Well to be fair CX should give 20 vouchers, as this is the number of sectors to qualify as SL.

But again, if this is the case what is the point? SL can only use the lounge when they fly CX.

If crowd control is the real reasons, CX should do:
- restrict the access as per policies, i.e. Limit the number of guest
- dedicate certain lounge for ow

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B142 Safari/8536.25)

Or bum up the requal requirements of status

Yes, sectors definitely more expensive. PVG-HKG-SIN RT nets me 4 sectors and about 4500 miles and the cheapest V fare is usually about 3700 CNY.

PVG-HKG-JFK RT also nets me 4 sectors, but gives a whopping 17000 miles for only about 5500 CNY.

Then they'd need to bump up GO and DM which then a lot people would jump ship.

that seems to be the way to solve the problem if there are too many DMs for the lounges.

Or strictly enforce the requirements and not give out courtesy extension to anyone even for those who have been DMs for years and failed to meet the requirement within the qualification period.

But I am not sure if lounge crowd control is the real reason here given CX is running campign to give out free GO to family of DM who flown 30,000 miles during the campaign.

so in reality lounge crowding is a problem CX created thru its intervention to its normal status policies

But the question is: Is there too many CX Diamonds? Or is there too many OWE's such as AA Plat's and....yourself using JGC with reduced mileage required?

CX Diamonds that spend upwards of 120,000 miles each year...vs those that only travel 50,000 miles. Huge difference...

Wouldn't it be easier to just give out 1 lounge invitation per check-in to SL members?

The group that doesn't feels real impact - Only take flights to/from HK directly.

Group that does feel impact - People who transfers through HK, they will either have to choose to use either out-post lounge or HK lounge. (But not both)

In reality, transfer passengers pay lower price for the combined tickets = lower revenue, they will use more lounge access as well = more expense.

This will curb either out-post non-cx operate lounge fees, or reduce congestion in HK lounges, while not leaving SLs significantly short of lounge access. (also eliminate punishing higher SLs who fly 40K~50K or 30+ segment but unable to reach gold)

I was a SL not long ago, and fly mainly ex-EU to Asian cities. All I want is a nice shower before my red-eye flight, so I can sleep well. Since HK is not my destination, I would normally want to transfer through HK asap. My choice would then be using out-post lounge on outbound, and HK lounge on inbound.

Now, there is a group would feel more pain then others - SLs who are forced to stay in HK for a transfer which last longer than certain hours, as CX operates less frequently to these locations. If that is the case, give-out 2 lounge invitations at check-in then, same if there is a delay, cancellations, CX would normally send someone waiting at the exit of the air-bridge, hand SLs additional lounge invitations with their new boarding pass.

Everything can be done by logic in the computer, so computer can handle it, without giving extra workload to ground staff, lounge invitation is given at check-in / re-issue boarding pass, so no chance of selling these invitation as they are limited to use on the same day, out-post third party lounge can also handle these as it is the normal paper invitations.

SLs who stop-over in HK would also benefit form an additional lounge invitation when they check-in, if transfer is less then 2 hrs, I don't think someone would be bother going trough immigration/customs, re-check-in bags to use the lounge for 30 minutes. (plus it can be set to be available to people who actually pays the airport tax).

If someone values lounge access so much, and insist using lounge as their normal manner, they can always use miles to exchange for lounge access, maybe CX can lower the required miles for SLs who redeem lounge access for themselves?

It seems with all the data on hands, CX believes it has too many SL using the lounge for whatever reason. And it seems you have mixed up elite levels of other programs.

1) i did fly my way to get F lounge benefits. i wouldnt mind, however, if CX gets a CCR type lounge for DMs. However if they keep Wing F for F-flyers and make a new sub-standard lounge for OWEs, they may very much lose out on lounge fees since QF has a very nice lounge now.

2) Im surprised they havent fixed G16 yet to make it more utilized.

3) the only chance they can "segregate" lounge users is if CX uses the new mid-field terminal.

i'd have thought bumping up the requirement would cost them less... (lounge coupons would stand as extra work to implement. turning SL requirement to 40k miles instead would cost less.)

There's lounge coupon redemption system in place already. I don't see much cost to implement this if CX reuse the same coupon and system.

Geez. I guess it's the nature of FT that every poster things his/her flying pattern is uniquely valuable to an airline -- and more so the lower the status.

Guys, if SLs were so crucial to CX's bottom line, it would be wooing them with benefits more akin to what it gives the truly valuable DM flyers. And if economy flying on mid-level economy buckets were so valuable, they'd be awarded club miles at a multiple greater than 1 to reward people for buying them. I think CX has a pretty clear idea of which kinds of flying patterns are most profitable for it. And I think management also realizes that for all the initial complaining if there's a reduction in lounge access, a lot of flyers are still going to end up on CX. Since I have yet to see on this thread an example of another carrier in or out of oneworld that's similarly generous on unrestricted lounge access at the lowest elite tier, they're probably right about that.

40k means weeding out the noisy students =p

Bahaha :D
So wait, students can't learn to do Mileage Running now ;)

Thank god I was never in that bracket back in those studying days, hard to discount the 80-100K BIS fliers :p