Originally Posted by
zippinbye
What? Don't ask me to quote the PWA, because I am too lazy to look it up at the moment. But the only CP pilot involvement I have ever had with deviations between Asia and the U.S. was to force me onto a flight showing no availability (special personal circumstance). You also need CP or CS intervention to change a back-end deviation after booking it, but the pilot has total control to change with front end. Of course with the caveat of seat availability. I always get "C" when booking in Company Business myself. On the rare occasions it has not been available, I choose another city pair, my original DH, or the Radisson for a try another day. It's a bit different using the XCM menu to book the way home, but if availability showed under the Company Business field, you'll get "C" on the back end too. There's no time limit for booking the front end. Check you PBS award, book the deviation. For PCS and reserve action, obviously the timeframe could be short and seats might be tight. A call to local ops in NRT (known as "inflight" there) can help iron out any seat issues you may have for an outbound deviation and grease the shore pass/gen dec details.
Back end deviations can be booked in Icrew, in business, once the rotation begins. Front-end deviations cannot be booked in business class without speaking with a human. The process I described is exactly what you need to do; book in coach (business will be grayed out) copy down the PNR, and have CS upgrade you (seats must be available). Also, importantly, you are on your own WRT customs inbound. Reference the FOM. In Narita, that means no shore pass, you clear customs and get a visa like everyone else. And hotel transportation is on you, but in NRT that's not an issue. It is an issue in CDG. Not on gen dec, can't ride crew bus from plane side. It's a hassle we shouldn't have to deal with. The company has the ability to add us to the gen dec digitally when we deviate given enough heads up, they just won't.