This week in The Up Front Update we’re talking loyalty innovations for Cathay’s best flyers, plus our full roundup — filtering down the firehose of aviation news to what you need to know if you’re interested in the airline passenger experience and the contexts of travel.
Cathay aims for top-tier loyalty members with new super-elite status to woo big spenders
Airline loyalty continues to expand aspirationally beyond miles and points towards becoming more of a series of lifestyle brands, but frequent flyers are a vital part of the puzzle for many airlines — including Cathay Pacific, which is shaking up the top end of its programme with a new tier structure and other benefits.
Not only is Cathay doing new and unusual things in with its update to its Cathay Membership — the name for what used to be the Marco Polo Club — it’s also doing it as part of its ongoing series of moves towards being a lifestyle brand as well as an airline.
There’s also a passenger experience context here: Cathay’s loyalty arm is now helmed by director of customer lifestyle Vivian Lo, previously general manager of customer experience and design, who brings a strong understanding of the onboard and airport experience to the membership world.
Like most loyalty programs, the focus of the changes to the Cathay membership is on increasingly segmenting the most profitable and valuable members towards the top end, with a new super-elite status and free membership years for its Diamond cardholders, the oneworld Emerald equivalent.
The new super-elite Diamond Exec status sits between Diamond and Diamond Plus, one of the invite-only clubs for Cathay’s very spendiest and most valuable customers. Diamond exec requires double the status points of Diamond, and adds benefits like a “dedicated relationship manager” plus four sector upgrades that allow first class upgrades, as well as a complimentary Gold (oneworld Sapphire) companion membership.
Throughout the program, there’s also faster progression towards the top tiers for those who are spending enough, with points no longer resetting to zero after each tier (an unusual quirk of the current program) and the chance to roll over points to the next year for Gold members and above. That’s a bit of a sweetener to what might otherwise be a sour pill to swallow, especially for those Diamonds who will no longer be top tier.
Longterm Diamonds get a sweetener too: after five (non-consecutive) years, they’re eligible for a free year of Diamond for every 6,000 status points they earn.
All this starts in 2017, and as part of the new system Cathay will also follow other airlines in shifting to a calendar membership year, a bit of a benefit for families who would otherwise need to manage different year-ends.
Gone, however, are the “mid-status benefits” members receive when they reach specific milestones, mostly around single-use lounge passes at the lower tiers and segment ticket upgrades at the higher tiers. A different set are promised for a future reveal. Some specific Diamond benefits, like buggy rides to the further gates in Hong Kong, will also be kept back for Diamond Exec.
Overall, this is great news for high-spending Diamonds, and the sweeteners go a long way to keeping other members happy — and aspirational.
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This week on The Up Front:
We finished up our two-parter analysis of the Lufthansa Group’s situation following its Capital Markets Day, with our deep-dive into its fleet and seat strategy problems as part 2.
- Part 1: How do you solve a problem like Lufthansa? Airline, brand and passenger insights
- Part 2: A coda for Allegris: Lufthansa’s fleet and seat strategy problems
We also have some follow-up intelligence on Lufthansa’s fleeting plans, naturally unearthed the morning after we posted part 2. Read on for more…
