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.