QRC3288

Oh come on now. And long post alert!

Anyway, legal-style arguments about what's published and unpublished don't matter in the real world of customer decision-making. We all price things into experiences whether it's explicit or implicit! Customers aren't so stupid.

For example, CX's extraordinary help of DMs in IRROPs is both well-known on here and experienced by me personally on many occasions. I've had CX staff do something so beyond the pale amazing to get me on a plane I simply cannot type it in a public forum, even if we're anonymous here. Nope none of these IRROPS benefits (and many other things like op-ups, leniency on lounge guests, willingness to extent dates on upgrade certs / lounge invites, etc.) are written into the T&C of my Diamond status and CX can tell us to pound salt if they technically read the letter of their rules. But that would be dumb. And you better believe all of us Diamonds are "paying" for these unpublished services; no chance living in Hong Kong I'd risk losing my DM status, and it's heavily because of the non published benefits I receive. If CX aggressively downgraded Diamond treatment during IRROPs, I'd take more business away from them no doubt. What's published or unpublished doesn't really matter for economic reality underpinning customer decision-making, is what I'm saying. "What really happens in reality" is what matters.

Now to Jane's point. Getting something at 2 mil. miles obviously isn't that big a deal. But I think the OP is pointing out he/she is a long-term valuable passenger to CX, and this is a somewhat cheeky way of passing a referendum on the stinginess of CX's program. CX could give out lifetime Silver or Gold at 2 mil. miles, hey they could even do it as an unpublished benefit. So if Jane had published something else, "hey I got two upgrade certs", "I got lifetime Silver", "I got xyz", that would've added a little value to me, because I'm about to cross 2 mil. miles myself. Who cares if it's published or not. Based on his/her posting, I seem to have similar flying patterns. Jane getting lifetime Silver or Gold at 2 mil. miles would've definitely increased my probability of giving it, and that probability X benefit has value as long as the benefit>0. When something is published, that simply means probability (should) = 100%. But for things like IRROPS treatment, my probability of preferred treatment is already around 100% anyway as Diamond, that's how sure I am of it.

In reality, and I think Jane's Addiction is in this camp too, is I've been diversifying my flying. 10x+ flights per year of premium travel CX is missing out from me because their program just isn't that compelling, published or not I don't care as long as I get it. I've done 5-6x flights per year in SQ F and a bit more per year in EK F since I got "less enthusiastic" with CX's program back in 2016-2017 time. With the exception of maybe three or four flights, most of those 25 flights would've been CX's business for me in 2016 and earlier. But CX could win some of that business back, too. A few of my EK flights have been in F on routes to Europe that compete with CX F. And SQ F has been mostly to/from SIN and SFO; at least to SFO, CX also offers F. My point is CX has room to win more business back from me, and I imagine Jane too.

Yea, IME at 500k and 1mm they knew on-board. For 1.5mm, now that I think back on it I think I got a Y to J upgrade from PVG (on a 77H plane, skipping PEY), but the crew on board didn't say anything. Y wasn't full, which is why I think that was it.