A JL OWE (or even OWS) flying CX Japan-HKG with a JP phone number, or a BA OWE flying UK-HKG with an UK phone phone number, are OWE pax that CX should give extra attention to as they are elites that CX can capture market share as CX competes with JL/BA. Whereas an OWE, from say AT, with a HKG phone number, CX can deduce is not worth putting as much attention to and rank lower than a CX SL...

Someone sounds a bit salty, with all due respect. Also silver plebs? seriously?

Sounds like me. I do get treated well onboard though. Well, have to see next year whether they wise up.

its a fact. if one run commercial operation one should really be able to tell the difference of who will blindly fly you (i.e. "Silver Plebs") vs those possibly higher net worth OWE to fly with you again. Cx isnr earning revenue based on what FFP, rather earns revenue if OWE purchase 160 ticket stock lets get that straight.

also for all practical purpose, silvers are nobody. anybody who really think waving silver status with DYKWIA attitude is a laughing stock. I am P1 with qantas (DM+ similar) but i am not a worthy customer, obtained this via creative routing to maximize the credits. i think i am nobody - the real wealthy that makes a diff to CX dont care about FFP they simply fork out ex hk C or D faes.

I would think the average SL flies more on CX than the average OWE (FT heavily gives the impression that many OWE regularly fly on CX). I guess that is what matters to the airline, and arguments can be made for and against it. But I mean, I think that such recent action was done because of the fact that CX consistently treated OWEs better than many OW airlines treat DMs. Perhaps the complaints piled up.

Are there other data points? Also no water or greeting on yesterday's flight for me ( OWE). [Apologies OT]

always got water and greeting and meal choice asked. everytIme. (OWE)

but i only fly PEY recently sk not sure if they dont do for economy now (last time i flew Y was probably 2yr ago for random bangkok weekend and i did get water and all that)

you are kidding yourself if you think Silver flys more plane than OWE, but if your comment relates specfic to CX metal i agree. but thats the whole point i was making - you give these silver plebs op up or not they will fly CX. so why bother.

My point couldn't be much clearer. Yes, I see the logic behind your suggestions, but it is evident CX is no AA/BA, and therefore, a fine line between maximising profits and loyalty recognition is walked. Why should a OWE be of more inherent value to CX than its own members if, for example, there's next to no recognition and additional onboard benefits on other partner airlines like AA? If there was some sort of reciprocity to a sufficient degree, this would be a non-issue. If all OW airlines choose to prioritise their very own members first (even the entry tier + second status levels), it's only natural for CX to follow suit.

may be a SL give more profit than a OWE , the OWE may/may not travel a lot on CX , but a SL should be kind of always travel on CX flight?
also , some OWE are lifetime , they may be just a one-time travel on CX flight , dont really giving CX profit at all .
plus , it is known that some OWE are actually fake OWE , they never even bought a single cheap econ ticket in their whole life.
so , after all these , may be they got the conclusion of SL have higher value than OWE .

A connecting passenger needs to be harder fought for than a HK captive (Cathay or partner).

There are plenty of OWEs that spend US$100k on CX annually over many years, sit quietly in F and don't even consume alcohol, and there are OWEs that "game the system" and only fly CX on short haul on Y and arrive at the airport 8 hours early to lounge hop and only fly in premium cabins on partner redemptions which they then "maximize" for insta.

Incidentally, I think the former is far more common than the latter. CX also does a very good job of tracking passenger's spend (even non members) so I am certain they can distinguish between the two. As for upgrade priority, I just got upgraded to F on a long haul with my OWE on the booking, completely full flight, and it's not the first time, so I don't think the upgrade priority is quite that straightforward.

My recent flights with CX, I have taken 4 flights in Oct, 3 flights in Nov and 2 flights in Dec. I got greetings from the purser on all of my Y/CL flights, and meal order taken from the cabin crew for 75% of those flights. Incidentally, I did not get any greetings on the only J/CL flight I took in Oct, besides the cabin crew came over to take my orders.

I recall previously ISM will greet OWE either before take off or before landing, but now its seems to be under the discretion of the ISM as I only got it once recently.

I don’t think CX will stop doing this (greetings + pre set water/blanket/pillow on seat) until 2027, if indeed there are much more DM from 2027 with the relaxed criteria.