You are right, Cathay Boy. I need to do a RTW in business and I am choosing Star Alliance to get the air miles. If CX made the "extra" miles worth more, I might have stuck with oneworld. For example, if they offered lifetime membership like they used to and AA does, I would fly on CX/oneworld whenever I could.

That said, miles to get elite status are not the determining factor all the time. CX does treat us nicely at the airport and on board, and I know if anything goes wrong CX will be more helpful. So I will still fly CX/KA on routes where the competition is bad, e.g. all mainland cities, Jakarta, Manila, Johannesburg, etc. And even for places with more choice, like Singapore, London and Tokyo, after a hard week on the road, I always feel like I'm already back home in Hong Kong and can relax the minute I step on board a CX aircraft. On other airlines, no matter how nice they are (objectively I do think SQ has better seats and food and excellent service too), I still feel like I am overseas. So sometimes it's worth it just to get home sooner as it were.

But I digress, and I certainly don't mean to sound like a CX advert. They are definitely losing a significant part of my business by not making the "extra" miles worth more.