Originally Posted by
Jane's Addiction
Think I may be changing my strategy. Not sure I see much upside to continuing to bank excess miles with CX, especially with the F lounge closed. While I fly a lot in J and will do 300k miles this year, I don;t think I am going to end up as DM+ candidate.
Had a straw that broke the camel's back moment last night.
Have flown SGN-HKG-SGN 10 times in paid J (or I) since Nov 2011 (among lots of other flying, but been on this route a lot). Y always packed, so very often a ton of op-ups in J.
Booked a ticket last night in Y instead of J mostly to see if I would get an up-op. Y cabin ended up overbooked. Watched several op-ups get called up to podium pre-boarding. Not all were DMs either (the ISM kindly confirmed this for me). Not me.
I subscribe to the get what you pay for philosophy, so I am not mad nor do I feel that I didn't get something I deserved, however it crystallized the fact that I may as well put the bulk of the next 140k miles on Star and/or Skyteam, since putting excess on CX has little marginal benefit if I am flying in J anyway.
It's a shame that they'll lose business from someone who is flying the # of miles you are, which incidentally is putting a lot of $ in their coffers. They really should give something...maybe an upgrade cert or two...when people cross 150 or 200k a year in elite miles. They just need to more clearly WHAT the benefits are you'll receive, instead of all these "unofficial" (official, in our minds) benefits. So if they say, "you will definitely get an upgrade cert at 150k, and at 200k, and at 250k as you keep accumulating past your DM status this qualifying year", that might take the sting off not receiving these "unofficial" benefits, like op-ups.
Right now they like the system of "unofficial" benefits because it reduces any liability they feel they'd have, and has created a trove of FT members who rejoice in saying things like "don't expect it" and "you get what you paid for". But hey, guess what, when you're contributing $150k a year in revenue to an airline and some other guy is only giving $10k, something just doesn't feel right about that when they're getting upgraded over you because they checked in first, or some other silly metric. So by clarifying a few things (aka, adding an "official" benefit or two past the 120k mark), it might do them great things in keeping valuable passengers like yourself.
I actually think there are great benefits to CX allowing lesser-spending pax to receive DM, get upgrades, etc. It builds incredible loyalty. They just need a way, however, to clearly go above and beyond rewarding those who are both loyal and highly profitable, without diluting the elite status. Upgrade certs or miles bonuses at the very high end (maybe even only at the 180k or higher mark in a 12 month period) is a good way to do that.