Hello Bushcat,
I did my upgrade with a regional in the USA in 1991 and I made command on the 737 with KLM in 1998, so it has been a while. At the commuter it was just seniority and then you went to upgrade, going through the same course as the FO's, written exam, oral on company procedures and FAR's, flight training(8 hours), exam(2hours), and IOE(initial operating experience) of 10 hours in two days.
At KLM you wait your turn. Then you start with an oral exam about company procedures etc, this takes the whole day, and you have 2 examiners and you. Then ground school and sim training which you finish with a written exam and a sim exam. Then you do line training. In my case, since I swapped seats on the 737 it was one week with an instructor and then 2 weeks with a real copilot and the instructor on the jumpseat. We finish line training with a line check, a JAR requirement and then you are on your own. There are no upgrade boards or whatever unless you really mess up, then you will have a very tough assessment. The reasoning behind all this is that when KLM hires its pilots they are already checked for captaincy potential, and this is continuously monitored throughout your carreer as an FO. And let's be honest, its not rocket science to fly a plane.
I think the upgrades in HK must be really tough, since such a high percentage of the candidates don't make it through. Good luck out there.