Three DMPs on a Single Flight???
 

I just took CX872 HKG-SFO. I knew the ISM from way past. He told me there were three DMPs on my flight. He asked what DMPs were. I was surprised there were so many on a single flight (given that there may only be 100-200 DMPs worldwide) - I was probably the only DM on SFO flights 10 years ago.

Maybe top exec. from Silicone Valley?

BTW - what is DM Invitation?

i am even more shocked that ISM do not know what DMP is....

They have private jets :p

DM IN: Consider them Lifetime DM (obtained this status some 20 years ago)...


That's exactly what I was thinking when I read that too.....

Not all INs are from grandfathered Life memberships.


To be honest, that's what I was thinking when I heard that..., but perhaps SFO is still not a common DMP route.

As correctly mentioned Diamond Invitation is an update of the Marco Polo Club Lifetime Member tier given to member who had flown over 2 million miles.

I reached that level in the late nineties and at the time it was a considerable effort as the route network was much smaller at that time.

When I first joined the MPC in 1976 the network was still very regional,there were no flight to London and as I recall there was no US destination yet.
The fleet was small with 3 X 707s being the mainstay of the long-haul routes which were then Sydney and Tokyo.

Pleased to mention I am still working travelling and flying with Cathay but it has taken me longer to reach the third million miles as I now fly mostly regionally in Asia. The forth million...I am hoping so.

Diamond Invitation are also those who are ahem invited to diamond. Usually people identified as influential within heir field/company that can sway dollars towards CX.

You will be surprised most of them don't.

For example, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) does not have a private jet and she flies commercial. She made the news when she missed the OZ 214 crash.

I'm not totally sure? I know folks who have been granted DM for this purpose, but they don't get IN. It's just regular.

I know and have traveled with folks who have "VIP" on their boarding pass. But that's clearly something else. IMO Diamond IN don't get anything special on-board in the limited instances I've seen it. VIP is a totally different league.

The only IN I know was a "lifetime Diamond" or something like that. What the fellow above is referring to. He earned it before they took that away. My impression, maybe it's wrong is just that IN are treated the same as normal DM.

Whereas DMP is a cut above, as is obviously VIP.

Is DMP really 1% of all the DMs? If there were 100-200 DM+, does that mean there are somewhere between 10000-20000 DMs? That number sounds a little too many for me.

This is very old data from the days when I used to be a DM and get to the events with senior management... (i.e. 2004). Back then I was told that there were around 5900 DMs of whom about 3500 were based in HK, and of those 3500 the split was about 50/50 expat & HK Chinese.

In that case the number of DMs now should be quite high- given CX's growth / KA frequent fliers' addition etc..the changes last year would have reduced the headcount, still..

One of my friend is DMP and I heard him say that there were well over 10,000 DM and some 2 to 300 DMP. If I were CX I would grant DMP quite generously as it primarily ego-boosting.

More like expectation-boosting, and all of a sudden you'll have all these new DMP's demanding service beyond even what they were already receiving as a DM.

What else can DM+ requests that DM dont have already?

They get the DMP meal card instead while DMs only get the standard one and EM gets nothing :D

They can get verrryyyy creative with their demands :D

family of 7 in Y to be sat in F

Or everyone to be given F meals regardless of ticket class.

whats an f meal when theybcan ask for f seat

i know a dm asking for an upgrade from y when paying her own dime.

what's the success rate of this dm getting upgrade?

Like getting wifey upgraded when DMP travels in J and she is in Y.

i dont know of the success rate but i do know someone who did that in front of my eyes

Well, this article says Facebook spends $1.3 million per year on her security and I've read a couple times in SEC filings that she gets a significant allowance for private jet travel as part of her compensation.

http://fortune.com/2016/04/28/protect-mark-zuckerberg/

It sounds like the OZ flight was a family trip - chartering a jet from SEK to SFO would have likely been over $200,000 one-way - so I can see her flying commercially.

Rest assured Sheryl Sandberg flies private when she wants to. You just read about one of the times she didn't.

Facebook is one of the biggest spenders on private jet travel.

I believe both of you totally misread the whole thing.

1. Allowance for private jet does not mean private jet ownership.

2. The article link made no mentioning about private jet.

My original point was many top silicone valley exec. don't fly private jets so they have top status with airlines. Another example - Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp & Managing Director in Facebook, Inc. He is a FTer and should be still a M&M Senator (*G):

Thoughts about my free iphone app - WhatsApp ...

Is "silicone valley" the place where they make the porn movies? :D

What difference if she owns the jet or not - she does fly privately at least some of the time.

In terms of mixing it up, it's not unusual for CEOs to fly commercial on long-haul routes where private jets can be a bit cramped and if they are chartering, some people just dont see the value in 300k vs 30k for 2 people to fly from the Bay Area to Europe or Asia.

That doesn't mean they are flying commercially all the time, particularly domestic. 80% of private jet flights are under 2 hours - that' where you get the most bang for your buck.

I think we're getting off topic now. No need to talk about private jets and Facebook execs. Please go back to discussing Diamond Plus members and their prevalence.

sxc
Cathay Pacific Moderator

With BA Premier (the equivalent of DMP) many of the card holders don't even fly all that much. They are just in positions to influence big spending accounts so when they do fly they get way beyond normal service.

A minor distinction, but as I understand it, those people get DM Invitation as what are known as CIPs (Commercially Important People), not DM Plus (which is based on actual spend).

Anyone (or any DMPs on here) care to opine roughly what the spend required is to hit it these days?

My guess is that DMP are those road warrior types who in roles where full fare J and maybe F is arranged by their travel desk. They most likely don't have visibility of their annual spend with CX. I guess it's not something that you get for hitting a $ amount in a single year but from sustained high value travel when CX can see a strong trend. The kind of trend that would see them comfortably give this status without worrying that they would need to pull it back in a year or so, thus avoiding any bad blood.

Almost 9 years ago, it was described to me by Steve Rackshaw as being a consultant or lawyer type flying J (interestingly, not F) to JFK round trip twice a month. I'm sure there are many different types but that's an example he told me. He also said it was a hard dollar hurdle I think around 100-150k USD, and specifically had to be CX metal only. I would hope/expect that was expanded to KA now.

I was also told basically to keep spending and I would be there. I never made it to DMP, but I know they track folks (at least then) because someone inside CX had done enough work to know how much I had spent. I haven't had such an experience since, although my $$ to CX declined so that may be why.

Back to your point, definitely in the case of a consultant or lawyer like the guy Rackshaw told me, they're not going to have a huge amount of control on their own spend. So that would go along with your point.

I know there are a few DMPs who post and lurk here, would love to hear a more updated anecdote.

I don't know why CX keeps it such a top secret how many DMs (and thus DMPs, as the top 1pct of DM) there are. My sole and only conclusion is that the number of Diamonds have expanded wildly...although to be fair so has CX capacity. But I gotta assume that's the reason. An explosion in #s and they don't want us to know how diluted it has really gotten?