bigintangibles

Every year, I make it to MPC GO (normally fairly comfortably, though last year was a bit of a squeeze), and my membership year expires at the end of April 2014. I normally travel between DXB, HKG, PEK and SIN, all on CX, but this year I'm taking a few other flights that could add to my total a fair bit higher than the 60,000-mile threshold.

So far, I have 19,098 miles. Here is a summary of general upcoming travel, all in Y.

DXB-HKG-PEK-HKG-DXB twice (total of 19,656 miles)
PEK-HKG-LHR-HKG-PEK twice (total of 28,800 miles)
LHR-JFK-LHR once (6,880 miles)

So, by the end of October, I project to have 74,434 miles.

That gives me six months to reach 45,566 miles, and in that time I will take at least two more DXB-HKG-PEK-HKG-DXB flights (19,656 miles) and two PEK-HKG-BLR-HKG-PEK flights (14,772), leaving me 11,138 miles short of DM.

This is all a long-winded way of asking:
-Is it worth taking, say, an extra flight to London (or some other long-haul destination) in order to upgrade from GO to DM? I am highly unlikely to fly this much in subsequent years, and will probably settle back to GO next year.
-Should I just ask for an early reset to get started on renewing GO quicker?
-Should I credit the miles to some other programme (this seems like a bad idea)?
- Is there something better I could do with these miles, to maximise their value?

Thanks as always for the advice!

QRC3288

I think you should to best of your ability nail down your travel from April 2014-2015. That's because if you do fly more than expected, DM treatment is far ahead of GO. Hopefully some folks who spent time on both levels can chime in. I can tell you that as a DM for 5 years I can't imagine going back. That said, I fly very frequently and and it always comes in handy when I run into a jam. Need to change flights, typhoon, tech delays, etc. you know you're getting off ahead of pretty much everyone else. And it's great for award upgrades because you're at the top of the waiting list.

Plus, I frequently fly in regional economy class and still don't have to worry about what happens if flight is cancelled, delayed, getting my food choice on board, etc. whereas if you're not DM I'm guessing it can be a total crapshoot. DM makes economy class more manageable. Sounds like you do a lot of medium/long haul economy travel so I think DM would have major value if you do end up flying more than anticipated next year.

The only reason you reset GO early is if you're concerned you don't make anything the year later. Remember, benefits you accrue now are only as good as much as you use the service later. Does that make sense? If you're not going to fly anyway the year following, I don't see a reason to re-set GO now, because maybe your scheduling needs will change between now and 2014 and you'll realize it would be a good idea to go for DM.

bigintangibles

Thanks for the input! I guess that's the general gist of my question -- are the benefits of DM so overwhelmingly good that I should try and take a few short-haul through the course of the year on OneWorld to bump myself up to the DM strata.

From the sounds of your recommendation, the answer seems to be unequivocally yes.

Cathay Boy

As a DM, I can say it's night and day even compared to GO. The First Class treatment is amazing: check-in, luggage, lounges, boarding first. On-board, the crew will basically treat you well and go the extra mile for you. DM and GO are night and day.

APeverell

DM treatment is quite different from GO when it comes to check-in counters, lounges, and award wait-listing. But if you are like me that always travel in J, then in-flight experience for DM and GO would not be that much of a difference, unless of course you count the little note on a card and greetings as something that makes a difference.

J check-in counters always have a queue, while F counters are obviously shorter, so that makes some difference. HKG lounges for me are always packed, it really does not matter which sections I visit, so not that much a difference for me. Award wait-listing should be quite useful, though I haven't really had any chance of wait-listing.

So to sum up, for one trip, the DM treatment is amazing for your check-in time (<30min), lounging time (30min~2hrs). Whether it is amazing for your onboard time depends on your class of travel. And whether DM treatment matters to you depends on your travel patterns.

QRC3288

I concur with the posters above.

Because you fly Y, I think your DM benefits will be useful because the back of the plane is not fun and I suspect DM can really improve that experience.

However, it all matters much you'll use it. An extreme example: you go the extra miles to obtain DM, but then don't fly at all the following year that you're DM. Make sense? Then you've basically just paid for a shiny little plastic card in your pocket and nothing more. I think that's an important part of the equation.

bigintangibles

Thanks for the advice all -- I might try and sprinkle in a few short-haul trips where possible and when decent pricing is available to get closer in order to try and make a not-too-expensive run at DM later in my membership year.

I will definitely travel at least enough to retain a Silver-level member in 2014-15, and probably enough to maintain Gold, so at the very least, I will try and make a run for it, and see how it goes.

I really appreciate all the advice, and will keep you folks posted on how I get on. Cheers!

UnitedTaiwan

As a diamond, the best experience I've ever had, was checking into JFK 23 minutes before the actual flight time.
My luggage was delayed coming in from Jet Blue. I had somewhat anticipated this and had called into Marco Polo HK about 40 minutes before flight time, asking them to help and try to hold the seat as long as possible, and that I will show up in "10 minutes". When I did I ran directly to the first CX agent. They said no way to check in. I mentioned that I called before and that I'm diamond if it helps the situation at all. And she took my stuff and checked me and a colleague in immediately, escorted us through the gates and we were on the plane. I don't think they would've done this for a Gold member. They have all my 200k miles in business a year.

jagmeets

UnitedTaiwan- wow!
Yup stuff like that begets loyalty- if I could ask, when was this? Hope they'd still go out of the way the same way!

KeepDiscovering

I was actually surprised that the check-in counters were still open '23 min before dept time' (in an outstation). Would have thought counters were closed like 40-45 min before dept, and then supervisors and (some) agents would go to dept gate for boarding preparation ...

correctioncx

In JFk they have multiple flights so maybe the counter still open for the latter flight.

I have been DM for 10+ years and can say I don't know what to do if I don't have it anymore.
There are many "unofficial" things they have done they really saved by butt many times and generally it makes my travel that much more enjoyable.

UnitedTaiwan

It was about 4 weeks ago.
I didn't go to the first class counter though and the people at the regular counter didn't look too thrilled to do it. But they did and I truly appreciated them going out of their way. It would've been a lot of trouble as the flights were very full that weekend heading back to HK.

UnitedTaiwan

Ya I was checking into the morning flight 10 or 11am? and they were still open for the 2pm flight.

Mafai

I used to shuffle between Gold and DM but have been sticking with DM the past few years because of the overall experience, especially the small perks here and there. One time
I went to stand-by on a flight 10 mins before ETD. While on the way to the standby counter, I noticed they just issued a boarding pass to another stand-by passenger, he walked away, they called him back, took his boarding pass, not knowing what was going on, they called my name and gave me a boarding pass, with an upgrade too. So pretty useful as the next available flight was 8 hours later.
While on the plane, I did see that same passenger so didn't feel as bad. But, yeah, DM is pretty handy.