The only noticeable difference I had was greeting from either ISM (OWE) or SP (GO).

Ah, this is reassuring! :)

Flew HKG-SYD on Friday. I am surprised to have a full exit row all by myself when the rest of plane is packed.

I was not treated very differently. Had a greeting from ISM which was slightly awkward. I asked for card track arrival card and business class amenity kit. Wasn't surprised I was denied the latter.

Was served a meal in normal order.

Not at all surprised :)

Recognition for OWE in Y has gone down over the years.

Back in the day (2010/2011), the crew would have given a handwritten card + choice of meal.

These days you normally only get a greeting + possible bottle of water, which is all fine and good for short/medium haul Y as I find the biggest benefit is having the bottle of water to hydrate instead of having to get the crew to topup your cup of water ever so often.

The person who recognises your status is typically the ISM and SP but they are normally in the forward cabins so dont think the working level BC / FP pay much attention to you during the flight (though sometimes I have seen them with those post-it notes on the card recognising DM/GO and possibly OWE but have not seen a discernable difference in service).

​​​​​​In J cabin it is different - if you get the greeting, I find they normally pay more attention to you in flight.

Not sure how it will be as a DM in the J cabins.

The other day in Y on KA, I got a greeting from the FP who introduced herself as the section leader. That was a first.

As a DM, this is the norm. With the exceptions of PVG/PEK/SIN (routes where it's routine to have 25+ Diamonds on a flight), it's a bad and weird flight as a DM if the head person in your section isn't paying attention to you. This is in addition to the ISM and often SP greeting. (hence, reports about OWEs receiving "the" greeting here are usually off the mark, because as a DM there are frequently multiple greetings and someone looking after you).

This is more pronounced in Y and it's crew dependent - some crew really bend over backwards for DMs. And the good ones spoil you, so when you don't get the extra attention you notice it.

Hands down one of the more valuable aspects of Diamond to me was sitting in economy class, and having the section head (usually an FP) pay you a great deal of attention, plus alert all the BCs to do the same. Forget the ISM or even the SP, when the FP in your section and BCs are all helping you out, that's where the value is. I don't fly economy much anymore so I'm not as familiar these days, but that always stood out to me. When you had a great FP overseeing your section with alert BCs, service was spectacular. The ISM or SP greeting was all style but the FP/BC was substance.

Tied into another thread going on, one "problem" with having GO/DM status and flying almost exclusively J and F is you don't really notice the difference. The difference in treatment in Y is significantly greater than in J or F.

As an emerald on a long haul Y+ flight, was asked for my preferred meal choice for both meals. On my return, no such recognition, however the ISM did ask if she could get me a glass of something from J. It’s all very crew dependent.

Very interesting. I guess there really is a difference then between DM and OWE - definitely have never had extra attention from the FP and BC from my section in Y... only style, no substance :) And these are on more leisure type routes (e.g. KUL / SGN /TPE / PEN) which would presumably are less elite heavy.

Many of my CX Y routes have also been HKG-SIN return but I guess if DM are not getting any special treatment on this route, it would be non-existant for OWE.

Still- the bottle of water is what I value the most in Y. That plus a few free beers or whiskey cokes are enough to keep me satisfied on SH, given I seldom eat onboard.

I flew HKG-SYD this Friday as well, and had another 2 people sitting in the exit row with me and I don't think they have any status. I noticed they all had their friends/family sitting in other rows so probably ground crew gave them the exit row seat as a compensate for not being able to sit together.

I actually hoped to have at least an empty middle seat but nothing to complain here given the flight was so packed.

And flew PEK-HKG on the same day as well, and saw a DM sat in Y was treated very very well, had the meal first, always addressed by name, always had his food and drink cleaned or topped minutes after he finished. And as a GO sat in the same row I didn't even receive a greeting from the SP (seems to be very normal on PEK-PVG route, at least I never got greeted on PEK route).
So I would really say being a DM is far far far far far better than being a GO on CX flight.

Were you in the flight at 2125 hours? I heard that 11pm one are overbooked in economy. Perhaps you were at row 43. Who knows?

Is CX silver emerald on OW ?

No. CX Silver = OW Ruby, CX Gold = OW Sapphire, CX Diamond = OW Emerald.

As a GO who flies long haul EWR/JFK <-> HKG either in PEY or J, I've never experienced this in PEY. Yes, in PEY I get the greeting and bottle of water usually from SP, but it usually ends there. SP might come by another time during the flight and ask how I'm doing. I've never received any special treatment from the FP.

A few months back, HKG to EWR in PEY, and FP snapped at me during meal service, I was in the front row watching a movie. She had just brought the meal cart and I didn't hear he question. I asked her what did she say, and she snapped about which meal and I should have read the menu so she didn't have to explain to me! I just said, OK, I'll have the beef then and got on with it.

I don't really care about being pampered, I just want to be comfortable and survive the 15 hour ordeal in one piece. I feel like I get more special treatment when I fly J. I've had the FP asking to reserve meal choice on a full J cabin , so a little recognition of status even if it is still just GO.

I've always thought saying hi is gets in the way of their work. I rather the ISM and SP put more time in services rather than having to run around the plane saying hit to all the DMs, and I know some routes there are many DMs on board and it could get tedious. If they want to really make DM feel special, give them real perks on-board. Such as DoD, extra mileage, extra points, Diamond two-year membership instead of one, etc. etc. I don't need to have people come to say hi to me to make me feel special, and it's counter-intuitive because sometimes ISM/SP do slack and decided they're too busy to say hi, and that has the negative effect (when people expects a hi and did get it) rather than positive.

it would be worse if you're DM :P