Thoughts on switching to CX MPC from QFF ?

[SeatBackForward]

Unless by some comp'ing miracle, I am likely to drop from QF WP to SG on 1st Jan.

There's already a F/J booking to the USA for Jan with QF (on a paid ticket). So status benefits are not so important for me this trip.

I also need to book a trip to Toronto for Late June, which I want to book by the 31st December. QF in J comes to about $11k, where's CX in J comes to about $7k with the benefit of avoiding the joys of US immigration.

So my question is, if I book with CX is it worth me booking this and the US trip against a CX Marco Polo account? Or staying with QF. Future international travel may well be with CX as they offer the best prices for premium cabins IMO, compared with QF.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Unless by some comp'ing miracle, I am likely to drop from QF WP to SG on 1st Jan.

There's already a F/J booking to the USA for Jan with QF (on a paid ticket). So status benefits are not so important for me this trip.

I also need to book a trip to Toronto for Late June, which I want to book by the 31st December. QF in J comes to about $11k, where's CX in J comes to about $7k with the benefit of avoiding the joys of US immigration.

So my question is, if I book with CX is it worth me booking this and the US trip against a CX Marco Polo account? Or staying with QF. Future international travel may well be with CX as they offer the best prices for premium cabins IMO, compared with QF.

What other OW programs have soft landings? Even if you drop from WP to SG on QF you'll get lounge access whereas an AA if you get Exec Plat you can't use US Lounges for domestic travel unless operated by a 3 class aircraft whereas a QF WP or SG could. You then have to work your way up to an elite level to get a decent earn unless AA will match your QF WP so you can start accruing points at a decent rate.

You may wish to sign up to AS MVP then purchase points to use for J or F on CX which will be considerable cheaper than paying $7K for a commercial ticket.

 

[Himeno]

I was looking at MPC as a program to move to with the QFF changes of the past 18 months, but MPC has announced their own revamp. I would wait before changing as what you might like about MPC now may not be the same in 6 months time.

 

[wandering_fred]

If you are able to fly paid J long haul a couple of times a year, the changes to the CX program will be fairly transparent. Also if you have flown CX a couple times in the last year and have a J booking, emailing MPC to see what status they might offer would be worthwhile. Even Silver cuts out a lot of required travel to get to CX Gold.

From Perth travel to North America is not all that much different if you transit HKG rather than SYD (ok 1500 miles or so) as stopovers there are much better/interesting than SYD. Rather a bit out of the way for most people departing MEL/SYD/BNE. YMMV. But CX so far treats its status members very well.

Most likely I will revert to CX Silver (if that) in 2017-18 due to the "new economy status credits".

Happy wandering

Fred