<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (nightice @ Nov 26 2008, 01:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
Just a follow-up for the folks on here...
I made my trip last week from LAX-MEL, then on to MNL (final destination)
I made the A380 on QF. It was a nice, smooth quiet ride. Please do not expect to be upgraded on any QF flights. There was a mother and a son (I&#39;m assuming) that 1) were glad they got on, or 2) got upgraded...not sure which but the mother was ecstatic about something when they went to the counter.
However, she and he DID board through the "Premium Economy/Business" line, so who knows...non-rev, status member, I don&#39;t know.

Anyways, once I got to MEL (16 hrs to the minute) I was amazed that the airport was literally in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice, modern airport. Friendly people/staff. I made another QF connection to HKG on the 767. I was seated near the rear of the plane (ugh) but had a window seat. I informed the FA that I had a tight connection once in HKG and he said he would move me in Business Class for the landing portion of the flight. 8 hrs 45 m later, he moved me to business...I think I counted something like 7 people up there....that&#39;s it!!! I purposely wore my airline ID identifying that I am an airline employee but it didn&#39;t matter....coach class it was. I ZED&#39;d PR from HKG to MNL..same thing..window seat but no upgrade to business; however, I was near the front of the aircraft (like row 4 I believe).

PR wasn&#39;t a bad flight, albeit only 1 hr 45 m. My return flight, I flew my own airline, business class all the way...what a difference!

So, long story short, I got to my destination and back home safe and sound but if you are expecting any form of upgrades on int&#39;l carriers, or at least from the ones I have flown, 99.9999% chance you&#39;ll be stuck in coach. I believe DL is the only one (or maybe NWA) are the only US carriers that upgrades other airline employees. Knowing how the foreign carriers operate and do not reciprocate that favor, I will ~never~ upgrade other international airline employees. It&#39;s just the fair thing to do. [/b]
OK now i&#39;m curious! Why did you go LAX-MEL-HKG-MNL? We (CX) have an agreement with you, and you could have gone LAX-HKG-MNL or SFO-HKG-MNL which would have saved some time and money? Or were we full?

I&#39;ve found KLM is another airline that upgrades staff, which was nice.

FYI, here in Australia we don&#39;t wear our IDs when we non rev, it probably helps you less than more and i think it is against most guidelines. The airlines really don&#39;t like people knowing we are non revs and it causes a lot of questions from pax etc etc. Also regarding QF, i am pretty sure they recently installed new check-in software system that makes it near impossible for anyone to upgrade anyone unless it is system generated, and also creates strict rules for check in time cut offs etc.

I&#39;ve never flown DL or NW but I have heard DL are very liberal in their upgrades. I have a friend at CX who used to work for them and he said they were always listed in first/business rather than economy/coach. Shame we only have an ID90 agreement with them, so i doubt i&#39;ll ever use it.

Another curiosity... if you are on the ramp how would you be in the position to upgrade/not upgrade staff? Unless you multi-function?