yea, in case I was unclear, I do think that perhaps SL lounge access should be restricted or limited. I mean no offense here and I darn well remember the 2-3 months I was SL and was very appreciative of getting lounge before hitting GO. It's just....the J lounges are insane. We complain a lot about the F lounge, but J lounge crowding is at another level. And CX seems committed to having very few actual F lounges, focusing instead on "super J" lounges. As a DM I still am perfectly content to use them (think the Bridge and Cabin are great), except when there are no seats to be had!

Monday mornings are an absolute zoo in any of the J lounges (I'm partial to the Cabin, in addition to the layout and panini station I find the location to often be the most convenient). Yet while many of us complain about Wing F crowding, at least Wing F has seats, which is impossible to say of the Cabin at certain times of the day.

I've noticed some Monday and Thursday mornings, there is a line at the Cabin for the food options that will sometimes snake into the dining area. There are far too many people entering the Cabin than it can accommodate on certain weekdays. And the Wing J on weekdays (particularly around 8 or 9am, with transit pax) often looks like a wrecking ball came through it, with people sprawled out and only single chairs available here and there. And at the SFO lounge people simply take to camping out on the floor, which is another bizarre phenomenon in its own right.

Long story short, I don't know how to rectify this precisely but it does seem a bit generous for someone flying perhaps 2x annually JFK-HKG in a V fare (maybe 16-20k HKD total spend)? to get lounge privileges. No easy answer here. I do know the J lounges are insanely crowded. F lounges are crowded based on what a peaceful F lounge "should" be. J lounges are crowded like a pizza parlor after a little league game on a Saturday night.

Oh you are giving up on Premium Economy?

One way to control the lounge crowd is to have all the oneworld alliance FFP partners enforce a stricter qualification criteria. For example, it is way too easy to earn Qantas FFP Platinum tier.

^

It'll be less of an eye-sore if CX punishes OW alliance FFPs instead of its own MPC members when it comes to lounge access. OWE might be an exception as they are the top-of-the-line tier after all, so First Class benefits may be here to stay. Now when it comes to clamping down on the criteria for lounge access, why not impose the 4x lounge access/year (or any other criteria they come up with) to OWS instead? This rule will not apply to folks who travel in J/F anyway. It'll make CX SL's happy to see that CX is still appreciative of its customers despite the gongshow it appears to have created in recent times.

Well said.

I too have noticed significant soft product deterioration. On my last 3 return trips regionally in Y, I was offered a bottle of water only half the time i.e. 3 out of 6 flights. It used to be much more consistent. And the seat block seems very hit and miss now.

I am more concern that CX will take the chance to devalue their miles redemption :-(

On-board DM recognition/service has plummeted in the last few months. I have stayed after a few flights and, after discussing with the crew, noticed my DM status is not making its way to the passenger information list.

I cannot imagine CX has instructed crews to offer worse service to DM members. Instead, I think this is a serious (and potentially unknown to CX) side effect of the technology transfer they did. Really annoying and it's driving me to other regional carriers (except mainland China....) right now. Has made me realize how much I appreciated the soft amenities flying short haul as a DM, and withlut that soft service I really dont care who I fly (SQ, NH, BR, erc)

Y+. 110% miles on a bad award chart

Another airline: double dip on hotel program and their FFP

Choice is obvious

Not just regional, long-haul too. And I won't make it past CX management telling crew that they can ease up on the DMs, soft benefits as the crews are already complaining there are too many DMs to treat regionally anyway.

But yes, regional DM treatment is long gone (by my experience), long-haul is going down hill as well.

I'm already positioning myself to jump to another airline if I don't like new "Enhancements"

sure if you don't care about onboard comfort and 10 abreast 77W.

good point....

On DFWHKG I saw one BA OWE get Y+ which is 9 abreast, so no problem there.

have you looked at Eva? It sounds like you have work/family in Taiwan, as well as China. Excellent J class ("royal laurel") fares, a very solid hard product (practically identical to CX), far superior catering to CX J, and wifi. You can book HKG-North America for <$4k USD, and JFK-HKG for ~5k USD. If the nonstop isn't required, or you have to do connections to China anyway, it's a great alternative. I had the wrong impression before - for some reason I thought Eva was a budget airline - and have flown recently to be completely blown away. I'm not too familiar with BR's PEY product, but it looks bookable HKG-JFK round trip for <2k USD which also seems like a great price.

I'm willing to give CX the benefit of the doubt - for now - as to why DM soft service has fallen off a cliff in the last few months. Given how the service consistency has declined in-line with the new system they're using, I'm willing to chalk it up to teething issues. That said, I really hope things go back to normal, but if they don't I realize there are quite a few solid alternatives out there which I never had considered before this issue (and this thread:D) popped up.

update...apparently not all Eva planes have wifi, I guess I got lucky. but it sounds like being implemented

I have already sucker... er... I meant asked a few airlines to match my status if I promised to jump ship, and so far they are all too happy for me to do so. I'm waiting to see how CX "enhances" the DM/GO benefits, if it is not to my liking, I am in position to jump ship.

I understand. If CX makes such a change, I shall consider switching to CA and asking them to comp me CA PLT (I am already CA GO). I don't know if they will do that. In any event, J on CA earns 50%-100% COT bonus, and it only requires 160Kkm to make and 145Kkm to keep PLT. Assuming 50% COT bonus, it only takes me 4-5 J RT SFO-PEK-HKG to make or retain PLT, and I shall fly mostly PEY & Y on CX to retain GO. (Although I am eligible to travel J on business, there are budgetary constraints and I need to take some of my trips on PEY.)