Post-plague has seen a boom in premium leisure travel on cash tickets and airlines have been taking advantage. If Cathay makes the potential changes discussed above (which at this point is pure speculation) it will be making the same mistake as BA and others, of taking legions of high-volume but relatively low yield flyers (both business and leisure) for granted only to discover, come the next big demand downturn that it has lost loyalty it built over years. Classic mistake - and disappointingly tacky - but understandable given the dichotomy of "loyalty programmes" (from our view) and "profit maximisation" programmes (from the airlines').