I achieved DM in the eighth month of my membership year. I won't clock up enough revenue to make DM+. For the remaining four months of my membership year, is there any reason I should keep flying on CX, other than schedule convenience and possibility of upgrades? Or should I try to get Gold on Star Alliance instead?

Thanks in advance to all you FlyerTalk experts for your advice!

If you could get gold/preserve your CO gold in the next 3 months, why not. You never know when you'll have to fly star alliance next year, and you could get the priority standby over someone else.

I think some people says that if you normally travel in J or F you should build against AA EXP ? that will be something inteseting for you to try as they give bonus points and if you build it long enough, you get lifetime gold ?

Depends on the way you travel.

If you are traveling in J or F, there's little incentive to keep flying CX simply because of op-up, J --> F op-up is rare. However, if you got to DM by flying mostly Y, then I would say sticking with CX might be worth it due to higher chance of op-up as DM.

Otherwise, definitely get *A Gold, it opens up that much more opportunity for you as you fly other airlines.

It depends if you want to put mileage with other OW program. You can still checkin using CX then last minute change the FFP. I.e. After upgrade is issued.

I agree in general, but caution that the J -> F op-up is not that rare any more. Any time flights start getting consistently full, it does happen. I used to get upgraded J -> F about 20% of the time through 2006 and 2007, and am experiencing that again now.

Thanks, everyone. I guess there is no additional benefit in going over 120,000 miles during a membership year. So I will book enough *A flights to keep Gold and use CX otherwise.

I'm not sure this is correct. On the contrary, J-F op-up in my experience is pretty common. As all op-ups are, I suppose it's route specific - but I have received an abundance of them in the last 12 months. Since March of this year, I've done 12 long-haul (HKG-USA or USA-HKG) segments where I was originally booked in J class. Out of those 12, I have received 5 op-ups to F class. And on one of the times where I didn't get it, op-up was on the way......but then the plane went tech and many people on the flight opted just to go back to a hotel and not wait in the airport for when we finally departed 5 hours later. Hence I was relegated back to J.

Actually, J-F op-ups are one of the main reasons I'd argue to KEEP flying CX as a DM. My anecdotal experience seems to indicate that they happen more often on SFO and LAX flights. I have also received it flying to YYZ. (I have never once received a J-F op-up on HKG-JFK). But the possibility of them definitely keep me loyal to CX when I book J class tix. I have thought about this before, and I think if CX were to take away the op-up possibilities that would probably change my calculus and make me start booking more *A tix. But for the time being, with the rate of op-ups I'm hitting, I find it a great benefit.

When booked in J, there are two ways (instead of just one for EY) that you can get a J-F op-up. The first is if the J cabin is oversold. However, the second is if EY is overbooked by so much that surplus goes into J, where that surplus (aka, DMs originally booked in J) then gets bumped to F. On my SFO-HKG op-ups, this is almost ALWAYS how it happens. There are a few empty J seats, but Y is oversold by 10+, and then they push as many people from J-F as possible in order to make room for EY op-ups.

Who says it's rare? I sure it depends on the route. YYZ / HKG is actually quite good for op-ups from J -> F in my experience.

I just got one as a Gold on HKG-YYZ - and from an upgrade reward no less. I wonder how many people were DB on that flight?

CX should consider giving u/g vouchers to DMs that have already requalified. Number of vouchers might be connected to how fast one requalifies. My only incentive of flying CX is the possible op-up from J-F

....ditto. But I have to say, if you fly a lot of long-haul and book in J, it's a good incentive! I would have to imagine for someone flying Y it might even be MORE valuable to be DM, since hitting a J upgrade must be nice if you're stuck in EY for long-haul.

Many DM and GO would take their biz elsewhere when they requalified and realize they either don't have enough to move up (GO) or like the OP asks the question what's the point of sticking with CX (DM). There are many options CX can have to keep the DM/GO flying with them.

1) U/g vouchers
2) Bonus tier miles

You are right, Cathay Boy. I need to do a RTW in business and I am choosing Star Alliance to get the air miles. If CX made the "extra" miles worth more, I might have stuck with oneworld. For example, if they offered lifetime membership like they used to and AA does, I would fly on CX/oneworld whenever I could.

That said, miles to get elite status are not the determining factor all the time. CX does treat us nicely at the airport and on board, and I know if anything goes wrong CX will be more helpful. So I will still fly CX/KA on routes where the competition is bad, e.g. all mainland cities, Jakarta, Manila, Johannesburg, etc. And even for places with more choice, like Singapore, London and Tokyo, after a hard week on the road, I always feel like I'm already back home in Hong Kong and can relax the minute I step on board a CX aircraft. On other airlines, no matter how nice they are (objectively I do think SQ has better seats and food and excellent service too), I still feel like I am overseas. So sometimes it's worth it just to get home sooner as it were.

But I digress, and I certainly don't mean to sound like a CX advert. They are definitely losing a significant part of my business by not making the "extra" miles worth more.

I agree with that. SQ does a few things I prefer (notably food, and offering a proper J between HKG and SIN on at least some flights), but there's a comfort factor with CX, that I don't get even if I fly J on SQ: F class check-in, F lounge, priority handling in case something goes wrong, if I want to change flight booking I have seat guarantee, extra nice when on board, etc. Though I don't think it's all specific to CX, as I used to feel the same way about SQ when I lived in SIN and was PPS with them...