nyah

A data point... My silver status expired at the end of March. Did not fly much during the past year (ending up with ~200 points). However found out by surprise when I logged in today that my status has been extended by one year. Thank you CX and hopefully can back to the sky soon!

flubber

Thanks for this data point. Great that you got another year of DM at 500 club points pre relief points!

cxauhk

Maybe slightly off topic, but I see comments about other programs getting membership extensions/renewals. For those people on their way to moving up a level, if the membership year gets extended, what happens? So for example, if you were already at 70% of the required amount move up and you weren't even 6 months into the membership year, do you have more time get to the status upgrade or simply lose out?

ernestnywang

If the club points relief can take you to the next level before your current membership year is over, you will be upgraded to the higher tier. If you are still flying and can still meet the threshold of the higher status before the current membership year is over, you will also be upgraded to the higher tier. You will however not be given 2 membership years combined to reach the next tier, and I believe this is also the case for most other airline and hotel loyalty programmes that are giving people extensions.

I think CX's strategy (or my idea?) of giving club points relief + case-by-case renewal for members that are still short of club points is a brilliant strategy that is both flexible and fair.

Audio

How could you lose out when you are getting credit points without even flying? You are already 70% and got more than 6 month to credit points, why do you need more time?

(Audio)

FlyPointyEnd

Will CX continue to award Club Points Relief after this month? Once my 140 gets credited I will hit 1600 and I'm thinking of hitting the reset button by May 1 instead of waiting for the end of my membership year on June 30,2020 that way if there's any points relief awarded for May and June, it could go towards my 2021-2022 year.

QRC3288

clearly, they're going to have to do "something" at a minimum for May. That's a given, considering their massive 96% schedule cuts go at least through May 31. The question is what. Also, if I'm speculating, I think at this point they will do something at least for May and June, minimum. Since even if the schedule starts coming back somewhat on June 1, there's no way anything about that month is normal, even in the best-case scenario. I think absolute absolute best case scenario is that July things are starting to feel more normal again travel wise. What are the odds of that, I don't know.

I think if I were in CX's shoes, I wouldn't want to keep doing rolling updates. Aka, I wouldn't want to just extent extra relief points for May, and then have to revisit it all over again 1 months from now. So my choices and recommendations. Yes, I'm throwing my hat in this ring:
a.) give Relief Points for May + June,
b.) give Relief Points for a longer period like May through 3Q end,
c.) extend everyone's membership year 1 year. But this option is complicated with CX because of the unique system where everyone has a different month-end. It's much easier to extend when everyone ends on the calendar year-end. For example, what if you have a June 30 expiration, and next month CX says your membership year is extended by 12 months? So I see some major winners here (people, for example with March year-ends who just reset, because they would essentially get 2 more years at the current level) and losers (people with April, May, June, July years-ends, especially if they would've reset anyway, since they will basically just get about 1 more year at the current level). I guess a way to alleviate this would be to give a different amount of extra months based on your reset month, so here is my "d"
d.) +14 months for Jan month-end, +13 months for Feb month-end, +12 months for anyone with March year-end, +24 months for April, +23 for May, +22 for July, +21 for August and so forth. This extends everyone one extra year past what they already have. Because March people are already reset until March 31, 2021, so my formula would extend them to March 31, 2022. Whereas a +24 month reset for Aprils (even though it sounds double, it's not) would give them until April 30, 2022, aka the same benefits as the March people, since the Aprils haven't reset yet. Make sense?) But then I think this "d" is complicated, even though it's probably the correct way to do it in theory. You could also do this with 18 months too, just subtract 6 from all my numbers. Or 3 months extra, or really any number CX decides to give.
e.) CX could totally change the system and make it year-end, I don't think it would be too hard. And extend everyone's current status through December 31, 2021. And then, from this time forward, everyone's years are just calendar years not "membership years" with different month-ends. Aka everything you're earning now until Dec 31, 2021 goes towards what status you will be in 2022. And from this time forth CX will be a normal calendar system.

Options c, d and e mean no more Relief Points.

Anyone have any ideas?

There is some real strategy here too, since it's possible they change the game up here slightly. Quite fun to speculate and a nice change of pace from the ongoing situation.

sxc

Changing everyone’s year end to 31 December would be a momentous task in the CX world. Given their bureaucracy and the current climate of not wanting to spend money on anything (Communications, copywriting the website, new T&C, cost benefit analysis, consultants etc)....it’s not going to happen.

Austfella

I think c/d/e is more likely. If they keep giving out relief points into the foreseeable future, there will be a number of GO/DMs hitting their mid-tier benefits for doing nothing. This will cause additional burdens on CX (albeit you may argue the actual costs of providing the additional lounge passes/upgrades may not be significant in overall scheme of things).

ernestnywang

Most people probably wouldn't care, but I've had a Jan. membership year end for more than a decade and it's becoming personal to the point that I don't want it to change.

HaikalS

I actually find Jan end very smart - there’s a lot of holiday travel at the end of the year that can count. Mine is Feb

ernestnywang

Exactly! I joined MPO when I was a student studying abroad in the US, so I almost always had travels in Jan. Sometimes I can count USA-Taiwan in one membership year and Taiwan-US in the next membership year; sometimes I need both bounds to requalify / move to the next tier. Now with my work, I usually have a pretty chill period from late Nov. to CNY, so I can easily schedule a personal trip if I need just a few more points to make it. If CX changes my membership year cycle it might not work as well for me.

KCJ

Sorry, I'm a bit lost. What do you mean by some people have 2 more years at the same tier?

Thanks!

ernestnywang

I'm guessing people who got renewed either thanks to the points relief or as a goodwill gesture from CX recently have already been given another year that they would otherwise not have (some members who renewed in Q1). If you give a universal extension to everyone again, they would get yet another year of membership, hence the 2 years.

QRC3288

Because CX uses a variable year-end that’s different for each member, instead of a fixed calendar year-end for all members.

For example, today is April 4 here in Asia.

Right now, all CX members whose Membership Year ended on March 31 have already had the “decision” made on their status for the next twelve months: upgrade to next tier (if they earned it or CX gave it to them anyway), renewed at the same tier, or downgraded. But no matter what, all these members have had their year “reset”. Whatever their status may be (Diamond, Gold, Silver, Green), it is already valid until March 31, 2021. By adding one more year, their membership year will be until March 31, 2022.

Compare that to all CX members whose Membership Year is to end on April 30. They have not had the “decision” made on their status for the next twelve months; that will happen on April 30, or perhaps a day or two into May. Thus, whatever status these members may be, it is only valid until April 30, 2020, which is just 4 weeks from now. By adding one more year, their membership year will only be until April 30, 2021. So this is the lack of parity, brought on by the variable year-end.

The way to alleviate this disparity and make it equitable is to do my option “d.” The problem with “d” is it’s complicated.

Thus, I would also recommend anyone with an April month-end who doesn’t need the points to reset early asap. And perhaps people with a May and June month-end should consider it as well. Because if CX does do option “c” (which I think is a pretty dumb move in my view because of what a blunt instrument it is, but I have no idea what they’re thinking), there are going to be people who get comparatively lucky (1Q resets, essentially will get 8-11 months more than 2Q resets), and comparatively unlucky (2Q reset). So if you can afford resetting now, it might be worth it. It’s speculating of course and it depends on which way you think CX goes with membership relief.

Take the most extreme example here, April resets. And let’s say you are a Diamond already over 1,800 CP (or whatever your target threshold is: 1,200, 1,400 or 1,600). This means, your membership year is ending April 30, 2020. If you don’t reset early, and CX goes with my option “c”, your membership year will simply be reset now until April 30, 2021, which CX gives you “gratis”. But of course.....you already would’ve gotten that if you just waited 4 more weeks for your natural reset! Where if you call and reset today, your Diamond will be reset to April 30, 2021, since you already earned it and reset early. And then if CX elects for option “c”, your gratis year will go until April 30, 2022.

Who knows what they’ll choose and I think it’d be really dumb for them to go this route “c”. But you never know!

Precisely.