Originally Posted by
wandering_fred
cassiohui I suspect the answer will depend on what "cheapest" actually means in combination with how many European trips you will take in a year. And how many trips will have a traveling companion (which really would need OW Sapphire for double lounge access)
V class on CX to most European cities (>5000miles) will earn 35 points each way. E class (PEY) would be 45. Since at the moment MPC Silver (target 300) will provide the single traveler with lounge access when traveling on CX it might be easier to aim for that. If your cheapest really does mean S, N or Q fare classes on CX then status may be an impossible target.
If LHR is one of your destination cities, Sri Lankan would earn more in R class (10+35 each way with MPC) and would likely be less expensive than CX V class. For certain the business cabin would a lot less than CX and the newish A330s are "nice".
Perhaps biased wandering
Fred
I actually replied pdb456 with some screenshot showing the point differences but maybe because i'm new here it's pending approval from administrators
Anyway referring to your post, I just use LHR as an example because both airlines serve the HKG<->LHR route. For a round trip Y I get (depending on Ticket Class) 40-140 BAEC tier points flying BA but only 20-90 MPC club points flying CX. (No Premium Economy for me
)
Another problem with CX is that they don't always serve where I'm going. For business reasons I had to go to Berlin, Venice, Stuttgart in the past four months, these are not CX destinations - they don't even have codeshare flights, so I'm not getting the max club points for MPC. Of course I can earn club points flying on more or less any OW flights but there is less for the same distance but CX.
The same obviously happens to BA too - if you fly with other OW members you get slightly less Tier points than what you'd otherwise get from BA, but it's still at least the same as CX. For example if I fly CX from HKG to ICN Seoul, I get 5-15 MPC club points, but 5-20 BAEC Tier Points, depending on Ticket Class.
The uncertain bit for me is, considering both have the same requirements for Ruby/Sapphire (300, 600 points respectively), it seems like BA is a no-brainer - unless I'm missing something?
The main reason I want Sapphire is not for the "bring a guest" but so I can go into a lounge as long as I fly with OW. If I'm MPC Silver I can only enter the lounge when I fly CX...and as mentioned it's quite hard for me to only fly CX.
p.s. interesting you mentioned S class - just for the sake of discussion, HKG->LHR CX S gives you 10 club points, BA S gives you 35, but HKG->ICN both S gives you 5...which is what I was thinking - at worst, same as CX, at best, quite a bit more?
For discussion sake, HKG->LHR flying srilankan gives 30-45 MPC Club Points, or 40-140 (!!!!!) BAEC Club Points.
All points calculated using official points calculator
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_....html?switch=Y
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...r/public/en_gb