wyskevin

I hope you are right that CX would give OWE equal privileges as DM.
If so, I would have no doubt jumping into BA immediately to enjoy all the OWE benefits. Being CX GO, it is not difficult to achieve OWE on other FFPs.

ermen

I think there is a sweet spot time to call ~10am HKT where calls get picked up almost instantly... never had any long waits at that time.

Lunch time can get on hold for >15 mins. Must say I haven't had a 1 hr hold time though!

Btw why couldn't you do it online?

I think rather than a line for OWE (which is good/nice), they need a dedicated line for J/F pax regardless of status. Nothing worst than flying J/F, giving them more $$$ vs Y, and having to wait 1 hour for an agent to pickup (of course I haven't had that in a while now...). SQ has a dedicated line (or option) for J/F flyers...

QRC3288

Great point. CX has a disgraceful call center situation - particularly for MPC / Asia Miles - but frankly, CX has no incentive to dish out benefits for OWEs or whatever status flying around on any old fare. That makes absolutely no business sense. But for cash J and F pax regardless of status, it's inexplicable for CX not to have better call center prioritization.

brunos

CX website is really bad for changing tickets as soon as you don't have a plain-vanilla ticket. It seems that I need to call any time I need a change, even on expensive F ticket without change penalty..

And fully agreed that CX call service for J/F pax sucks. To me that is an important aspect of CX service and it sucks.

QRC3288

+1.

I will add, this disgrace extends beyond just the call center. Things like preferred seat assignments for high value cash passengers, buggy vouchers, and even totally common sense stuff - a friend of mine lost bags for weeks on a CX flight from the US to SE Asia, entirely CX's fault, was on a 20k USD F round-trip F ticket, and the customer service was atrocious, lies and incompetence galore....he got his bags back 3 weeks later upon returning to the US with nary an apology or even follow up - CX totally misses the plot with things like this.

I think one area some FTers are a little off base, and even encourage airlines to head off track, is when folks start wondering why CX isn't treating OWEs the same as DM, and that all status pax / award pax / cash pax are the same. Obviously, selfishly everyone wants the best for themselves. But CX needs to do a better job of figuring out who the hell butters their bread. Because in business, no all of these people aren't created equal.

I know CX has low yields. I also know they "need" to accept all these award passengers especially since they probably have too many F seats for the route network. But the idea that partner status is some great equalizer, or everyone in the same class of service should get identical benefits, just doesn't make good business sense to me and I think deep down, most folks know that. CX has to run a business and get their bottom line restored. They have extra work to do because the C Suite decided they were also brilliant commodity hedge fund managers and took a unique (and ultimately, not very brilliant) long-dated bet on fuel. Fortunately, each day marches towards the end of those foolish contracts. It's just a shame more heads didn't roll as a result of this.

Customers forking out cash for F tickets and J tickets multiple times a year on CX metal (or even once, especially in the case of a 20k+ USD F ticket) simply should get treated very well. It's irrelevant what status they have, or even if they have any status at all. This doesn't mean you treat other pax worse on an absolute basis, and you absolutely fulfill all your OW obligations, but I do mean CX should have "above and beyond" things for those who are funneling yield and cash to your bottom line. No, special call center / priority should not exist for any old partner OWEs. Lol. But yes it should exist for cash J and F passengers. There should be other benefits for cash passengers above and beyond what's handed out on the OW chart to partner elites as entitlements. That's called good business. Partner elites will understand, and heck many of them are already flying J and F cash tickets so they'll receive them anyway. All of us flying JAL or BA on discounted J or F tickets (or award tickets) understand we don't get to select certain seats unless we pay the full freight. That's how those airlines do it and CX should take notice too. CX just dilutes its own product when it's handing out goodies to partner OWEs on award tickets, at the expense of a non-status CEO (who is clueless about how even to sign up for status) spending 25k USD on a round-trip F ticket and is seated in 2D, gets his meal last and his bags lost.

Guys without status paying 20k USD for a round-trip to/from JFK are CX's bread and butter, alongside MPC elites. Take care of this group of people - they are the ones consistently funneling cash to CX's bottom line - and CX can restore some standards and improve services for all, including partners. If CX focuses on tossing costly benefits to the wrong cohort, then they will continue to suck. It's a selfish desire of everyone to get treated "the best", but the bottom line is it's impossible for everyone to be entitled to the best.

(the fellow I refer to above flew KE F class round-trip to Asia for his next trip. Another cash customer who said to hell with CX. He has zero status, don't even think he would know how to apply, despite flying 4-8x round trips in full fare F annually and spending well over $100k USD).

ermen

My definition of J/F pax also includes redeemers

But that aside, yes it does baffle me why CX does not have a dedicated phone line for J/F pax (maybe they assume that J/F pax will have signed up for MPC...)



Why don't you teach your friend(s) how to apply for MPC (or AA ). Or is he just that type that is too busy and has other more important fish to fry (though I must say they are not mutually exclusive...)

QRC3288

ha yea, I know everyone's got their own interests to look out for. I don't mean to disadvantage this group, but I do think it's a little disingenuous argument I've seen posited here and on some of the blogs that all J and F pax are the same. Many airlines (discreetly) offer significantly better services to loyal cash pax, and CX did a better job at it years ago themselves.

I have tried...more than once. It's hopeless. He also flies mainly private around the US, so it really would just be for his international flights. But even then he just doesn't ever "get around to it", despite acknowledging he should each time I bring it up. He just has other things to do. He also runs a company that is quite a bit larger than CX. In fact someone at CX could easily Google him, which is even more bizarre how they commit unforced errors like losing his luggage for 3 weeks and treating him with laughable customer service.

I have a few other anecdotes like this. This is why I believe there is no way CX's situation is intentional, not even a fool would have their company doing such things. You literally are better off being a blogger spending almost no cash on CX, all award points, but being loud on social media, than a fairly well-known S&P 500 CEO who has a lot of friends who also are in the group who can spend your full fare F tickets. He just never raised a stink about it publicly. I can promise you the bloggers make more noise but the latter is who pays the bills. (or, in the case of CX lately, not paying the bills)

So something was (still is?) clearly just a bit disorganized and off the mark inside CX City C Suite and Swire.

ermen

You should potentially arrange for CX to comp your friends CX Diamond Invite (or whatever it is called)...