Originally Posted by
GE90-115B
CX has less lounge capacity at HKG compared to the past. They used to have The Cabin which closed in around '17-18? And then the first floor of Wing J and the Bridge also closed following the pandemic. I get that the Bridge is coming back (which is a pleasant surprise) but I can definitely see how the loss of the former two has contributed to the crowding situation we see here today.
I don't have the numbers about who are the biggest cohort of fliers clogging up the lounges, but the "armchair GM" in me thinks opening a few more lounges to create more overall capacity is an option worth considering instead of stripping unlimited access from SL's.
It’s not just an HKG issue though. For example, LHR is awful at peak times - especially end of term. This isn’t just a “crowding” issue. The LHR lounge team flat-out turn away CX’s own premium cabin passengers, so it’s an actual “access” issue. I would guess a lot of the LHR surge in demand is from SLs given the presumptive travel pattern.
I think this is a really tricky issue. Giving SL lounge access 100% drives loyalty, as suggested up thread, but there are direct/indirect costs that need to be balanced.
As with all of CX’s loyalty moves over the last many years, I expect any change to vaguely resemble the moves of BA or QF but to be designed with a nickle-and-dime mindset and to also be completely inappropriate for the CX business/market.
We have seen this with adjusted status points earning ratios that got adjusted during COVID, the apparent massive underperformance of the SCB / Cathay credit card and the laughably poor (and now partially reversed) attempts to conflate the airline’s core brand with the “lifestyle” focus (i.e. hawking insurance products and duty free items to members).