Originally Posted by Dom_Dinis

The travel pattern is always HKG-OPO, which I have been doing mostly with CX to MAD and onwards to OPO with IB. Last year August used QR, but connection to Portugal is always with IB or BA.

Understand CX provides lounge access to silver (Ruby) but only on CX flights. When I land at Madrid, and have to wait 4 hours for connection flight to OPO, I am
not admitted into the IB lounge with CX Silver. Regarding CDG or AMS, there’s no OW connection from these places to Portugal.

Why IB+ Oro:
- OW Sapphire
- Access to OW business lounges
- Priority boarding

Why IB+:
- less number of flights to reach sapphire level
- EP points from partner airlines are not massively devalued compared to CX
- accepts Avios transfers from BAEC (I have credit cards that transfer points to BA avios)

I think overall seems a better alternative to keep some status (Sapphire) at a much lower cost (less flights) and less cost per flight (Finnair vs BA vs CX). Hopefully, IB+ will value my “Classic Eco” L/K as Full economy so that long haul is worth 350 EPs on the HKG-HEL leg.