"We'll soon be elevating your Cathay experience"
 

Just received an email with the following text:

"At Cathay Pacific, we're always searching for new ways to help you move forward in style – to connect you with people, places and experiences that matter.

Now, we're going to elevate the Cathay experience you know and love into a lifestyle experience that will add to your pleasure and enjoyment."

Sneak preview:
Doesn't make much sense, except that they are dropping Pacific from their name / logo?

The wording implies something to do with non-flight activities.

Most preview of a preview ever. The video shows us nothing...!

They must have KPI's related to how often or how regularly they send us marketing emails, or maybe the agency that manages it does, because to me this seems like the most pointless email I have received today so far. Sure, it made me think about CX and MPC, which is really the point after all, to put the brand in front of mind, but I mean seriously guys, you couldn't think of anything better to email me about?

Hang on, let me roll my eyes.

Well we’re talking about it and intrigued so they got the result they wanted.

Did they bake this out of some creek in the walls of cathay city? Can’t remember if there was any recent surveys they reached out to us for in this aspect

Because when Dragon is gone, Pacific can also be gone too? ;)

I wonder if they will rebrand Swire Hotels to Cathay Hotels.

My guesses:

1 - like the ANA X programme, Cathay will launch a shopping/payment platform, probably based on Asia Miles. It’ll be a currency for Cathay+partner.

2 - dropping the pacific in the brand. People call it Cathay anyway. Too many syllables present.

1. is plausible basically asiamiles become digital currency to "enhance" spending opportunity. (read: devaluation)

2. unlikely. cost of re-doing all that branding/livery is cash CX does not have now.

Hmm how about let us visit hk?

The elevated experience is you will be enjoying the delightful cuisine from Cathay when you are quarantined. Seriously.

Great, CX has found yet another way to waste money (although not as much as their fuel hedging) - doing another rebranding. I read somewhere that the Dragonair rebranding cost several million USD?

If they're dropping Pacific from the name, any chance they'll change Cathay to an acronym like Qantas?

What're the chances of CX merging Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles into a single programme, similar to what Air Canada recently did with Aerolan?

The boarding pass has different colours for different cabins at the lower right corner. Will it come back?

If so, it will be a waste of money.

LOL...yeah, and after the cotton swab up my nostrils and reward for sitting in that area for several hours, my reward is complete isolation in a hotel room for 14 day with a 35K HKD & 6 month prison term looming if I step out before I'm done. Oh, and that bracelet that's going to be my constant companion during the entire time is a nice touch.

Suddenly one thought pops up in my mind, could it be the new CX branded credit card in HKG since the AMEX is officially ending on 1 Jun? Some of the wordings of the video description such as everyday life lead to new discoveries could sound like those advertising miles earning credit cards.

Plausible. I'm hoping it'll include ways of earning Club Points on the ground... a few other carriers have gone that way. SQ allows for qualifying miles to be earned from award mile transfers from credit cards, and AC-branded credit cards earn status qualifying miles directly.

That said, it'll likely be a painfully-low earning rate on Club Points if it comes to fruition.

I'm based in Taiwan and also received the email. If that's the case, the card should also be rolled out in Taiwan then.

That means it is not the card.

Email just went out under standard “Cathay Pacific” letterhead (vs Marco Polo Club last week). So may not be miles related.

EU based with MPC style signature, last week, for me.

I seriously hope, they do not something like a pre-filled linked-in or facebook platform for MPC members......

Practical items:
- Book the cook.
- Airport buggies.
- Pickup and bring-home based on "shared" transportation for DM in F/J ?

J class tickets seem to be pretty expensive at the moment, so "added" value to make the pricing acceptable could be an item.

Got it in French as a past CX flyer (not MPC).

For months, CX has stopped flying to Europe, except the occasional LHR flight when not banned. In the meanwhile other airlines have been flying to/from HKG and Asia.
Airlines like QR or TK have been very active taking market share of the European market. CX kept scheduling a restart to some European destinations but kept cancelling/postponing. There might not have been that many pax travelling over the past ten months, but CX is getting to be a distant memory for those.
Nowadays, I am booking only airlines which have flown during the pandemic, even with very light loads. Twice, I got a CX ticket booked at very high fare cancelled (even this June) and I won't take the risk anymore.

This lengthy preambule to say that CX has a lot of marketing to do not to be forgotten and get back their longhaul pax when they can fly again (health restrictions on crew relaxed). As CX is still not currently flying many longhaul flights, this message and the follow up is just a way yo keep people aware of their existence. That might not be needed for HKers, but it is for potential pax in Europe. I am not talking about America, which is a different situation.

The only place I want to be elevated is into the air on a trip... but HK has made that impossible even though I'm vaccinated. Seriously. Cathay is just pissing people off with this crap. Unless they can find a way to allow quarantine free travel, they are not elevating anything.

It's really hard to guess what they will announce. Well, whatever they announce is probably going to annoy some people.

But they already warned us that they are "elevating" our experience. They didn't say if they were elevating it in a good way or a bad way.

What they announce could elevate our already high levels of dislike / frustration / indifference / hopelessness towards the airline. :D

Seems to be elevating blood pressure for some.

It is a card. 100% certain.

Has been a while but still no news whatsoever. If it really is a new card, I’d be eager to see how is it better than the previous one. If it’s not partnered with AE this time, hopefully it’d be one that is more widely accepted.

They certainly are not elevating their fleet.

I doubt it’s a card since people overseas received the email.

Email received. It is a card.

It's a lot of hype for a new card. Much more than when they released the SCB Asia Miles card.

Makes me wonder what other perks they are attaching to it, how it is integrated with your MPC status maybe or perhaps it is a premium card (Visa Infinite?).

Dear Mr,
When the new Cathay co-branded credit card arrives, you’ll have the key to unlocking a whole new world of privileges – where every spend, tap or swipe brings you closer to long-awaited trips.
This will be the only range of cards in Hong Kong that offers exclusive Cathay travel and lifestyle privileges - and more closely reflects your status, on the ground and in the air.
So get ready. A whole new experience is arriving in July.
Yours sincerely,
Marco Polo Club

Dear Mr,
When the new Cathay co-branded credit card arrives, you’ll have the key to unlocking a whole new world of privileges – where every spend, tap or swipe brings you closer to long-awaited trips.
This will be the only range of cards in Hong Kong that offers exclusive Cathay travel and lifestyle privileges - and more closely reflects your status, on the ground and in the air.
So get ready. A whole new experience is arriving in July.
Yours sincerely,
Asia Miles Team

Possible issuers:
- HSBC (rumoured)
- CCB (they just terminated their HX card)

"More closely reflects your status" - makes me think it could be a credit card that also indicates your membership level (green card or gold card etc), given they also just stopped issuing annual MPC cards. This would be one way to "integrate" your Cathay status with living and spending.

The SCB AM card can still be applied for on the website. If a new card is arriving in July, would be a very short notice for those people that just apple for a AM card now. As they say it will be the only Cathay Card, does it mean the bank might still be SCB? Just a revamped line-up maybe.

If it is HSBC will definitely not be getting the card.

Remember the SCB card as an asia miles card, not a Cathay card. So they might continue with this dual branded strategy.

True. As SCB is still promoted, it might be here to stay, plus one additional card. If its some obscure mainland bank (like CCB) , people might be hesitant to get it