Originally Posted by QRC3288

But, while no doubt there are going to be people pissed, I don't see why restricting (in some cases, obviously arbitrage situation) partner award tickets is a long term concern to CX? If this councides with Asia Miles redemption prices which are more competitive, long term it could serve CX well. One of the ovbious "problems" with Asia Miles is that CX partners can redeem on CX far cheaper (Alaska long haul J and F, Avios short haul, etc), and for a long time had access to nearly if not equal inventory. In some cases it actually was preferential to NOT be Asia Miles / MPC (old AA partner F and J redemption, coupled with AA EXP status), but rather be the competitor's highest elite to burn partner tickets on CX metal. As​​​​​As the brand owners (CX), this is not an ideal situation! You own the desirable asset yet your "friend" aka frenemy in OneWorld is eating your lunch.

today, points are majority earned by credit cards. Plain and simple.

It is by all means in CX's interest to encourage those marginal (and overwhelming majority) flexible credit card points to turn into Asia Miles - not Avios, not Advantage, not Alaska, etc. - for burning on CX metal. The customer is a total merceny these days, because he/she has access to every FF point currency out there thanks to flexible credit card points. Ergo, the "value" Avios pitches (I've heard the pitch) is tenuous at best. Because scores of Avios and other point currencies are not actually earned natively but rather are transferred opportunistically. Even the self branded credit cards are laughable (some actually laughed at the Avios folks pitching us) because the idea that the BA card, or AA card, or CX credit card etc is a native and captive customer is becoming more and more of nonsense. Because you'll have affluent customers owning 6 airline credit cards, which ends up being the same as flexible credit card points.

This is all a long way of saying customers are highly rational and right now have near total flexibility with points. It is not a smart proposition in this day and age for someone like CX, or any other carrier, to farm out their mileage program to partners. Much better to capture it all in house. With a well run airline owning its own loyalty program (like CX and others), there may be a role for partners, but it certainly isn't an outsized role, and it certainly isn't to allow the partner to arbitrage at the expense of your own currency's value. You want to capture the partner currency only when it is totally captive and the customer is "stuck" into earning those points. Flexible credit card currencies have totally upended the market and I see this as a natural, albeit highly delayed response by CX to restrict partners.