Originally Posted by
Cambo
Looks to me, the classical discussion (or hate/love relationship, if you want to call it that way), between the have's and not-have's
Well, I have never been in a situation of getting op-up, but being denied the lounge (and as I noted, I consider it very unlikely to happen), so there is nothing personal here for me. I just think that CX policy is stupid (
regardless of percentage of customers being for and against it), since there is a simple solution that allows CX not to offer lounge and at the same time avoid any chance of making customers unhappy about that – upgrade at the gate (i.e. announce upgrades at the gate, regardless of when they were actually assigned). And introducing or enforcing further a stupid policy doesn’t make any positive impression.
As I remember, I
might have been upgraded to J when flying CX, not having active oneworld Sapphire at that time and when upgrade was given in advance: when I had a booking in PE, and due to change of the aircraft I had been relocated to J. I am
absolutely sure I got the lounge access then, but cannot say for sure whether I had Sapphire that time or not (likely not, since at around that time the possibility to assign topbonus number to CX bookings vanished). And I think I was once upgraded to J when having Sapphire (either from Y or PE), but it allowed me to use CX arrival lounge in HKG, which was otherwise unavailable for Sapphire elites.
So in my experience, op-ups gave me lounge access.
However, these were extremely rare cases. Most of op-ups I had on CX, as well as some other carries, were given when I had an elite status (on EVA as *A Gold, on Jet Airways as Etihad Gold, on Hong Kong Airlines as Fortune Wings Gold). Even these were usually given at the gate, rather than in advance, or in the lounge. I.e. if I were not in the lounge, but randomly moving around the terminal, I won't even know I had been assigned an upgrade.