ricktoronto

Of particular confusion is this term on the CX site: "Upgrades occur as soon as you accrue enough club points to enter next tier threshold within a membership year. As multiple tier upgrades are not allowed, you can only progress one club tier at a time."

I am looking at a specific example for clarity. Fly YYZ-BKK via HKG in D/I Business Class. Each R/T = 260 points. This happens in one year to keep it simple.
After one trip (or by simply enrolling by paying $100) = Green @260 points
After two trips total points are 520 which is over 300 so change to Silver. Do I have 220 towards Gold? Or do I start at 0 (losing 520 cumulative points or 220 points more than the required 300)?
After three trips total points are 780 which is over 600 = Gold (or did I lose again?)
After 5 trips points are 1,300 which is over 1,200 = Diamond unless these transitions are losing unused points each tier change.

The basic question is whether there is something lost at each transition point or if credit is retained of the excess not needed at the transition point, e.g. 520 vs. 300 for Silver, do I keep the 220 excess towards Gold? Ditto Reset at Gold, do I have 0 to start and need to earn the whole 600 or do I have 780, etc.

Another way of asking is if to get to Diamond I need to earn 300+600+1200 after each tier change for a total of 2,100 points in a year or if I need to achieve these levels taking into account what's been flown so far. If the former is the case earning 520 after 2 trips to only use 300 and lose 220 more is a kick in the pants.

CXFlyerBoy

QRC3288

The OPs basic understanding is correct.

I politely direct you to the FAQ, and a number of other threads historically; this is a fairly common complaint of MPC members in this forum.

And the reset function is another reason GO and DM are so hard to obtain for "regular" frequent fliers... especially those looking for a quick shot to high tiers from scratch. It's pretty straightforward that you could handidly earn EXP in AA and Gold BA (both OWE equivalents), and yet struggle to get Cathay GO (OWS), let alone Diamond.

Everyone shakes their head the first time they do the math. But it's pretty "normal" on here given how often the query comes through. That's just the way they do it.

They make it hard for us to earn, but more than give it back to us in favorable earn/burn ratios, treatment above other partners, etc.....(sarcasm detected...)

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cxfan1960

@260/RT (or 130/OW), it takes one RT+ one OW (390) to get above 300.to get SL. It takes the other one OW + two RTs (650) to get to GO.

ricktoronto

I failed to think that 1/2 of a R/T was counted as such, so it is slightly less awkward (e.g. losing less value per trip) than I thought looking at cxfan1960's analysis above. Still a weird system losing 90 perfectly useful points to get SL then losing 50 more to get to GO and so on.

sxc

Also be careful of the flights after you "tick over" a tier. It takes a few days for the system to reset sometimes.

So for example, if you are taking two flights on the same day: SIN-HKG then HKG-LAX, and the SIN-HKG is the one that ticks you over, remove your number from the HKG-LAX flight and credit the second flight after your tier gets upgraded. Because they will otherwise credit on the same day, and when the system resets your club points, you will lose that healthy HKG-LAX chunk.

QRC3288

You are likely to lose CP when upgrading a tier, but the most CP you can theoretically lose should be 130 CP. Because the most you can earn on a sector is 135 CP (F class HKG-JFK etc.); in this unfortunate scenario you would've been 5 CP away from SL, GO or DM prior to the cash fare ultra long-haul F class flight. Obviously this is extreme, few people actually lose 130 CP. Roughly speaking, losing >50 CP is bad luck. 20-50 CP might be fairly typical. Losing <=20 CP is a "win". Fwiw, there are reports on here of CX being flexible for people just missing a higher tier, or tier renewal based on CP crediting issues.

The closer your "Distance from Higher Tier" (DHT) is to equaling CP earned from the "Flight Over Threshold" (FOT), the less CP lost upon upgrade. Of course if you're lucky enough where DHT = FOT, you lose nothing.

Note this is only applicable for people going up the tier hierarchy. If you're any of SL, GO or DM already and will stay in the same tier going forward, there is no loss. And GOs and DMs now have Mid-Tier benefits which make it a little more lucrative to keep earning to MPC despite requalifying.

One other thing to consider is the way CP timing works. CP is credited to your account on the actual posting date, not retro-credited to the flight timing date. So there is both latency and arbitrariness to the timing; this is especially true for partner OW flights, which tend to credit slower, less-predictably, and don't hit at all sometimes.