Rumor: MPC will go way of PPS
 

Going further OT (but hey! It's been a long thread), Note to self: despite his deep miles' related knowledge - that you want to tap into, never try to meet Psychiatrist when wifey is around.

I know the team at Marco Polo reads this forum and I hope they absorb some of the member comments made in this thread before making drastic changes to the program.

I developed a tool where you enter your flights, fare bucket and marked airline (ie: CX, HKG-JFK, 'D') and it spits back how many points/miles you would earn crediting it to all oneworld programs and any partner airline of the marked airline. After having thousands of flight details put through the system CX works out to be one of the more difficult programs to attain elite status. Considering they're at the high end of the scale any changes that impact the up and coming frequent flyers are likely to cut them out entirely - pushing them to another alliance.

Loyalty + Loyalty Marketing is done a bit differently in Hong Kong and I believe there is a real chance for MPC to come up with a refreshing approach to loyalty that isn't copying what everyone is doing. Revenue based is a great way to alienate a large % of the customer base (abiet not the % that produce the bulk of revenue - but still a huge portion of individuals who will simply not bother considering cx or showing their AM card when purchasing as the aspirational rewards just aint there). Going the way of Qantas FF is probably the worst idea in the world given the backlash they've had over program changes (a quick google search shows their top tier customers are crediting to other airlines because of the poor value and recognition within the program). Plus QFF has a captive market just like AA does in north america. CX is in a unique position with many competitors in the region and customers from a multitude of countries that allows for greater strengths in segmenting the audience to boost revenues from each group.

Ed is a smart guy so I hope the team approaches this with a fresh set of eyes to come up with a unique strategy that isn't just a copy or hybrid of an existing program.

There's plenty of high revenue opportunities they could tap into by being a little creative. I hope they get it right so that the FF program positively reflects the great airline that CX is and will be in the future.

(:

Would you happen to have a link for public use?

I have moved some off topic credit card earning posts. Please stay on topic.

sxc
Cathay Pacific Moderator

How about the idea that one must be OW saphire or higher in any OW FFP in order to redeem CX F awards? Biz class would require OW ruby or higher. That might reduce some of the pressure of the credit card and manufactured spending FFP members who garner lots of miles. The blogosphere has created a lot of this angst that CX members feel.

If the objective is to reduce CX members' angst, why not make the restrictions MPO GO and SL respectively? Why benefit AAdvantage EXPs, QF WPs, BA Golds and the like?

1. Need to consider CX is part of OW network. You cut others' redemption, others will cut yours

2. Enforce a better waitlist queue system will do... e.g. All seats are for waitlist only starting T-360, waitlist is ranked according to tier like DM > GO > OWE > SL > OWS > GR > OWR > AM, and release seats by batch like 2 at T-330, two at T-90, two before OLCI open...

Rumor: MPC will go way of PPS
 

OW wide status restrictions be difficult, if not impossible to implement...and how do you deal with say, a BA Silver, using his AA miles (no status with AA) to redeem...

This could be easily achieved through increasing the price of redemptions for US based programs. Like a slap on the wrist to NA programs for flooding the market with cheap miles.

This would bring new revenue into the airline and would allow CX greater flexibility and control over the distribution channel for award seats. Currently it appears CX is using award seats as filled for distressed/unsold inventory so this solves two problems with one hit. Another simple approach would be to restrict F seats to Diamonds during certain periods only opening up to the "unlimited mileage base of US programs" a week prior to flight like they currently do.

Flat out restricting F to MPC members is a lost revenue opportunity when you can sell the same seat to someone in north america at 3x the price. Most legacy airlines have BI solutions that analyse individual customer data and spit out dynamic pricing based on this - so why not do the same for award inventory? Win win all round.

D00t - in what way does AA have a captive market in North America? United & Delta are pretty damn strong there as well...

I suppose CX has always wanted to do this. Perhaps being able to threaten to block redemptions may increase CX's leverage in negotiations with AA.

Another great bargaining chip for CX and boon MPO members. MPO members will hope they actually do it.

I suppose a paid passenger, even at NA prices, still trumps Diamond Invitation redemption in terms of seat availability.

Here's another one - HKG-NRT one-way 12 Jun, 1 pax

cathaypacific.com (I'll skip the connections through TPE):

CX504 HKG 0915 NRT 1440: J
CX520 HKG 1035 NRT 1555: PE
CX500 HKG 1510 NRT 2030: Y
CX450 HKG 1000 NRT 1710 (1 stop TPE but same flight number): J

britishairways.com:

CX450 HKG 1000 NRT 1710: J
CX520 HKG 1035 NRT 1555: PE

Can't see CX504 or CX500. Fluke or filter?

qantas.com:

CX450 HKG 1000 NRT 1710: J

Nothing else. Although I don't think PE works properly in their search engines. But the interesting point here is that there's no CX504 either.

When I search HKG-JFK online it says the routing is invalid (!!!).

Have you guys tried calling to check availability?

I looked up cathaypacific.com, logged in as MPC for J award availability only using Outbound = June 12 , Return = June 16, HKG-NRT/HND-HKG

CX 450 is only thing available on one flight number

June 16:

CX 509, CX 501, CX 451, CX 543 (out of HND)

Comparing the results to Japan Airlines search engine:

June 12: CX 450 (1 seat available)

June 16: CX 509 (2 seats available), CX 501 (4 seats available), CX 451 (4 seats available), CX 543 (1 seat available)

They match perfectly to CX.com but they also show the depth of each flight in terms of award inventory, which CX.com cannot do.

CX 504 may be a case of phantom inventory or was already reserved as it no longer appears to be available anywhere.