Originally Posted by
CXYYZ
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).
Quite agree that CX runs a very different business model from BA / QF / QR, which is tricky to balance the interests of different stakeholders. For CX, a major MPC overhaul could require lots of data work. Not exactly sure if CX can ace it.
CX lounge network capacity is way below pre-COVID level. I totally understand the need of rationalising lounge investment. But many CX-operated outport lounges are even getting more popular than pre-COVID time while other OW operators cannot scale up their lounge offerings as demand recovers. The loss of the Cabin capacity has proved to be very substantial now. In other OW hubs like LHR and MAD, it is just messier...though not of any CX's strategic miscalculation. SYD/MEL/HND/NRT/HEL are doing just fine really because QF/JL/AY did not scale back their lounge capacity significantly from pre-COVID levels at their home bases.
CX BKK lounge will get worse after QR moves to the midfield terminal. And the JL lounge cannot share much burden. The OW lounges at ICN and AMS are good additions post COVID. But it does not address the issues faced by some OW hubs where there are many high-frequency international flights.
Anyway, back to the topic, CX will need to find a solution, either the supply for demand side. It could be hard to keep everyone happy. And judging from how happy CX is with its convenience store sized offline outlet at Taikoo, I dont think it would back from any lifestyle initiatives including credit card collab.