Simmo

I have decided Cathay is the best program for my boss (seriously dont laugh)

He`s looking to fly fortnightly from CTS to SYD (via HKG) to CBR in Y probably is class H probably with Cathay earning 100% EQM.

I asked theclub@c...... whether they would be interested in offering advanced status based on these bookings (i did mentioned i could book more in advanced if required) and their reply was to tell me how to become an elite member and the criteria and sign up fee like i am some sort of idiot. They would not even waive his MPC fee.

He should reach Gold with them easy next year and Diamond the year after with the possibility of reaching Diamond next year if they give him the Silver head start. I realise he is only flying Y and they probably dont give a hoot about Y travel but i am hoping someone here knows someone i can contact who might be interested in helping with my request or am i being unreasonable? As i said i should be able to book about 6 or so months worth of travel upfront if they give the go ahead.

Also does Cathay have a status buy up like AA where you can buy airline credit to spend on flights up front in order to get elite status? (not entirely sure whether i imagined this but i think it exist or did exist)

The other option is he flies with JAL which he personally prefers which i am fighting hard to change his mind.

Jane's Addiction

No status buy ups.

One would think for US$50,000 in revenues they would be open to comping silver status in advance, though I think it's not that likely.

It would help your cause if he had existing elite status on another airline and could demonstrate that to MPC, and say he would switch his business to CX if they gave him some consideration on a comp to silver. Would help even more if you had old tickets on the same route.

If I was doing this fortnightly for a year or more, NO WAY would I opt for CX which looks like an extra 6 hours travel time outbound to SYD and 3 hours on the return over some of the JL options. As a boss, I wouldn't be thrilled to have someone pushing hard to get me to consider the more travel intensive option, especially if I already preferred the other option.

Simmo

Yes but he would be flying into NRT from SYD which there are only 2 flights or something a day on the NRT > CTS leg so actually this is a better options transfer wise too and he doesnt have to check his luggage in twice which is what he would have to do for the JAL SYD>NRT>CTS but the biggest benefit of MPC is the guaranteed seating plus lets face it ... they look after their elites overall better.

You`re right if he was doing a status match they would be all over it but from what i heard Cathay seems like a flexible airline that i thought might be interested but i could be wrong. The boss will be thrilled if he can chill out in the overcrowded lounge in HKG though!

QRC3288

May not be what you want to hear.....but that flying isn't much (nor too much rev) by some of CX elite's standards. I'm hardly alone on this board in making DM status well under a year when first joining as GR a few years ago. It does stink that it would take 3x round-trips to reach SL from CTS to SYD (instead of 2x, which I think would be reasonable, aka if you were doing HKG-JFK). Maybe after the first two round-trips without status you could write CX and egg them to give SL early for the third round-trip, assuming it was already ticketed and paid for?

It stinks I'm sure, but flying patterns can change very suddenly. I suspect CX and other airlines have seen plenty of instances where they comp status, and then travel dies off. Not because of misplaced intentions, but just because the world changes.

fakecd

"booking" and "ticketed booking" is world apart. if you've actually referring to ticketed bookings you have stronger argument but as you said it yourself, economy class isn't going to thrill them much.

if I read it correctly that's 6 MPC sectors in each trip, or 12 sectors in 1 month... so in 2mth your boss makes silver. then another 4 mths to make gold. not too bad.

you could maximize the "status" part by going CTS-NRT-HKG-SYD-CBR that gives 16 sectors in 1 month. you could of course get creative and do CTS-NRT-HKG-BNE-SYD-CBR and make it 20 seectors in 1 mth lol.

Simmo

I guess all that is true and to be expect but it is the same truth.

Simmo

These crazy sectors ideas might work. How would one book such multi sectors? I wasnt able to when i looked under Multi-city/Stopover. Is that the wrong place? Or should i book through another airline? What do you recommend? Travel agent?

EDIT i do not think this will work as eligible classes on JAL especially are like Y only which is insane domestically and same with Qantas nearly. But i could be wrong.

Flyer888

To start from Green to advance all the way to Diamond, one needs to fly210,000 miles or 140 sectors (70 round trips in Y).

People earn the status when they get there. Simple logic.

Fly2Where

$499 priority pass is an easier solution for lounge access. for extra legroom, either pay for wait for 2 months.
If you are heavy traveller, I don't see what stopped you to do status match from other airlines. CX usually comp to silver.

kaka

muppets..... deleted

kaka

simmO, i tell you what: forget about being GR for the 1st 30000 mmiles/20 sectors, but be an asiamiles member. my mum got her silver card flying 20000 miles. and she didnt have to pay the 50USD fee.

Simmo

As in she just signed up for Asian Miles and not Marco Polo and they comped her Silver and MPC membership after flying 20,000 miles?

I am currently exploring the corporate route and hoping we can have some more success by getting in touch with someone in CX sales department. However, as Flyer888 pointed out, it is highly likely he might just have to start from the bottom like everyone else.

ChrisLi

Hey Simmo,

Does she has any elite status elsewhere? when comp-ed, she will start right at SL which already have longue access and business class check-in and blah blah blah , then she start building the 60K mark towards GO

The auto upgrade one is more like sign-up for AsiaMiles (which is free), fly without status, and aiming at auto-upgrade (which highly likely if she is flying like crazy). She then got comp to SL and build against the 60K mark

However, I will say USD 50 might worth it for the priority check-in and priority boarding, especially when you doing ex-CTS when there are many tourist .....

Simmo

It's a he and i was referring to kaka wife. Sadly no status with anyone. I hope we should just sign up MPC and hope for the best.

fakecd

20k mpc miles (roughtly speaking) and auto-comp to silver is correct. I had it happen to me in Mar 2010 (i was downgraded from gold to green last year and made back to silver again with 9k short of gold now) and to my friend earlier this summer 2010. I'm not happy about it there's just way too many silver out there. Have you seen how busy the lounge these days has been? Much of them displaying a Y-class boarding pass

That lowers the bar to 20+60+120k to a mere 200,000 club miles to diamond.