I'm personally not against that. I'm Taiwanese and hold the CX co-brand card here. The problem with CX, though, is that its loyal customers are from all over the world, not exactly concentrated in just a couple of markets. Unless CX finds a cobrand card partner in all major markets it serves, this will not work.

Maybe we Asian guys are more okay about calling ourselves "boy"?

I'm not really buying that CX will cut SL's lounge access to CX-operated lounges, but if CX really needs to do that, perhaps learn from BR and give SL W flyers unlimited J lounge access, while limiting SL Y flyers to select lounges only (or for a number of times per year only)? It might not work well for BKK and PVG, though, as most flights there don't have W.

No dispute here, but the sticky point is crowd. I skipped CX J once because it simply is too crowded.

Does the Marriott status match contributed to the crowded J lounges? If so will probably get better with those membership expired.

Is that spectulation confirmed by anything?

If this is actually the change CX is pushing for SL, I doubt many travellers will continue to chase for SL status. Lounge and priority bag handling is the most promenient part of why me and my family chase for CX SL, and if that's removed, I doubt we'll continue to fly on CX Metal with the current high prices as a leisure traveller.

Any chance CX will stop the rumoured changes to MPC because I'm still considering if I should chase for SL renewall in Aug 2025?

this year crowd is due to the 210 SL and 420 GOs

I suppose you mean 2024? You'd think the 840 DMs would have been pushed out by now, but the numbers have increased somehow. I suppose this trend extrapolates towards SLs and GOs.

i want to know why is the increase of DM , whats happening.
some big company moved out already , and some rich people moved out too , should be less DM.

Just people flying more often. I haven't had the numbers for many years, especially pre-pandemic. But I can confidently say that the amount of DMs has increased.

Price of inequality. COVID minted many new wealthy people (including me tbh) while carving out the middle class. Oversimplification but high level this is how I've been looking at it.

Edit: Also clout chasing amplified by newer algos social engineering more irresponsible personal financing.

Some of it is probably people wanting to spend their money elsewhere. Whether thats Shenzhen or Japan or further afield.

Myriad of reasons in addition to those already mentioned... increased "flexible working" makes it a lot easier to take a day or half day off, while post-Covid there is a stronger sense of "living in the moment" and just going for it.

How long it will last remains to be seen.

the one who can able be DM is usually for work.
i dont think normal people is able to get DM for just normal personal traveling.
5+ round trip first class ticket? still lack of first class flight right now and may be <0.1% people can afford for personal travel like this.
6 round trip business ticket ? still not a normal personal travel pattern .
so , i would say most DM is for work , but big company moved out , even boeing said that they cant buy business class anymore , so where does the new DM people pops out ?

It depends how you define "normal person". I don't think CX is intending DM for "normal people" anyways.

6 round trip business tickets is one every other month. Thats doable. Christmas, CNY and Easter is already three.

CX has less lounge capacity at HKG compared to the past. They used to have The Cabin which closed in around '17-18? And then the first floor of Wing J and the Bridge also closed following the pandemic. I get that the Bridge is coming back (which is a pleasant surprise) but I can definitely see how the loss of the former two has contributed to the crowding situation we see here today.

I don't have the numbers about who are the biggest cohort of fliers clogging up the lounges, but the "armchair GM" in me thinks opening a few more lounges to create more overall capacity is an option worth considering instead of stripping unlimited access from SL's.

It�s not just an HKG issue though. For example, LHR is awful at peak times - especially end of term. This isn�t just a �crowding� issue. The LHR lounge team flat-out turn away CX�s own premium cabin passengers, so it�s an actual �access� issue. I would guess a lot of the LHR surge in demand is from SLs given the presumptive travel pattern.

I think this is a really tricky issue. Giving SL lounge access 100% drives loyalty, as suggested up thread, but there are direct/indirect costs that need to be balanced.

As with all of CX�s loyalty moves over the last many years, I expect any change to vaguely resemble the moves of BA or QF but to be designed with a nickle-and-dime mindset and to also be completely inappropriate for the CX business/market.

We have seen this with adjusted status points earning ratios that got adjusted during COVID, the apparent massive underperformance of the SCB / Cathay credit card and the laughably poor (and now partially reversed) attempts to conflate the airline�s core brand with the �lifestyle� focus (i.e. hawking insurance products and duty free items to members).