Those flights to Middle East tend to be full of the migrant workers who may not have a FFP status. Not surprising that they connect to Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia. Was in Doha, seldom see local qataris.

That's why CX is removing PE and putting in Y to accommodate these migrants workers.

I think you will find its largely you that is purely looking for what profits yourself. I'll have a little wager that if/when CX management refreshes MPC they will up the benefits to the premium cabin fliers. That doesn't have to come at the expense of Y flyers, but it will likely come at the expense of Silver level benefits.

As you labelled me a DYKWIA who wants premium cabins to be better rewarded for my own gain, I'm not even an MPC member. I use BAEC for my miles/status and don't have a side to take here.

I have seen many Singaporean for this route too... Was in Doha around 20 times in 2014... To my surprise, many expats do have FFP status..

This thread has not been active. Any update anyone?

This thread is just rumor and fantasy at this point.

I'm quite sure mpo is making some revolutionary changes. :)

If MPC is making some changes, I also hope they are also monitoring this thread;)

Oh yah, they are monitoring this thread all right...

And they aren't too happy that news of the planned revamp has been leaked.. here and through the SCMP article too.

This is the digital age, even sensitive government documents get leaked. CX is mad about nothing....

And it is a good way to test the water...:)

They lost $4k USD in revenue from me a few weeks ago as a result. Finally flew BR to the US...fantastic and absolutely a serious competitor, including similar service I get as a DM nowadays as a regular passenger in "Royal Laurel Class" (aka, J). Wine menu absolutely destroys CX and hard product is identical. CX only wins on AVOD...which I have a laptop and iPad for anyway. I need to be in Taiwan ~quarterly. It is remarkably easy for me to use it as a launching pad, same with Tokyo or Singapore.

If CX is bitter, they have only themselves to blame. CX's endless cutting on the soft side, and slow deterioration of benefits, was the cause. This thread was the "straw that broke the camel's back" so to speak.

End of the day, agencyguy reminds us a loyalty program is to stimulate loyalty, as if that's a one-way street. Let's just use the Asia Miles - and its terrible earn/burn - as one single example here. CX has moved the goal posts so many times for miles redemptions in the last many years that my incentive to earn Asia Miles has decreased. Let's be certain here - I fly annually about 250k miles, at least half with CX and the rest spread across other airlines. Seriously - you want us to be loyal? How can I even figure out what my Asia Miles will be worth, or what loops I'll have to jump through to burn them in a year or two or three? Introducing only certain fare classes for upgrades, then PEY and one-class only upgrades, changed waitlisting ability to where it's literally a pain in the butt to even book something, made it incredibly hard to redeem, etc.

The recent change to Amadeus really put me over the edge. No seat blocking - which I used extensively for regional flights in Y - and a significant change to the consistency of the on-board service (since the change, flight attendants don't know I'm a DM about 50% of the time anyway, this cuts across both CX and KA), I don't see why I need to give CX my incremental revenue. As of now, it's up for grabs. Ironically, my travel patterns and spend are once again on track to significantly increase in the next few years due to a work situation. There is cyclicality in my spend and, at the current outlook, it looks like I will be ramping again. Except this time, I will not blindly give it to CX. Their hard product is quite good, but so is everyone else's these days. And the CX soft product is consistently weakening (no doubt the Skytraxx award only helped further the delusions of CX folks who think otherwise).They can go chase what they think loyalty is and see the result. Maybe they're right and maybe they're wrong. Like most things CX, I think they're just being reactive...to the cheap price of oil and weakening bargaining position of customers at this point in the cycle. Ah, that will change at some point. Meanwhile I'll fly BR, EK, SQ and QR when the situation allows until I figure out a.) what CX's change is all about, and b.) what exactly I'll get as a DM or this new "Titanium" threshold we're anticipating, and what I'll have to pay to get it.

If there is one single message I have for anyone at CX, it's that the DM program as it stood was excellent. Yes there were issues - lounge crowding among them - but overall DM is the best program I've seen and compared against. The soft product service and recognition, particularly on board, was incredible and once heck of a loyalty pull. Any significnat overhaul to that program will risk upending one of the best parts of CX. I am certain there are ways to enhance exclusivity and make the program more profitable - even, I may get flamed here, but reducing or eliminating lounges for SLs - or increase the threshold for DM, or include a minimum spend, or incentives over 120k, etc. etc. But a total revamp at this point in the cycle is, frankly, crazy. Why? Because CX will be forced to re-evaluate the system again as soon as another downturn hits, or oil spikes, and customers flee in droves an inferior program. This is the airline industry for @#@ sake! Cyclical as ever.

I am glad they're trying to address the lounge crowding, to give credit where it's due. But aside from that issue, overall I'm not holding my breath.

(I've got another flight to SIN on SQ in two weeks, on the A380. Y class. CX may not care anyway, but if my service on CX regionally as a DM in Y is virtually identical to what I can get on SQ, why bother with loyalty?)

To legally reduce lounge crowed situation or reduce Silver benefits, CX needs to do something extraordinary and has to do it FAST. So discontinue MPC and move it to a tiered Asia Miles programme is the BEST option IMO.

MPC has Diamond Plus and Diamond Invitation tiers. These two tiers effectively are revenue based without the label.

So overall I don't think there are too many changes. The people will loss most are Silvers and normal MPC members. However, that is expected.

About soft product comment, I think you are right so no comment. Just want to point out I think it is a right thing for CX to do to mitigate the programme and reduce Silver benefits.

This will NOT solve the lounge overcrowding issue, but just make the lounges predominated full of OW elites rather than CX's own elites. Why? Because other OW airlines are throwing away OWE/OWS. What CX is doing is effectively saying this: "We welcome non-CX pax better than CX pax because we get revenue from them, so F our loyal pax that go out of their way to fly CX to get lounge benefits, we take it away from you." CX can easily "legally" solve the lounge problem by limiting OW elites based on capacity control. CX thinks they get more revenue this way, but let's see how much they really get when they realized they've lost tons of SLs to other airlines.

Why CX really needs to stop is GR benefits. For an entry card GR should not have priority boarding.

I am looking at other ways to fly too. Especially an airline that double dips with my hotel status. I'm looking at Emirates. I will thinking of doing JFK-Dubai-HK in the future, the price should still be similar.

GR is a paid entry tier so if they phase benefits out it would be at least a courtesy to remove the fee along with a buffer (either advance notice or one-time perks.)

And the issue isn't just other OW members issuing elite status laxly. Absent the AA challenge and Airberlin status match, OW requires either substantial flying in the egalitarian programs (MPO) or at least some premium flying in the top-heavy programs (BAEC, QFF). There's nothing like an Aegean equivalent in OW, although a few loopholes seem pretty aggravating- like JGC, for example.

Perhaps it's just that CX has grown faster than its dedicated lounge space. And yes, there's no easy solution to filter the tier point runners or the 5000-mile/year status hoggers without trying to implement CX-prioritized access control. Perhaps until the concourse expansion is done. :)