Very true. If I knew I was say 300 club points (if it was calculated that way) or usd40,000 away from DMP i would certainly prioritise CX metal to get there.

My guess is, unfortunately you're on discounted (perhaps heavily) corporate tickets. I don't know your exact situation just inferring that from what you've been mentioning. I know a big corporate doesn't pay half the rates us self-employed folks have to fork out.

When I was approached, I was told I was about 30-40k away. I'm not sure if them approaching you is common or not. But I'd think if you have a few other contemporaries / peers at your firm, and nobody is DM+ and nobody is even being approached by CX, then you're not there yet.

The reason the consultant and lawyer example worked when the CX individual was telling me about DM+, was presumably their clients are stuck with the bill. Those clients are just buying tickets on the CX website or through corner-store travel agents and paying the full freight flexible retail fares. Full fare J is truly running them 10K+ USD a round-trip, 2x monthly. Easily clearing 200k USD/year for a long project.

I've know some HK banks where their regional J travel cost is frequently cheaper than my Y tickets!

Just try to poke around and figure out how much they're spending. It won't be a huge mystery. For me, I can always tell how much I'm spending on CX by how often they interact with me. Get invited to 6 events in a year, approached by an executive telling me thanks for my business, and here's GO for your friend and keep on truckin'...that's when I figured I was close. In other years, I'm lucky to even get a single invite to a CX event with a few flight attendants. I believe the ranking tends to be the more senior folks at the event - if Rupert, or multiple heads of other CX departments shows up - that is relevant. If you only get the good ole MPC representatives and flight attendants, those are the "less important" variety in management's eyes I believe.

It ebbs and flows with how much $$ you spend. You should have a rough idea based on how many / often you're getting invited to events where you stand in their pecking order.

Up until very recently my patterns had me placed in mid DM ranks I would imagine. A few events with seniors birthday card on a flight the odd bottle of champagne when leaving the plane and a decent ratio of upgrades.

Your inference is correct. I work for a company that will be getting excellent procurement discounts and we have a lot of DMPs which would imply we are a valued corporate user. Appreciate your insights very much thanks.

That sounds absolutely awful! I'm a DM grinder; mostly low fare Y netting me 10 CP per round trip with a few long haul J's that get me over the line. Being a DM has been really great in Y but traveling J is good regardless of status (YMMV). I am really curious what DMPs get on top of the usual good service but pity those who have to fly so much.

My wife has been hitting around the $100k mark for a few years now and had no sign of DM+. I think you need to be much, much higher than that. Either someone commercially important (think BA Premier) or flying F to JFK every few weeks.

Don't think it's F every few weeks, unless CX management was explicitly lying to me.

I am 100% certain there are DMPs who commute multiple times a week to/from BKK on J class tickets. I don't know their exact bill but I think $800 USD per round trip is a fair estimate.

And I am 90% certain you can "achieve" it by doing J to/from JFK in full fare twice a month, again unless these guys are outright lying to me. They walked me through an example of someone who they kept anonymous, but outlined his line of work and travel patterns. He literally flew to JFK once or twice a month for over a year, biz class almost certainly paid for by his client (I'm almost certain I know the lawfirm), which the fellow from CX told me "cost about $10k a ticket", telling me I think it was full J fare not some discounted D or I thing. And not a misleading full "J" fare booked by the banks, which I suspect is really is heavily discounted if flying on the Morgan Stanley or HSBC discount.

Although it's a moving target, I think $150k exclusively on CX or KA metal is a good bet to be in the conversation. I think some years it's less but more often than not around there, or perhaps higher.

J to NYC twice a month is roughly $250,000 a year. I've always thought $200k was the figure you needed to aim for.

There will likely be an element of customer importance too. CX will sell J tickets to NYC all day long, but they may struggle to fill capacity to BKK.

Thanks for the extra inputs everyone. Much appreciated. I must try harder!

Have read before that they are trading in the precious metals and gemstone business

I've always though DMP stands for Diamond-Putz, as in anyone that is willing to fly with Cathay at $100,000 USD more just to get themselves into this exclusively club that has no differentiation in published benefits, and can only count on the "soft benefits", are a putz.

The claim that Cathay will do anything you want within reason is weak also. Seriously, what more do I want in soft benefits that I couldn't already get with Diamond card and at least a C-class ticket? What are the "soft benefits" that one desperately wants that he is willing to spend $100,000 USD for? Unless the "soft benefits" gives me a member in another world-famous fly-high club, I wouldn't care less about DMP (besides the ability to show DYKWIA)

DM gets "ganranteed" J -24 hours... DMP gets ganranteed J at -1 hour.

i have to say that would be a seriously useful perk for me.

Sorry... This is no longer a "guarantee" for normal DM...

But then you won't have time to join their occasional trip to BFI or TLS for flying the new plane back

That's why I put "" around guarantee... A DM will still get its "guaranteed" seat if flight was not oversold.

my flying these days could get me easily over to like 3-4k club points...but frankly I don't know how many points would get me DMP, and also the additional benefits don't seem really that tangible. from what my other DMP colleagues told me, the key one they value really is just, the ability to use Asia Miles much more easily...

so what I decided to do, just barely qualify with 1200 for DM (status useful for service irregularities I think), or at most up to 1600 for the 4 upgrade certs. then, I now put the rest all into BA (or, selectively put into BA - e.g. flights >2000 miles which some time only earn 25-30 with CX in J but 140 with BA!). easily get not just BA Gold but soon Gold Guest List as well...can gift 1 Emerald + 2 Sapphires to family and friends, plus other quite tangible benefits, at least comparatively. and again the key is, I know what's the target I need to aim at to get this...unlike DMP.

and, assuming BA/CX still remain in the same alliance for a while (big assumption?), there's lifetime BA Gold (Emerald) status which is achievable with a couple more years of flying. I experienced this myself after being some 15 years CX DM / KA Platinum / oneworld Emerald etc... once I stopped my flying for 2-3 years a few years ago, CX indeed pretty much just dropped you to low tier based on your flying that year and really not much consideration of your long-time DM before. I would ideally still like to have some status when I retire hopefully in a few years' time...and the lack of status with CX (and lifetime Emerald possible with BA) is just a major decision factor.

(of course, my colleagues who decided to go with DMP would just say, who wants to still fly after retirement...but I'd say, I'd still love to fly once a month or so, for leisure to various destinations, and having still first class lounge access then would be nice).