aplee

Is Diamond really worth it? I'm beginning to think not.

Like most of you here, I fly a lot. When I joined Asia Miles/MP, I achieved Diamond within 30 months by flying all Y class long hauls.

I just completed my first year (yes I renewed by making ~30 flights) and here are my observations in the last 12 months.

-2 op ups (on short haul flights)
-Used guaranteed economy class seating on 5 reservations
-Seat next to me was blocked out consistently
-Cabin crew always addressed me by name
-Bottle of water before takeoff
-Used 1st Class lounges every time
-Priority boarding
-1st class check in counters in HK
-Usage of the MP Diamond only phone number

So that is about it. I don't expect op ups as I am a low revenue Diamond (I fly H or K class half the time and the other half is L and M) so when I look at the list above, is it really worth it to do 120,000 miles a year just for the Diamond card?

I still get most of those benefits for being Gold (and I actually got 8x more Op Ups back then as well) so I could easily spread my business around to other airlines.

Thoughts?

kchika

No, I'm not sure either.

What I am sure is that, DM was well worth the effort before CX and AMEX c*cked the whole thing up!

percysmith

No point...

Just fly CX only when the underlying fare, time, routing and product justifies it. Don't deliberately "steer" business to CX when someone else offers a better serivce.

Shop extensively esp since I think you're flying on your own $$$.

Silver/Gold/Diamond is supposedly there to reward loyalty, esp to decision makers of corporate travel.

But the "reward" is getting less and less of late. With other airlines in the shxt, the benefits of "disloyalty" are very high.

Of course, if at the end of the day you find CX the only carrier with times convenient for you, then you still have to hold your nose and continue to fly CX. But remember you're doing this for convenience not loyalty, and CX is making a raping out of its slot times.

marcuslai

yes esp. now that they have lifted the 1 yr limit for the mpc benefits for amex plat and centurion. i received my amex canada package earlier today and had to call their CS to check it was for real and they confirmed it was. mpc membership will renew automatically regardless of club miles.

QRC3288

I still contend one of the best (former?) benefits of DM was ease of using Asia Miles awards and almost constant award availability as DM. Until the change recently, you could almost guarantee a mileage redemption/upgrade in J or F as long as the flight wasn't actually 100% full. It allowed maximization of Asia Miles, and took some of the sting off having such an inferior earn/burn ratio than those using AA miles. At least I had the flexibility to always score a J or F redemption/upgrade seat at the last minute, whereas (from reading this board) it seems like people on AA tickets have to do a bit more strategizing and advanced planning. So that's the trade off and I stick with MPC. Sounds like there is a chance this benefit is now gone. I always thought CX should do a better job of making the unofficial benefits "official," since op-ups order preference and things like ease of AM awards really are key reasons why I stick to CX.

mayodave

Generally speaking its plummeted. The nice touches of being addressed by name, leaving a card to say thanks for flying with us on long haul, priority food, redemptions, even getting an answer on questions when you call has become very frustrating. Too many free cards been dished out mainly by people who frequent FT type places and know how to milk the system dry making it hard for high rev spenders like me who never fly less than business class to reep any real benefits that say thanks for spending a bucket load of money with us. I was actually at a Cathay Dragonair function this week with some top brass there and the people I spoke to in marketing and Asia miles all told me the bucket is a lot smaller now for upgrades and redemptions, especially companion tickets.

JeCCo

Just wanted to clarify the last sentence of your post above, are you saying that the MPO status granted by the AMEX card one holds is permanent regardless of whether one actually accrues sufficient club miles/sectors?

luial

This just confirms my observation.
As a newly minted DM about 6mos ago (from 4yrs of GO), it really is not worth it unless you really need to fly that much. Since my travel pattern only puts me to GO, I would have to do 1-2 Long Haul MR's to become DM.

I really expected the big change (from GO) as many have experience but unfortunately came in at the wrong timing (Amex giveaways, etc.)
There is really nothing much that I gained except the 1st Class lounge, check-in counters (counters not really a big difference in my case) and priority luggage handling.
Then the bonus of getting a bottle of water inflight. That's pretty much it.
A little better treatment inflight of course but definitely not a night and day difference from GO.
The best benefit I found is the first class priority baggage handling which really saves me a lot of time.

So far after traveling 3 long hauls (RT's) this year, I never got an up-op in the LH sectors. My LH op-up experience was actually better as GO (I'm sure due to loads).

In short to summarize, I'm disappointed.
(I fly mostly Y, BTW)

marcuslai

i suppose permanent for as long as Amex and CX have a partnership agreement, but yes thats what the Amex CS told me. i think there has been talk about this on the amex forum about this for a while now.

kamiao

I got a letter from Linda Sim explicitly saying these DM/GOs through Amex have to re-qualify their status by flying after the 1st year.

I do not believe this AMEX CS knows what he's talking about.

garykung

Welcome to FT, OP.

Before getting to the question of if DM is worthy or not, you have to understand that all upgrades (regardless miles, op-up, as well as the NA's style upgrade instruments) are subject to capacity control. No airlines ever is able to guarantee your upgrade at all.

The rest of the benefit, give or take, are pretty much standard elite benefit (although I do agree some people may value blocked seat, bottle of water, as well as personal greeting a lot).

So here is how you should look at this issue:

1. If CX's DM does not worth the effort and money, which airline do you want to try out or even switch partially or totally? Remember - not all program are suitable for you.

2. After the switch (in theory), what do you gain that you can't from CX (like upgrade instruments, bonus miles)? And what do you lose in exchange (for sure - no more water, personal greeting, first class lounge...)?

3. Are you really in a position that you can bargain? For example, if you are HKG-based, and you mostly fly to the U.S., then the obvious substitute for CX is UA. Is UA really what you want?

You know FT - we are like a big family. So feel free to ask other forums and see if this is a choice you should make.

No one can value the importance of DM except yourself - as you are the one who use it (And this is one of the reason why I am stuck with UA - as I don't have a choice...really.)

marcuslai

How long ago was the letter and was she referring only to the HK market ? I am quite certain (even without the Amex CS confirmation) that renewal requirements are not longer necessary, a change in benefit that came with the dramatic increase in Amex annual fees here in Canada. I called Amex CS more to confirm that this was also the case with Plat as well as Cent.

You can see discussions here :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...29-2012-a.html

marcuslai

duplicate. sorry.

kamiao

The letter was sent to me last October 2011 - she referred to all markets that American Express offers DM/GO MPC. HK and US markets are not in the list of offering this benefit.

Thanks for the link - I will go and have a look.

oatsmeal

It's possible that the MPC status comp has become a regular benefit for members of AMEX HK. My brother was comped to Diamond last year (by Centurion). Though he only flew 60k in the past 12 months, his DM status has just been renewed. (caveat: sample size of 1)!