What to do after 1800CP?
 

Hi All,

Wanted to tap into your collective expertise - what do I do with my CX flights after 1800 CP?

At the current rate, it looks like I will hit 1800 CP ~4 months before my membership year ends and that's not including ~4 longhauls to US/Europe. The thing is I will still need to fly CX a lot due to scheduling (though I suppose I can switch the long-hauls to SQ/EK/QR).

Any suggestions on what to do with my CX flights after 1800 CP?

A few of options that came to mind:
1. Credit to Alaska - earn/burn rate seems pretty good and I've had some good experience redeeming CX/JL F with them.
2. Credit to CX any way - really appreciate how sometimes I can get a waitlist cleared as a CX DM
3. Credit to AA/BA - actually not sure why I'd do this but I've seen a few people who are both CX and OWE

Any thoughts on which is better? Am I missing anything else?

Thanks!

I had the same problem.

I saw it coming very early on and started diversifying my spending accordingly. Sounds like that's not possible for you. I also burned a bunch of Asia Miles when I needed to fly CX and flights were available. Basically my train of thought on CX was "burn miles first, only buy if seats not available".

​​​​​​By strategizing early, I was able to finish with about 2,200 points. I credited the extra to CX. Had I not done that it would've been far worse, probably 3-4k points.

Another poster messaged me his/her clever strategy of calling CX to reset early every time, upon hitting 1600 (the 4x upgrades). But the downside to this is you're essentially shortening your CX year and pulling forward points you might earn in the future. If you don't care though this is a good strategy to employ.

What I did was just not credit anything. I reached 1815 CP and have 3 months until my year resets. Any flights in these 3 months I show the card to get baggage allowance and lounge access but instruct them not to put it on the boarding pass so as to not accrue mileage credits.

Once my year resets I will file retro claims for that stack of boarding passes. They should then credit towards my new year.

Don't forget DMP and CIV if they matter.

DMP is presumably worth it, but you'd want to contact CX to know how much you've spent and how close you are.

Higher CIV I suppose is helpful if you're not flying in the highest class offered on board, specifically helping with op-ups. But my guess with the OP is that he/she is in J or F most of the time anyway, in which case who cares about your CIV.

Do you keep the Asia Miles blank when booking or ask them to clear it? Also for your next year wouldn't you have an even worse problem?

Does this really work? Kinda like Marriott's rollover concept!

It does. The limitation is within six months of flying (and sometimes, it's somehow linked to it in the system and you see the credit pop up after the flight) but otherwise, it does work (although a PITA to keep track of it).

Ha! Great! Thanks!

A few reasons. First, it's hard to get. They won't tell me how many members there are but I suspect its at or under 250. Second, I don't really know where I stand, but I have been diversifying so much revenue away from CX there's no way I'm close right now. For example, when I said 3-4k points, that would all be cash flying, and if it weren't for this forum I probably would'be been stuck doing that a few years ago. But due to "strategizing" (aka buying mileage tickets before cash tickets if available for CX metal, and flying non-CX metal whenever it makes sense), I have done a lot of my excess CX flying on points. It's ironic (bad news from CX's perspective), but lately my cheaper travel is on CX, and my more expensive travel is on other carriers. So that means Third.) Even if CX told me I was close, that means I'm going to have to dedicate all my major flying to CX, and pay cash for it. I am so disgruntled at this stage with the state of J class catering, regional J class, and issues in F that I don't know if I even want to do this. For what, to give Mrs. QRC a companion Diamond status? She's going to earn it on her own soon anyway! So that's useless to me. Extra benefits and services? Like what? They'll still chat in the galley in F, they won't load any better wine/F&B because a DMP is on board, J class still has a pretty bad meal compared to competitors, regional J is still uncomfortable, etc.

My general gist of DMP members is they are really, really hardcore flyers in J and F with set patterns. There is someone on here who did Bangkok in J class once or twice a week regularly. Another person CX told me of years back, a lawyer who flew to JFK twice a month on his clients tab presumably, the Cx representative told me it was full fare J class each time. I used to think it'd be nice to have. But I've been flying enough SQ, JL, EK and BR lately, that I really don't feel loyalty to CX like I used to. The soft services of the competition are so much better on board. So while I still fly CX a lot and am a very captive customer, primarily living in Hong Kong, my eyes have been opened in the last few years. If CX called me and said Mr. QRC, you just need to spend 30k USD more in your remaining membership year and you'll be DMP, I don't think I'd do it. In the past I would've said hell yes!

And now that Mrs. QRC is getting Diamond, I will probably just aim for 1,600 this year (instead of 1,800 last year). I may end up crossing 1,800 anyway because it's hard to avoid, but I'll still aim for 200 points less than I did last year.

I had 2-3 years of reduced travel in the past few years (after some 15+ years of first BA Gold, then AA Exec Plat + KA Platinum, then CX Diamond afterwards for like 10 years)...and realized that indeed once I cut down travel, I didn't have any FFP benefits anymore. and I personally think that now I actually don't have the chance to experience and enjoy the F lounges etc that much, always in a rush in the airports...and would love to have such priority/benefits when I get to travel more for vacation in the future when I travel less for work or retire.

so right now what I do, is to get at least 1800 CP with MPO a year (or at least 1600, partner gold somewhat useful for me, but to gift to friends and not family, more below). the rest, I put all into BA, which I think is the only one (or one of the few) that gives lifetime Emerald in oneworld (well, I know, at least for the lifetime of oneworld - but it's a waste putting all into MPO anyway, and I have hard time using the 500k+ Asia Miles expiring every year, don't want to handle more).

and I didn't put all into MPO to reach 1800 first before BA...but I "maximize" along the way, e.g. flights longer than 2000 miles always BA, flights less than 750 miles always BA, discounted instead of full business usually BA (because CX gives less points for discounted fares), BA/AA/JL/etc flights always BA (because gives me 100% bonus Avios), etc. last year, besides my DM, I ended up having 7000+ tier points on BA (1500 is Emerald and 35000 is lifetime Emerald). so I'm hoping to get lifetime Emerald in another at most 7-8 years or fastest 4 years (too bad I'm doing this too late - or else would have reached this or even lifetime Gold Guest List long time ago). and, with 5000/3000+ tier points a year...I get 1 Emerald + 2 Sapphires to gift to my family/friends every year, and if done with the right timing, these last for like 25-26 months each - these my family/friends all find extremely useful. not to mention, I also almost always gets confirmed F upgrade with BA flights at booking time when I fly to Europe with the many Gold upgrades I get (and they also often give F tier points / Avios; whether CX F or BA F is better is another question). and the chance to get Gold Guest List redemption where I can ask to open up 5 discounted revenue seats for awards per flight, twice a year or more (depending on how much more I fly), converted from A/D/etc fare classes.

but, again, these are all just the "side benefits"...my main goal is to get a lifetime Emerald status...(not that I very intentionally fly more to do this, but putting more into CX beyond 1600/1800 is quite a waste anyway, why not).

[MENTION=620]tedhl[/MENTION] what do you gain from having Diamond? Wouldn't it be better for you to focus on BA since it seems like you will get lifetime pretty quickly based on your pattern? I'm not sure what you are able to gain from being "double emerald" and lifetime emerald will be more useful.

Thanks for sharing! I echo this sentiment - although I haven't been flying nearly long enough to really feel the decline, the comparison does become apparent when considering SQ/EK and even BR/CI. But I suppose that's a topic for another thread :)

I have always employed the already mentioned strategy of diverting my points to a program that offers a lifetime membership once I reach the status level I need in my home program.

There will be a time when LT status comes in handy and this prospect is worth more to me than a better burn rate today.

I need DM for:
- using my Asia Miles with more reasonable availability; I still earn a lot of points from credit cards and some of them (eg SCB/HSBC) do expire every 3 years or so...need to convert them to Asia Miles (or Avios / KrisFlyer if possible) periodically
- I travel to mainland very often...having DM still give me the best priority when it comes to flight delay and rebooking (although I felt these days they're treating Emeralds the same as DM...seems like not even all DMs ahead of other Emeralds, but putting DM/Emeralds together)

For me I put exactly or as close to possible 1800 towards CX. Rest go to BA to get GGL status as I value the companions status for my kids and the availability to book using joker anytime twice a year for my family on miles. I usually get 4000-5000 on BA. Already have BA lifetime so don't worry about that. Occasionally towards AS. But I enjoy SQ more these days so putting more flights towards SQ than before. SQ also has reserve credit for future years when I stop flying where I can keep my SQ status for up to 6 years (I think) without flying). SQ I also get a companion card for my daughter as well. My 9 year old has a SQ TPPS and BA Gold.

This makes a lot of sense and looks like an option I missed completely. Are you based in Asia? How do you fit in the 4x BA flights per year? (I haven't found BA LH to be so good)

Why do you mention this? Is BA much more likely to upgrade?

Yes - sorry didn't read that properly. It seems the more and more I read about BAEC the more attractive it becomes. Still the main draw is the potential for lifetime status which unfortunately CX doesn't provide (actually none of the airline FFPs I have chosen have that right now)

You may fly IB too. Spain/Portugal are both great for holidays!