Changes Coming To Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club In 2016

I left CX in 2016 for American. It’s a lot easierbto maintain sapphire status and I get many more upgrades then I was recently getting with CX. The golden years for Marco Polo members with CX were 2008 -2013 before they introduced Premium Economy. Now CX offers very little for the higher prices and very less personal service. I am simply using up my esrned miles before they expire in 2020.....which is another negative...You never have miles expire with American as long as you fly once per 18 months. CX miles expire in 3 years whether you fly or don’t fly. Perhaps after 3-4 years of losing customers the brass at CX will re-examine their changes. However if the intent was to reduce the number of MP members, I believe they are succeeding.

Don't be so sure about the Club Points you will earn on a particular flight, because only certain fare groups within each fare class will give you CPs; so you could be flying rtn HKG-SFO and would earn 20 CPs, or none, depending on which economy class fare group your ticket is. This is definitely not intended to encourage loyalty. Then again, on second reading of the CX blurb, it does say the old system does not reflect the "contribution to the airline", and the MP programme is to reward "valuable customers" not "loyal customers". We all got it wrong, CX never mentioned loyalty.

Thanks for the article and comments. I was considering changing to Cathay after a few bad experiences with China Airlines (I am Emerald with CAL, equivalent to Gold with CX) but found out the $100 fee after filling in the application form. I don't want to pay for a loyalty program when I am a business class / first class passenger; that is ridiculous! I liked CAL for a while but, had too many issues with CAL the last 2 years, the strike of last month when my flight was canceled by an email ending with :"have a pleasant journey" being my final disappointment. I will look at SQ now, that also works for the route I fly from Asia to the US. Thanks for the suggestion.

Infuriating.

I am an American expat living in Hong Kong. I go home at least twice a year and made sure last year (my first year here) to always fly Cathay to build mileage and gain elite status. I hit Silver and was looking forward to a great second year with travel perks. However, all I've gotten is Priority tags on my baggage and a pass to the lounge that is so busy they wanted 25 minutes to prepare my dim sum last week. I have never once been upgraded, even on short-haul flights around Asia. And tonight when I tried to call the Marco Polo line to use my hard-earned miles for a one-class upgrade from economy to premium economy on my next trip home (the whole point of all this nonsense), I was told all the premium economy seats are already booked (2 months in advance) and I cannot upgrade. I booked the highest economy fare class ticket for this flight because it's the only way you're even eligible to use miles to upgrade...and there aren't even any upgrades available. ARGH!!!!!

Speaking of which, WHY can Cathay not join the 21st century and allow you to book award flights or upgrades online (and see availability)?

On top of this, now the lousy silver status is going to become almost impossible to attain without being a frequent business traveler. Faaaaaaaaaaaantastic.

Why doesn't anyone call out Cathay on how terrible their elite status program is? It's got to be one of the worst in the industry.

Dear Anon, and other long term CX supporters,
After 4 million paid (an 'unpaid' - though i suppose I did even for those!) miles and 20+ years as a Diamond card holder in my 31 years with MPC, as I temper my past frequent long haul travel these last few years as I turn 70 , and despite I try to continue to fly CX when suitable (and sometimes even not!), mostly booking direct online, I have descended gradually to even having them exhort more of me to even maintain my current Green card status.
Having brought them numerous family and hundreds of business associates as members through those, decades, and despite the technology that we senior flyers are told makes all past guest data and commitment access available to the supplier, there is clear evidence that it actually counts for little, if anything at all, in the software being written into the recognition model. It is what I call AI - 'Artificical' Intelligence that has neither the soul they would claim is still in their CRM, or the heart that a Human Intelligence model should recognise. Despite falling service standards similarly witnessed in recent years than many others on this stream have noted and remarked on, I have tried to remain loyal to a degree far more than CX has tried with me. I doubt I have the years or the will to start again, but regret that continued loyalty is now so lightly dismissed by the bean counters who have taken away that soul, and graceful service that was the hallmark of this airline for so many years. At least the computer's AI switch is still sending me a birthday greeting earlier today and may do forever! Sadly, GoodoogaLad.

So basically in the past if I fly twice a year from LAX HKG I would be a "silver" member on Econ class (any fare that would earn 100% miles).....With the new change I would barely make "green" member when making 2 roundtrip per year in Econ class. Even if I purchase PE class or lower fare on business class, I still would not be able to make silver.....unless I pay for full top fare on business class for both roundtrips then I would BARELY make silver......

The new program pretty much weed out a lot of folks who travel long haul 2-3 times a year to be in the elite program....which sucks

I have been a very loyal Cathay Pacific flyer since I was a kid, but these new changes really do make me want to switch to SQ's Kris Flyer especially with all the additional credit card benefits and discounts that SQ provide. This new system has a lot more negatives than positives. And I agree with one user who says this is deceptive for premium economy user. I can usually do 2 roundtrip flights in a year and that is usually enough to retain my silver membership that's above 30,000 miles. Now, I need 2 roundtrips + 1 one way ticket (so a total of 5 flights) to make it to the silver. What really makes this deceptive is how they completely disregard the long haul flyers by putting a cap on the miles, which I think CX should better take care of because in my humble opinion, they are usually much more loyal. Also, I saw the other user states 11 flights, while when I count mine, I need 5 flights. Do you see that they're all odd-numbered? That simply means we need to fly either 12 times a year or 6 times a year using Cathay because not many people flies one way. Also the very fact that there will be a yearly renewal means that we cannot just fly 5 times till december then, fly the 6th the next year because all your points would be gone by then. If that's not deceptive Idk what is. They know very well that their customers are not that gullible, Idk what they're trying to do with this. They should treat their coach and premium economy customers better b/c honestly after being in all four cabins of Cathay, I feel like they make the most money from the economy class lol. And it's not even like they can beat SQ on its First and Suite class. Cathay made the wrong move this time, especially at a time when SQ keeps on improving their services and rewards.

Daniel M is correct. CX flyers need to travel Y,K,B and H fare classes to get any mileage credit to AAdvantage. I'll be spending the next year considering my options, since I rarely fly those fare classes and CX is my main airline.

@Matt M H: Cathay doesn't have any First class to Australia, and others will be able to comment more accurately on what the award seat situation is like. However, I do know that loads to and from are high (it's why they've swapped in two 777's onto the HKG-SYD route).