LapuLapu

Care to elaborate? With the changes, CX has lost about 3k usd in tickets sales from me in the last 4 months alone. Its not much but every dollar counts and it will add up.

Sure, the lounges will not be overcrowded anymore but does the savings in lounge operations offset the loss in ticket revenue?


I don't see a lot of posts from people clamoring to join MPC because of the changes.

moondog

I'm guessing that they found other people to give them the $3k they lost from you. I'm not defending them, but in light of the fact that they own HKG, and competing ffp's are crappy, it doesn't seem like they had much to lose by making mpc less attractive to those of who don't spend big bucks.

fakecd

i switched to qf. their gold oneworld saphhire is easy to attain or retain. couple of business class runs ex XXX via hk within asia gets you there... as an indication i can get 240 status credits on qf for 6k hkd or about 850 usd. i spent total of circa 23k hkd or 4k usd to reach 700 for initial qualification but only rquire 600 points for requalify.

they have 4 segment requirement on qf jetstar metal but so many jetstar flighs intra asia. i just fly SIN KUL on jetstar for about 100 usd return when i visit sing.

they say points burn is bad on qf. well just gottabe smart about it. i use qf for status but credit card for asiamiles. for redempion i always redeem for HND flight when family visits longer than 2 wks and cx jacks up those prx to 1.5k usd fo economy... no poblem a same 30k asiamiles or 45k qf points to redeem.

sxc

For jetstar flights you have to make sure you're buying a fare that earns miles because the cheapest fare classes don't count as qualifying segments b

fakecd

correct. Their bare Economy (those $3 SGD fares advertised) fares do not earn status credits. But you can pay additional 30-40USD to make it a "starter PLUS" fare on Jetstar which earns QF status credits. So you would laugh, I secured a $3 SGD fare for SIN-KUL but these "add ons" and other costs totally costed $80SGD at the end.

never-the-less I value the status mostly for lounge / priority checkin etc when travel in economy. and QF Gold - sapphire allows just that for one-world network globally and think it's worthwhile. with CX a 23k HKD spend will probably net me 1/3 way to Silver which is a mere OW ruby anyways.

JeCCo

Just out of curiousity - what flights were these?

I'm guessing its not on QF metal otherwise you wouldn't have to do the SIN-KUL runs.

I've ditched MPO by status matching my Gold to a few other programs.. but that can only last so long while I sort out my long term strategy.

ashsong

I just started my MPC Gold membership year, and am also thinking about transitioning to an other programme.

Would you mind sharing who you did status match with?

JeCCo

I matched with Avianca Brazil to get *A Gold for some time and then used that with Air Berlin to get OW Sapphire while my MPO slowly runs out..

You can have a look online at the popular blogs or statusmatcher.com if you want see the other options available.

fakecd

TPE-HKG-SIN return on cx business class (I/D mixed fare) credit to QF. 40+80+80+40 = 240 SCs. I put a stop-over so added to the cost but if you are willing to do without stop over think it's cheaper yet. Then I added SIN-KUL on 3K (jetstar asia) as I wanted to enjoy gold benefit for my pending trip to Australia in Dec, so I got out of my way to add sidetrip for initial qualification. Otherwise 4QF sector in a year isn't an issue.

fakecd

whilst I myself was beneficiary of status match to Star* gold in the past with a very minor carrier who's gone out business now, this is exactly why I think the practice of status match to be very unfair and result in lounge over-crowding.

Set

Can we please get a consensus? To those who left Cathay FF, which FF did you choose?

I need to sign up now, am travelling CX but refuse to pay for the honour of joining!

JALPak

Which one to join really depends on your travel pattern. There's no universal answer for everybody.

hakzai

I joined BA.
I'm already BA bronze after a HKG-CDG RT.
Will be BA silver after a 2nd HKG-CDG RT.

QRC3288

ha, you're asking for something that doesn't exist! But the most common candidates people seem to be doing, depending on travel patterns, base and annual spending are:

*AA
*BA
*Non-affiliated free agent (ie, flying anything for the right price)
*Just accepting it and sticking with CX. There is a current thread about a CX DM who is thinking to downgrade himself to GO and basically be a free agent above that.

3d5692y3

My 2 cents: with all the airlines making the same changes, does it even matter to switch to another FFP, if, I assume, most of us are based in HK, Southeast Asia, and China? Would another airline (e.g., Sri Lankan Airlines) give you a better deal? Well, some just have to accepted the change as an industry trend.

For me, switching from SQ PPS to CX is a better choice, based on my flight pattern. Even with SQ PPS (above the Star Alliance Gold), I was treated only as Star Alliance Gold, no particular perks when flying other OW airlines. But with CX Diamond and OW Emerald, I am at a different level.

In fact, for my mostly D/I (sometimes J/C) flights, it's actually easier to keep my status than the previous system. Don't mean to be annoying, but some people are happier.