Overall, I agree with many points raised by frequent posters above, but broadly come to a different conclusion.

I think CX has made a strategic decision to extract value from MPC (instead of outsourcing inherent value to partner OW program), which is good for us loyal CX frequent fliers.

For example, CX has decimated partner availability, in premium classes at least. Meanwhile, I've noticed a big change to awards, at least for how I use them (premium cabins only, last minute): a lot more award availability!

I've also noticed another appreciated change: tighter seat blocking, but easily and quickly making it available to DMs.

I always believed CX had massive latent potential. It's the aspirational actual product that AA, BA, maybe QF and others would prefer to use. Then you have Alaska, a brilliant arbitrage program that had the unintended consequences for many years of making everyone figure out how to get CX J and F on the cheap cheap. OW partners had somehow convinced CX executives that distribution aka the huge captive customer base of AA/BA/AS etc. loyalty members, was something CX badly needed, so it was still worth it for CX to cough up CX's obviously better product in exchange for massive distribution of cheap incremental seats (or CX/MPC/Swire was just asleep at the switch at all the value they were giving up for years). But that has clearly changed. and guess what? It's pretty obvious that was all a bluff by AA/BA/AS. Just as airlines aren't super loyal to us, we're not super loyal to them either. People are about to leave BA in droves. When a company makes such a change, people look around and see the alternatives and do the hard cost/benefit analysis. The onemile guy, Lucky or something, just has a post that he's leaving AA EXP after a long time.

Guess what? In an era of extremely fungible credit card points, the loyalty program with the competitive advantage is the one with the aspirational product like CX.

What is an obvious way for CX to further enhance the MPC program? By making benefits for SL GO and DMs incrementally better than what you'd get if you were a OW or partner with CX. The low hanging fruit is award availability and seat blocking, neither are promised as OW benefits to partners and both obviously have a lot of value. CX can make more money and have a lot more control by being the "fed" themselves (instead of farming that points central bank role to AA, BA or AS). The bottom line is selling points is lucrative and CX has been leaving a lot of money on the table, IMO (not to mention working capital benefits) by farming out redemptions to partners. I see them improving MPC, at least from my perspective, "enhancements" of the last 12-24 months haven't cut value for me, I think they've added it.

One last comment on the BUDs. I think they're a really great program. For me, like others they've lost a lot of their value because there is so little F availability and I generally buy J or F fares (although I have purchased a few economy fares in the last few years with family!). But I'm like the posters above who think/hope this is just a temporary reduction. And I also like the 1,800 benefit, I've given it to Mrs. QRC a few years when she needed it, or to staff as an incentive. There are some rough edges to the program that could be ironed out like rolling over SPs and hard resets and the like, which hopefully will be addressed. Overall though I think we're in a unique position to maybe see value accrue to us as loyal CX MPC members, while other programs that have been over-earning for years (AA, BA, etc.) are likely to continue to see the value proposition drop. The Mid-Tier Benefits program has definitely encouraged me to keep flying CX at least to get to 1,800. I am also something of a free agent flyer, it's true my flight budget/annual flying allowance is quite a bit above 1,800 SP equivalent, but CX is capturing more of my budget by having this Mid-Tier Benefits program than they would otherwise I think. So it's not a stupid program, maybe they could just expand on the idea.

Of course, the big benefit those now-disgruntled / screwed over AA and BA flyers got wasn't immaterial - they got to earn zillions of points, many of which were redeemed very favorably on CX. So they got a lot of value. Unfortunately the value they extracted was more in the past, where ours might be more in future (provided you stay a CX elite).