Stingy club points in Business Lite and who to contact?
Mar 24, 2023, 1:59 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HK
Programs: Qantas (Lifetime Gold), PAL (Elite), British Airways (now sadly blue), Cathay MPO DM
Posts: 647
Stingy club points in Business Lite and who to contact?
This is an email I tried sending to [email protected]. It bounced. Where can I send it?
I flew in late December with Qatar from HK to London via Doha and back to HK. One leg was BA from London to Doha was BA. I used your new Business Lite fare class and it indicated how many Qpoints I would get for this fare. But I am a Cathay Pacific Diamond member and I put my CX number in the account. I was NOT told how many club points I would get on Cathay. FINALLY. TODAY. AFTER MONTHS OF CALLING CATHAY. The flight has finally appeared in my account and it appears I get less than a third of the points I would normally get? Wow. That is TOTALLY stingy and if I had known that when booking I might have chose a higher fare class. (Or, more likely another airline which I guess is why you hide this information).
The BA points for London to Doha by the way appeared within a week of the flight and were THREE TIMES what you gave for the opposite direction, even though that was an I class flight! (45 vs 15). These are the points I use to keep my status and the UK trip was intended to help me keep my Cathay status. It failed miserably and this will undoubtedly affect whether I fly with you again.
You should really make it clear when booking how low these points are. To put this in context - all the way from HONG KONG TO DOHA in BUSINESS is the same as my last flight IN ECONOMY to MANILA - which is a 1.5 hour flight costing a fraction of this flight.
I’m really unhappy about this. And unhappy that it took months to even get the points at all. Perhaps you thought for so little it was not worth the effort. IF that’s how you treat customers, you may struggle to retain us.
I flew in late December with Qatar from HK to London via Doha and back to HK. One leg was BA from London to Doha was BA. I used your new Business Lite fare class and it indicated how many Qpoints I would get for this fare. But I am a Cathay Pacific Diamond member and I put my CX number in the account. I was NOT told how many club points I would get on Cathay. FINALLY. TODAY. AFTER MONTHS OF CALLING CATHAY. The flight has finally appeared in my account and it appears I get less than a third of the points I would normally get? Wow. That is TOTALLY stingy and if I had known that when booking I might have chose a higher fare class. (Or, more likely another airline which I guess is why you hide this information).
The BA points for London to Doha by the way appeared within a week of the flight and were THREE TIMES what you gave for the opposite direction, even though that was an I class flight! (45 vs 15). These are the points I use to keep my status and the UK trip was intended to help me keep my Cathay status. It failed miserably and this will undoubtedly affect whether I fly with you again.
You should really make it clear when booking how low these points are. To put this in context - all the way from HONG KONG TO DOHA in BUSINESS is the same as my last flight IN ECONOMY to MANILA - which is a 1.5 hour flight costing a fraction of this flight.
I’m really unhappy about this. And unhappy that it took months to even get the points at all. Perhaps you thought for so little it was not worth the effort. IF that’s how you treat customers, you may struggle to retain us.
Mar 24, 2023, 2:51 am
#2
Join Date: May 2021
Posts: 2,155
Cathay Pacific members flying HKG-DOH on QR, and crediting to their Cathay account, earn 60 status points in every business fare bucket except P, where they earn 20. This is clearly shown in the Cathay points calculator here when entering the relevant flight and carrier:
https:/www.cathaypacific.com/content/acc/en/frequent-flyers/earning-club-points-and-asia-miles.html
As disappointing as this may be, it seems that your argument should be with the airline FF scheme of which you are a member. QR can't really be held accountable for how Cathay or any other airline choose to operate their schemes, including points accrual for different ticket type, or vice versa.
https:/www.cathaypacific.com/content/acc/en/frequent-flyers/earning-club-points-and-asia-miles.html
As disappointing as this may be, it seems that your argument should be with the airline FF scheme of which you are a member. QR can't really be held accountable for how Cathay or any other airline choose to operate their schemes, including points accrual for different ticket type, or vice versa.
Mar 24, 2023, 8:33 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Hong Kong, France
Programs: FB , BA Gold
Posts: 15,542
Indeed, it is the FFP airline that indicates how many miles/points you get if you fly on a partner and depending on the fare bucket booked. That is the FFP decision, not QR's.
I am not aware of any airline indicating how much you earn on all partners FFP for their various fare buckets, as this is the partner choice, not QR.
If your QR ticket was issued in the cheap P bucket, than you earn 20 for HKG-DOH and 15 for the LHR segment. Except for the BA-operated segment where CX has different ricing for BA than for QR.
All this is detailed on your CX FFP website. No fault of QR.
I am not aware of any airline indicating how much you earn on all partners FFP for their various fare buckets, as this is the partner choice, not QR.
If your QR ticket was issued in the cheap P bucket, than you earn 20 for HKG-DOH and 15 for the LHR segment. Except for the BA-operated segment where CX has different ricing for BA than for QR.
All this is detailed on your CX FFP website. No fault of QR.
Last edited by brunos; Mar 24, 2023 at 8:45 am
Mar 24, 2023, 9:42 am
#6
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SAN
Programs: Lots of faux metal
Posts: 6,416
I find it amazing you were able to attain all of those status in your profile, but not know how FF programs work. Your beef is with CX, not QR, and CX isn’t going to do anything about it. Live and learn.
Mar 24, 2023, 11:09 am
#7
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Isle of Man/East Palo Alto
Programs: AA - CK/Airpass
Posts: 1,046
I would be personally happy that email bounced - I’m not sure it would do anything to remediate the situation other than to make a Qatar worker have a little bit shittier of a day knowing there’s nothing they can do for an obviously exasperated customer.
Mar 24, 2023, 12:30 pm
#8
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 2,222
Mar 24, 2023, 4:24 pm
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 20,990
Stingy club points in Business Lite and who to contact?
FF points/status earning are a commercial agreement between the airline and ffp.
FFP's sell miles/points/avios to airlines, banks,rental car, etc for $$$ money. And a good business it is. Better than self loading cargo in thin metal tubes in the sky
Mar 24, 2023, 8:27 pm
#10
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club, easyJet and Ryanair
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: UK/Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold (GGL/CCR)
Posts: 15,913
Correct, while you will earn fewer Avios on a QR Business Lite (P) fare you will still earn standard Tier Points (140 for long haul (or 180 for flights over 6,000 miles)). Tier Points are awarded at the same rate regardless of fare bucket for all Business and First Class published cash fares.
