Finger crossed on what and when they will announce and implement such. Have been considering where to credit my future flights, but now feel a little hesitated to credit to CX in view of the uncertainty.

But taking away F lounge from DM is a bit radical. Emerald = F lounge so that means DM is no longer Emerald. If they make DMP a lot more harder to achieve, many exitsting DM would just switch to other OW programs.

When is CX implementing this?

Jan 2026?

Would be very surprising to drop OWE from DM, as for the level of travel required to achieve that... similar to BA, you would drive away chunks of travelers - I haven't ever really felt that the CX First lounges were too busy except for 2-3 days a year.

Now, you could create a more exclusive "New F" lounge (like the BA CCR / AA&BA Chelsea Lounge / QR Al Safwa) just for DMP/CX First, and go like BA and have "OWE/First" lounges that are really only business class lounges. This could all happen during the transition and upgrades that have been promised to the First lounges at HKG over the next few years. The biggest challenge I can see here is, CX runs how many F routes a day (7 - HND, PEK, LHRx2, LAXx2, JFK.. 42 seats, plus a rare few DMPs), it's a lot of effort for a whole new lounge. So probably a reserved area with better champagne and caviar or truffles ("BA Singapore Bar" like) could work. And it's a long time to wait.

Still, interesting to watch. BA GGL isn't going to be achievable for me due to the BA spend requirements, and I am nearing BA GfL/OWE for life.... But I still suspect I would struggle to hit CX DM, never mind some exclusive DMP.

Or just become free agents. Taking away F lounge makes DM a bit pointless if you only/mostly fly premium cabins anyways. They need to maintain a carrot somewhere.

Any comment on whether the naming convention is finalized?

Also curious if CX is planning on a separate parallel pts system for the fifth tier like HON Circle.

What I understand from this thread is that CX is looking for ways to further reward those who pay, at the cost of silver and gold members. Therefore I think it likely that DM would still be EM and eligible for F lounge. Perhaps there would be something more for DM+, like CCR of BA. Shouldn’t be hard to do when they are already planning a large scale revamp of lounges, and possibly to acquire more floor space when new T2 of HKG comes into operation.

If they really want "wow" factor, they need a first class terminal like SQ and LH do but I don't think HKG has the space for that.

If GO still gets mapped to Sapphire, I don't see much that can be taken away. By any chance do you know if GO will also be harder to attain for cheap-ticket flyers, after factoring both the lower earn rate and status requirement? GO is already not easy to retain for me. If they make it even harder, I may as well just give up.

Judging by the name of Diamond and Diamond plus, It simply makes very little sense CX will devalue diamond to OWS. It would have been called Gold plus, rather than Diamond on a 5-tier system.

For me, Diamond plus sounds like OWE-equivalent with additional written benefits, so ppl will still use their status and collect miles on MPC after passing the 1200 mark or other milestones (eg. 1800).

Another possible benefit for DMP is 4 upgrade vouchers per year, which would be taken away from DM's mid tier benefit.

Where is the first class terminal for SQ? Didn't know they have one... Or do you just mean a more exclusive check in area?

For me, possible benefits that could make me fly more to achieve DMP include:

DMP exclusive section in F lounges serving more premium food and drinks
A certain number of upgrade vouchers each year
Bring back unlimited ticket hold (with T&C to avoid abuse of course)
Guaranteed birthday and anniversary upgrades

Other benefits that could increase the attractiveness of DMP but not a deal breaker:
Priority cut the queue at lounge massage / cabana
Real priority check-in and boarding before DM/OWE, instead of sharing the same queue with them

DMP still has unlimited ticketing.
Upgrade vouchers used to be available to corporate contracts but were then removed.

Take away lounge access from silver, with a slight decrease in gold threshold, may do the trick