Qf plat isn't easy if you are y traveller. But cx dm is attainable even if you are y travelers!

Same here, i have started my travel with others...

Well that's a key part of OW membership, Sapphires and Emeralds get lounge access across the alliance. I don't think CX have any chance of renegotiating that particular term.

All they need to do is restrict CX SL lounge access and sort out the cabin bonuses. A 50% increase from Y to F is ridiculous.

The rule is they have access to a lounge, not your best lounge. Airlines have gone around that by making a crappy lounge and call it "First Class lounge" to satisfy the OW requirement.....

Oh damn, forgot that CX also have to keep its Oneworld partners happy.

Whether they want to offend their own members or members from other OW FFPs, guess it is up to CX.

SQ is way ahead of CX on that one "Krisflyer Gold..."

I also notice TG does that too with the Concourse D vs Concourse C and E lounge in BKK...

If BA is the one you are referring to, it is a legacy thing.

Concorde room was for people who fly Concorde, and after the decommission of Concorde, it became a lounge for people who fly First class or hold a Concorde card (handed out to ex-Concorde flyer as a gesture). BA Golds never had access to this lounge.

This mean BA Gold (OWE) without a Concorde card, would be using First Class lounge unless they fly First. Of course BA will give you a Concorde card if you fly 5000 tier points a year, which is 3.33 times more than the regular BA Gold requirement.

So BA is by no mean discriminating other OWEs, it was negotiated prior to forming OW. Concorde room is not a BA Gold only lounge.

I guess CX could do the same by implementing the same idea without causing a stir, but then no OWE would not have access it, including CX's own Diamond, as only First paxs would have access. (not sure if this is what everyone wants? You can't just create a lounge for CX Diamond only and exclude OWEs)

Here is a wild guess how many miles it would take to get a CX true First lounge card, 120,000/1,500*5,000=400,000 miles per year. :eek:

CX does have a DMP status (top 1% of DM) based on CX own revenue. That will be about USD250,000/year or higher.

Thanks cxfan1960.

DMP would probably be the group which will get access to this true F lounge even with out flying F, although it is a bit hard to imagine someone spending US$250,000 not flying F where possible.

My educated guess will be, no matter US$ 250,000 or 400,000 miles, it is beyond reach of most of the CX Diamond here, even if the standards aren't that high, it would be substantially higher than the current 120,000 miles per year.

The winner would be the real F paxs, and non F flying CX Diamond would be the biggest losers.

I've seen so many people complain about F lounge too crowded, and they want someone to be kick-out from F lounge, unless you are the real F paxs or flying substantially more than 120,000 miles, I would say be careful of what you wish for...

Well said.

To add to this however, I understand that some people do 'require' lounge access even when flying Y (for showers and etc.). But, I also don't believe anybody absolutely specifically requires F lounge access.

The bridge for example is a really high quality J lounge and it would be certainly better than some F lounges of other airlines.

So if a Y/J DM is redirected to a current J lounge because CX decided Wing F is now for true F flyers, I would be quite surprised if someone could logically point out that the facilities at the J Wing/Bridge/Cabin/Pier is 'insufficient' for their core travel requirements, other than for DYKWIA sense of entitlement reasons.

On BA, I think the 5000 TP is attainable since you get multipliers and bonuses are you go up (and fly premium fares), where as we're stuck with these crappy earning rates on CX. If for example, I got 100% bonus like on AA, I could definitely get earn the 400,000-500,000 Club miles required for whatever F lounge card.

I just dont think this will happen. I hear your point, but CX F cabins are filled with partner awards. Anyone who flies North America F flights can attest usually half or more are AA award tickets. CX has shown an extreme willingness/addiction? to sell those tickets (which bizarrely serves to disadvantage its own Asia Miles members trying to redeem for F). But, at the end of the day CX is not stupid. I reckon they get perhaps a few thousand USD each way from AA for those awards. It's profitable but not insanely profitable.

Where does CX make a killing? Full fare J tickets and J class corporate travel deals ex HKG. Who buys those? Banks and corporates. Those ars CX's bread and butter Diamond members. Guys who fly a lot of J - not F a lot of the time - and the companies pay through the roof for those J seats. This Diamond is far more profitable pax than the occasional partner redemption F pax doing the annual holiday to Asia. So while CX is free to choose the policies they want regarding partner redemptions, this is why they aren't going to restrict their own most exclusive lounge to AA redeemers while forcing their far more profitable DMs to a lesser lounge. I just think they see the business side of it and this is one major reason the lounge situation has been a problem for years. Because there is no easy solution. It sounds simple to just say "restrict to F only". But without deeper changes to how CX addresses lower yielding partner F redemptions, while simultaneously many CX Diamonds spend consistently over 50k USD a year cash in J class, I dont think the solution is going to be cut off the DMs completely. Maybe some reclassification?

Finally, fwiw in an interaction I had with an MPC executive about DMP, he said a common profile was someone flying full fare J - not F - twice monthly longgaul to JFK. Like a lawyer or consultant type on a project. I'm sure there are many profiles but just pointing out it doesnt have to be necessarily F. And also goes to show just how expensive full fare J is.

Unfortunately, only miles get bonus base on status.

Tier points which is the club miles, remain the same regardless of if you are BA Blue (non-status) or BA Gold (OWE), yes you do get more tier point for flying premium cabin or full fare Y.

Long-haul J earns 140 points, that means you would still need almost 18 round trips to gain 5000 points.

If we take HKG-LHR as an example, 18 round trips in J is required, that would be equivalent of 270,000 miles, which is still substantially higher the current 120,000.

For those complaining about F lounge over crowding, I wonder how much if this is because there is temporarily only one F lounge. OnCe The Pier reopens, F lounge crowding could be reduced.

I think you've hit the spot there.

The one thing I'd like to comment on is the profile of these flyers though, being one myself as I spent a few years at a investment house after finishing business school.

One of my colleagues used to joke that we shouldn't have to work on the taxi to & from the airport, but that is sometimes the unfortunate truth for those that work in this industry in Asia so the thing we value the most is time to rest, which is at home and not at the airport.

So while the DM benefits are appreciated, it doesn't have a huge impact to your travel plans overall. Its the same feeling we have for other benefits like 'priority boarding', which I think its a worthless system for premium passengers. I mean, why would you ditch the lounge to go on the plane 50 minutes before it departs (you also have to line up in order to do this), when you can just walk up when everyone's already boarded and take your seat.

In this context, would these corporate J flyers really ditch CX because they now start to block off F lounge access to them? For me personally, I couldn't care less if I'm travelling on business as my priorities would be:

-Whether I can rest up well onboard so I can do the stuff I need to at destination
-A reliable airline so I don't have to deal with too much delays or loss of baggage etc.
-If something unexpected happens, how good is the airline handling the situation (this is where DM actually is valuable)

Do I really care whether they offer Moet Chandon or Dom Perignon at the lounge? Probably... because it probably tastes better.

But would it stop me from flying on business if they take the Dom away?
Definitely not... I wouldn't care less as I don't have 6 hours to sit at the lounge before the flight to 'maximise' the experience.

The truth is, the less time I spend at the airport, the better I'd feel overall at the end of the trip.

Its not like much of us have a choice of airline anyway. We get a bucket of eligible partner airlines/fare buckets to choose from depending on where we're going and unless there's something ridiculously wrong with an airline, most would choose a direct flight over connection.