CX of course still has 'Lifetime ' Invitation Diamond members - I am one

Correct as regards a relationship manager, although we are not at all forgotten with often unpublished perks and gifts from time to time.
I for thirty years often flew 3 or 4 times a week in business class ,now retired ,its a couple of times a month at best and often in economy on flights of up to 3 hours

1. I was running (severely) late once at a 2nd tier Chinese outport, one of those that don’t support mobile BPs and you had to stop by the counter. Called my RM on the car and the counter remained open, the MOD was expecting me with all my boarding passes and etc printed

2. confirmed a Bookable upgrade on a long haul flight but couldn’t make a date change due to upgraded class available yet underlying class wasn’t anymore; this would be a hard no for regular 1600 DM. My RM managed to override after working some lengths

It's a shame lifetime is now gatekept. Hats off to veterans. Sounds like a well deserved break and it's very inspiring that you are still well looked after by CX.

As there are only 7 days in a week, 3-4 roundtrips every week is pretty amazing! I suppose morning to Taipei & back in evening would be one example of that happening.

Ranging from 30-60 SP for '23, '24 and '25 (inc planned trips before year end) on OW alliance airlines.

Mildly curious: How often do you need to travel (and on premium cabin too!) to get >3000 SP? I feel like travelling up to 2000SP with full fare Y and occasional J is super tiring. Unfortunately I start from GR so I’m still a bit off from DM, let alone potential DM+ and having an RM.

100% re: complex itineraries point when the RM is significantly more knowledgeable and therefore way more efficient in handling those bookings! Unless absolutely necessary, I simply don’t call the call center anymore as I’d rather wait for office hours to call my RM directly for all my booking needs.

Having spoken to some of the management team, I think they are exploring the ideas of some sort of a new tier in between regular DM and DMP. I pointed out that they should as clearly the needs of a regular DM who earns 1200 SP per year is quite different than one who earns 3000+ SP and hence having a RM is a great value add (for me).

Fascinating to read about the veteran hi-flyers here on FT... the rest of us lowly GR/SL/aspiring DMs are living out our fantasies just reading about what RMs can do for you & imagining having that level of privilege. Ahh... one can dream... LOL :D

(I'm a lowly SL clamoring for any J-travel opptys to renew at SL this year so I can at least still enjoy lounge access.)

Do you really want to spend that much time out of your finite life in airplanes and transiting to & from airports? In terms of what is required to reach DM or DM+? Personally, I don't.

to be fair, regular DM is not too demanding if you’re flying all J or F. A round trip to Shanghai Tokyo Beijing or Singapore is 80 points. 12 of those combined in a year would be an easy year (and unlikely low). Thats almost 1000 points right there. All you need is basically a round trip in F or one or two in J long haul and you’re done. It’s not everyone’s line of work but I’d say overall thats a “not too grueling” business traveler schedule!

to get 3k or what the people above are talking about, is definitely dedication. I couldnt hit that without severely curtailing flying on other airlines, and/or at least focus entirely on one-world, which I currently don’t. And even then it’s a lot of flying no matter what airline you’re doing the equivalent of 3k status points on. Although not totally prohibitive, again, if entirely in J or F. Premium cabins are obviously crucial to getting those numbers unless you are truly a crazy person and lover of extreme pain.

I am not sure about DMP thresholds these days, except I’ve never been one. I used to think it was lawyer/banker profiles flying back and forth in full J to JFK or LHR once or twice a month. But a friend of mine who is DMP, certainly doesn’t do that, I reckon he doesn’t even touch the amounts some of the people above here do. But he spends a foolish (I’ve told him as much) amount on CX tickets. Every ticket is full J regionally ex HKG, and F a few times to London each year. He could save tends of thousands of USD by simply applying a few of the hacks learned on here.

Even if I’m off piste on the DMP stuff, I’m certain you can hit regular DM without much effort with the right business profile (meaning travel required) and premium cabin tickets.

If you're travelling on J most of the time long-haul, getting DM is pretty achievable, if you're a high flying exec....

I do the KUL/PEN/SIN-HKG-SFO/LAX-<insert domestic US port> a few times a year in J... a single roundtrip in the right flexi ticket class is often ~300 SP or so, just enough to requalify for SL.

All I care about at my current level is getting just enough to tread water and requalify as SL... have lounge, will travel....

Casual flyers don’t need to manufacture DM routes. FWIW I got diamond organically flying EU <> HK simply for the purpose of seeing family every two months. So that’s 12 long haul sectors. In J on CX/QR I typically yield 100 SP per sector so I cross the line without doing any “runs”. I do however often pick the frugal exEU tickets.

Flying is pricey but time with family is priceless and a metal tube in the air doesn’t faze me when your average white collar spends dozen more hours commuting to work.

I’m extremely happy being able to afford flying like this on my own dime for my own purpose. Zilch for work.

Curious where you got that information? I was a previous GGL for many years but gave up flying BA. My understanding is to qualify for GGL now is 65,000 pounds and to renew is 40,000 pounds. Is that correct?

If the GGL numbers are correct, then I know first hand that DMP qualification is definitely higher than BA GGL.

I was referring to the £65K amount. I thought DMP was lower than that. Perhaps the number I had was outdated.