I've only ever had a couple of upgrades not clear, both PE-BP, one AKL-LAX (RU) and the other AKL-HKG (Elite APD) a couple of months ago. I'm pretty sure that I've got a 100% success rate on Y-PE upgrades, both RU & APD, including one coming back from a family holiday CNS-AKL a couple of years ago for 5 pax Y-PE via a very cheeky (low) One-Up bid!

Date: June 2017
Route: PVG-AKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at time of booking (1 month out)

Date: Oct 2017
Route: HKG-AKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at check-in

Date: Nov 2017
Route: AKL-HKG
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at time of booking (2 weeks out)

Date: Nov 2017
Route: AKL-HKG
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at 7 days out

Date: Apr 2018
Route: AKL-HKG
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade failed to clear - flight apparently oversold - APDs returned to a/c 48 hours after departure

Date: Apr 2018
Route: HKG-AKL
Class upgrade: PE-BP
Type of upgrade: Elite APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed at 7 days out

Date - 26/6/2018
Route -AKL - SFO - OHR (AKL - SFO - NZ8)
Class upgrade: PE -BP
Type of upgrade: APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed: time of request "upgrade confirmed"

Date: 30/6/2018
Route: OHR - SFO - AKL (SFO - AKL - NZ7)
Class upgrade: PE - BP
Type of upgrade: APD
Status: Elite
Upgrade confirmed: time of request " upgrade confirmed"

Date: 19 May 2018
Route: AKL-SIN (NZ282)
Class upgrade: Y-PE
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Silver
Upgrade failed to clear. It was pending after OLCI, and declined when I checked upon arrival at AKL International Koru Lounge. Flight very full. RU re-credited to my account on 23 May.

Date: 29 May 2018
Route: HKG-AKL (NZ80)
Class upgrade: Y-PE
Type of upgrade: RU
Status: Silver
Upgrade confirmed immediately after OLCI (23 hours before flight). Only 8 people in PE out of 40 seats.

Date: 27 May 2018
Route: AKL-NRT (NZ99)
Class upgrade: Y-J
Type of upgrade: 2xRU
Status: Gold
Confirmed unceremoniously at T-7ish