Please don't complain about yield when you continue to upgrade pax while downgrading staff.
This is a conscious & deliberate loss of revenue.

Yields are low because tickets are cheap....so why, when we try to offer you more money do you say no thanks?

Trying to be objective here but the whole point of upgrading is to let a targeted economy passenger have a taste of the high life in the hope that they will one day pay for a full fare business ticket. That to the company is worth more than the slight increase in profit gained by allowing a staff member in business. Frustrating I know but business comes first...no surprise there.

Or as my frequent flying friend says " Why buy a higher class seat, I get enough upgrades with my diamond card"

exactly. There is a whole online community dedicated to getting free upgrades from CX.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - FlyerTalk Forums (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles-487/)

They've cleverly worked out that if the check in early and have a low Boarding Number (and their Marco Polo Gold /Diamond status, they are going to get seated in J class. I have 2 friends in HK who are diamond/gold and they are 100% on this this year. CX has seen significant loss of revenue from both as they are no longer paying for Biz.