I must frankly agree. I was quite surprised to see them 'poaching' within the alliance.

The OP isn't the EXP, I am. I agree these might be benefits that would be important to someone who does a great deal of Asia travel, but that's not my case with 1 trip a year (maybe 2). I haven't ever been on a wait list to get on a plane, other than the domestic upgrade list, which I have (knock wood) a 100% rate on clearing this year. When I fly international I fly paid J (at least on CX). I find it hard to believe they would not 'step up to the plate' as it were, for an OW Emerald flying paid J in the case of flight disruptions. On the other hand, EXP is easier to achieve than Diamond, provides free upgrades for all domestic and provides 8 system wide upgrades for the international trips saving me a considerable sum of money by allowing me to buy discount Y and travel in J without having to hope for an op-up. Additionally, the op-up rates for OW Emerald on CX, while obviously not as frequent as for MPC members, seems to be pretty good, according to other EXPs (certainly better than other OW airlines).

Basically, in my case, I would be switching for a chance at an op up and giving up significant monetary benefits that EXP brings me.

All this is not to turn this into a CX vs AA argument by any means. If I traveled to Asia a couple more times per year the situation might be different, and certainly for most on the CX boards, obviously CX is the appropriate choice for your FF program. I merely posted because I was surprised to have CX solicit me from within the OW program.

why on earth is CX comping people when its obvious there is no extra business to be gained. LH did this some years ago in Europe and allowed Senator comps an immediate 100 K miles overdarft plus 4 upgrade certifcates. Guess what the certificates got used and so did the overdarft and then they all went back to where they came from but still were able to milke the lounge usage.

Just in case anyone was wondering, I sent in a status match request and got this in response:

Thank you for your email and your interest in participating in the Marco
Polo Club.

We are delighted to learn that you are planning to switch your travels
to Cathay Pacific. Would you please email or fax us the information
required as below, we will be happy to look into your request and get
back to you as soon as possible. Our direct fax number is +852 2412
5946.

1. Copies of your current membership cards in American Airlines
frequent flyer programme

2. Your activity statements of the past 12 months in American Airlines
frequent flyer programme

3. Up to 12 months travelling schedule with booking reference /
confirmed flight details on Cathay Pacific Airways or Dragonair

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Gotta say, I'd rather wait to see who would status match me before booking a ton of flights. Since I'm not actually going to fly that much, I'm not sure if I'll actually go through with this.

They send that to everybody. Just take some initiative and send over your account statements and make up an "itinerary" for the year. You don't need booking references

From my experience, if matching from say another OW partner (eg AA) CX will only give you status if you have already booked many flights on CX, and thus they need those confirmation numbers to show that you do intend to fly on those booked flights.

When I first came to HK (back in 2007) I was a BA Gold. They comped me to CX Silver straight away, I didn't have to show any travel plans in advance, just told them I would be travelling on CX as I had moved over to HK.

I did have to show them my most recent statement with BA Exec Club though.

Don't know if this still applies now though.

I actually had a colleague just do it. He was AA EXP. CX told him the same thing they told the OP. My colleague just wrote up a bunch of "trips" he guessed he might do, wrote approximate dates, sent in his history on AA and got his GO comp. No reservation #s or any of that needed. The only thing is while on AA he accrued a lot of his miles actually flying CX metal, so maybe that had helped him.

But BA Gold (emerald) is equivalent to CX DM, BA silver to CX gold. So you got a status level (CX silver) that is two levels below your BA emerald status! Not a great treat.

my colleague sent over the page of my UA*S mileage summary, UA/SQ card copy and my last 12 months of CX/KA trips since I move back to HKG. Then I got my Silver card, I did have some SFO & TPE booking already at that time.

I just emailed MPC asking them to comp my BAEC Gold over to MPC... I did request for DM and I know that is asking for the impossible... But what are the chances I will at least be given GO? I read somewhere in the earlier posts that they were offered SL?!

most likely SL.

that must be a joke... i'll post the reply once they get back to me

well comp-ing other OW elite to MPC SL makes perfect sense for me. If you are going to shift your flying to CX / KA, you will be upgrade back to MPC GO / DM in no time

Time to show your loyalty to CX :p

Since BA Gold (off a European address anyway) takes approximately the same amount of flying as CX Gold then there's absolutely no possibility of Diamond; and unless you can demonstrate serious revenue in the premium cabins I'd be surprised for you to be comped across to the same level (i.e. CX Gold). CX Silver seems fair to me.

Unlike BA Golds (who are ten a penny), MPC Elites are somewhat elite.

I don't know how common BA Gold is, but the last estimate I saw on FT was that there are 11,000 MPC Diamond members so I wouldn't say they're all that elite. On most of my Shanghai flights I see CX Diamond baggage tags regularly.