HKG waitlist
 

1K with no experience flying to Asia. Have a 3/30 EWR to HKG 3 travelers waitlisted using swu. Have 4/8 return through ORD also waitlisted. EWR - HKG 26 open bus seats and HKG - ORD 45 seats. Upgrade odds? When do they start releasing seats?

I've been regularly flying EWR-HKG since that route opened. Fri, Sat, Sun are not good days for upgrades. BF often fills up quickly a few days before departure.

FWIW: I've never missed an upgrade, but I've rarely flown on weekends. And it's been rare that I've cleared more than 3 days out.

Good luck!

Never mIssed an upgrade?! Wow! I was going to trade away my remaining 4 SWU's. May be I should save them for the HKG upgrade.

We were able to get the last minute saver F and C awards last Christmas for SFO-HKG and were loving it on the new 747 flat bed seats!

Let me clarify: not on international! But a couple of times I've been rescued at the last minute.

Booked 2 seats on 1/25 for travel on 2/23 EWR/HKG showing 35 C seats. Inventory showed very slow decline. Both seats cleared into C on 2/3. Return HKG/ORD was on 3/4 originally showing 39 C seats. Inventory steadily declined. Both seats on return cleared at the gate. There was at least one unfilled seat downstairs on departure. From my experience your chances look pretty good.

i'm 3/3 EWR >>> HKG and 3/3 HKG >>> EWR, from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday outbound and Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday inbound. 2x during Winter holiday season and 1x during June. I've usually cleared at least one leg at booking, with others clearing about a week to 3 days out. The last one on a Friday departure was the hairiest, with calling in after noticing R showing availability and me +1 still sitting on the WL at T-4 w/ under 10 seats not reserved on the seat map.

i already booked another R/T in June and cleared both ways at booking.

Fridays + Saturday outbound are def tougher for UGs so choose midweek days if you have flexibility.

i'm burning miles + copay for the GF flying back to HKG in early April, and the cabin shows a bit over ~20 pct reserved at the moment.

w/ out flying the ORD routes, from looking at seat maps it seems the ex-ORD route seems to fill up in C faster, perhaps b/c there was just a bigger sUA flyer base. not sure if there's any validity to that of course.