Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - MPC may be in for a revamp!

Heard from 2 sources, that the MPC may be in for a re-vamp. Don't know the details.

Maybe our voices have finally be heard!

Mile bonuses? Better service? Can't wait to see the outcome....

My 2 humble guesses which I believe is very probable.

1) Reducing qualification levels to those level similar to other OW carieers. (eg. Silver becomes 20,000)

2) Introduction of elite bonuses (yes, our voice must be heard!!)

That's all I can think of so far...

My guess would be :
1) Bonus miles for CX flights only.
2) Copycat of SQ's PPS system?

Heard from an CX lounge agent...but that's HER opinion/guess... that CX may restrict access to F class lounge for real First Class passengers, and its own Diamond members only when not flying First. (a la SQ in SINGAPORE SILVER KRIS lounge)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Guy Betsy:
Heard from an CX lounge agent...but that's HER opinion/guess... that CX may restrict access to F class lounge for real First Class passengers, and its own Diamond members only when not flying First. (a la SQ in SINGAPORE SILVER KRIS lounge)</font>

Wouldn't this be a repudiation of the oneWorld alliance rules?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Plato90s:
Wouldn't this be a repudiation of the oneWorld alliance rules?</font>

IMHO, you must take into consideration that OW Emerald status is equivalent to CX Gold (only OW Saphhire) in terms of qualification level. I feel that CX Diamond has this "exclusiveness", so I would support this change regarding the restricted lounge access. (What other OW FFP requires 100,000 qualification miles?)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fakecd:
IMHO, you must take into consideration that OW Emerald status is equivalent to CX Gold (only OW Saphhire) in terms of qualification level. I feel that CX Diamond has this "exclusiveness", so I would support this change regarding the restricted lounge access. (What other OW FFP requires 100,000 qualification miles?)

</font>

Actually, AA EXP also requires 100k miles/points.

But I agree Marco Polo club has some really high requirements. The "reset to zero" means that in the first year of membership, you'd have to fly 210k miles in order to get CX Diamond. That's ridiculously high.

Even so, AA EXP is still much more difficult to get than CX Gold.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by fakecd:
IMHO, you must take into consideration that OW Emerald status is equivalent to CX Gold (only OW Saphhire) in terms of qualification level. I feel that CX Diamond has this "exclusiveness", so I would support this change regarding the restricted lounge access. (What other OW FFP requires 100,000 qualification miles?)

</font>


Well..The BA scheme in the UK only credits 1st and Business class passengers with anything towards status. You could do 500,000 miles in discounted economy and still be blue. With Qantas, to get to Platinum would require 11 roundtrips LHR-SYD on discount economy tickets ( approx 220,00 miles ).

It doesn't really matter though what they have decided to make their qualification level. They have decided to define a level as being Emerald equivalent. They should abide by the OW agreements over access.

It's a lot harder for a BA member travelling mainly in cheapo economy to reach BA Gold than for an AA member to reach EXP but should BA stop other OW Emerald members using their 1st lounges

Dave

[This message has been edited by Dave Noble (edited 03-30-2002).]

We may never know till it happens!

Better get in my miles to qualify for Diamond ... only 25K to go.

[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 03-30-2002).]

GuyBesty and the Flyertalk Crew:

I am not sure if these rumours are true as the changes to First Class lounge policy would violate the rules of oneworld alliance lounge policy.

I don't think Cathay Pacific would make such dramatic changes where members will become disgruntle. CX is positioning themselves for the business travel rebound and they have made the committment to their vision of becoming a leading airline. Examples of product innovations include their new Business Class product featuring flat-stretch beds, new "The Pier" lounge facility at HKIA and their leading e-Business Initiative.

From what I hear is that CX will extend the bonus miles to Marco Polo Club members when flying Cathay Pacific. I think this is a smart move and would provide CX with the extra revenue by providing members the extra incentive to fly CX. For example, Qantas offers these bonuses to their members.

I personally think CX is the best airline in the world with great innovative products that even SQ and other airlines talk about.


[This message has been edited by oneworld Fan (edited 03-30-2002).]

Hello oneworld Fan, welcome to FlyerTalk.

Yes the rumour that MPC will extend the bonus miles to members flying CX is true. Don't know if it will be counted as status miles though. CX must have seen its revenue soar with this promo and realise that people will fly more if a promo is in place.

The lounge access is only a rumour I heard at the lounge itself. Possibly when the lounge (First and Wing) is packed during peak times. One then laments the policy that SQ in Singapore did to alienate its Star Gold members by restricting their access to its Silver Kris Lounge. Sure it's a gripe and against Star Gold Lounge access policy but of course SQ is quick to put footnotes on their lounge policy access. This restriction certainly did not prevent other Star members from restricting lounge access for SQ Star Gold members.

So we will just have to see what will transpire from the new revamp. Already, lounge access is restricted to MPC members only when arriving from a long haul CX flight and continuing onto a China-bound flight on any carrier. OneWorld Sapphire and Emerald members do not even have this access.

"So we will just have to see what will transpire from the new revamp. Already, lounge access is restricted to MPC members only when arriving from a long haul CX flight and continuing onto a China-bound flight on any carrier. OneWorld Sapphire and Emerald members do not even have this access"

But this is quite correct within the terms of OW. Lounge access is specifically stated as only being available when departing on an OW carrier. It's no different to BA allowing access to their own lounges to BA Gold members who are travelling on non OW airlines.

Dave

Guy Betsy, star alliance has only 2 levels, and gold is achieved after 50K miles, even on SQ. So the OW emerald level is much higher, though not as high as SQ PPS. So the 1st class lounge access comparison between SQ and CX is not a good one. The OW emerald's have flown twice as many miles than the star alliance gold.

agree with headinclouds, SQ's comparison isn't too exact...SQ at least did provide similar, business-class lounge access to *G, just not their own SQ lounge...this is probably good enough in terms of the promise to the members...

but if CX is doing something similar in HKG, they need to give Emerald's something better than their normal business-class lounge...they just cannot justify giving Emerald's and Sapphire's the same lounge, given that there's a better, first-class lounge available...

But Star Alliance Gold members also include the ranks of UA 1Ks, who needs to fly the same or more miles than AA Executive Platinums. While I appreciate CX letting me into their F lounges, I also think sometimes that they are going far and beyond esp. when they allow Y pax to F lounges. The Wing sometimes looks chaotic.

Does anybody have any idea WHEN these changes might take place? Are we talking a matter of a few months or a few decades?

I want to get really excited about this, but it sounds like we're only talking about rumour here....

Added to our wish list is that CX will run MPC, not their contractor.

I use the CX F lounge in HKG frequently and have never found it to be crowded. It doesn't seem like there's a need to restrict access. I hope!