Anyone know what the best fflyer program is for HKG, I am moving there next month and am hoping someone has experience with what is the best option. I am guessing most of my flying will be CX naturally but I'm open to suggestion. Most of my flying will be back to SYD or to North America and maybe a little bit of Asia, I would suggest SIN mostly. Should I go with the Marco Polo club or am I better off trying with AA or QF for status or should I try a star carrier? I have no preference for carrier so even UA or AC would be a possibility.
This is a tricky one. It all depends on what your goal is. Do you want to reach a high tier so you have C or F class lounge access, extra bagage perks etc or do you more care for earn and burn opportunities. Would you fly mostly premium cabins? Can you choose your own carrier on which you want to fly?
In general both AA or UA have good FF schemes for earning and burning, however, you would have to check how much you earn when flying for instance CX and crediting to AA. Normally you will earn base mileage but nothing extra, whereas flying CX and crediting to CX you get bonus milegae for cabin class and status in the FF program. Some carriers do have the need for you to at least fly 4 sectors on that carriers metal (QF and UA for instance). In general you would get better treatment and have more chances on op ups when flying a home carrier (e.g. CX and being a MP member would get you upgrades ) but as you asked for an alternative I would consider AA for their generous mileage burning. Should make sure to fly AA to the US in that case (which is not as pleasant as flying CX).
If you want to go for Star Alliance joining UA is a good option, again, not too pleasant to fly with them but in C it should be fine and you will get good burn opportunities with NH, LH or OZ. UA has introduced a minimum spend requirement to reach higher levels in their program (thus eliminating people who do mileage runs on dirt cheap tickets).
SQ can be considered as an alternative, but in that case try to do all your longhaul on their metal. They used ti have a flight via HKG and NRT to LAX but I think that stopped. If you need to route your travel via SIN all the time it can be time consuming. Their program is quite ok and they have a PPS level, which basically looks at your spend with the airline and gives you extra privileges. tTo get SQ Gold you need 50K miles which is very achievable and gets your Star Gold as well.
If you give some more info on amount of flights and class and what your goals are I am sure we can give some more insights.
I am a Silver QFF and a Green CX Marco Polo Club Member, and I aim to keep both, Qantas because I reached the silver status with them, so I get the limited perks that go with that, plus the better points accrual with all the bonuses and things, and you can still earn on CX flights as well (oneworld), as well as other oneworld airlines flying out of HK if you plan to go elsewhere around the asia pacific region.
The main reason I spent the $50 to join the Marco Polo Club with CX as a green member is due to the fact that I travel to HK for holidays a fair bit, so next time that I go, I am going to enrol in the Frequent Visitor E-Channel, as ALL tiers of marco polo can register for this service just after passport control at HKG. Although I can also register for this with Qantas FF, you have to be a minimum of Gold Status to access this (and I won't meet the quota for the status credits required for that), so green marco polo was the next best thing. You get fast immigration clearance for departing and inbound to Hong Kong and Macau (airport and ferry), as well as at the border crossing at Lo Wu when travelling by train, which is a bis bonus, as often the queues for immigration can be rather large (especially when hopping off an A380 during peak!!)
If you are comparing the number of flights (for example SYD-HK return or vice versa) needed to retain Silver status, then CX MPO is the one i would recommend, as you would need to take 4 return economy flights within a membership year. With QF Silver, you would need to undertake 5 flights to retain silver, not to mention with QF, Silver membership includes one invitation to the Qantas Club/Business Lounges.
CX also allow their Silver members (no guest) access to business class lounges worldwide when departing on CX flights (for Sydney, this means to the QF International Business Lounge). At Sydney, silver members also get express (departure) path cards.
The other consideration is that CX offers 4 flights per day between SYD and HK whereas QF only offer one daily flight.
The other thing to also consider is the reciprocal earning rates (i.e. economy @ 50% or 100% earn rate) if you are comparing CX and QF with other oneworld/partner airlines.
jordanmyer-smith
jordanmyer-smith
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer Plat
Member since 21 Apr 2011
Total posts 23
Best FFlyer program for HKG other than CX
jordanmyer-smith
jordanmyer-smith
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer Plat
Member since 21 Apr 2011
Total posts 23
Anyone know what the best fflyer program is for HKG, I am moving there next month and am hoping someone has experience with what is the best option. I am guessing most of my flying will be CX naturally but I'm open to suggestion. Most of my flying will be back to SYD or to North America and maybe a little bit of Asia, I would suggest SIN mostly. Should I go with the Marco Polo club or am I better off trying with AA or QF for status or should I try a star carrier? I have no preference for carrier so even UA or AC would be a possibility.
Anyone got tips or advice?
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
This is a tricky one. It all depends on what your goal is. Do you want to reach a high tier so you have C or F class lounge access, extra bagage perks etc or do you more care for earn and burn opportunities. Would you fly mostly premium cabins? Can you choose your own carrier on which you want to fly?
In general both AA or UA have good FF schemes for earning and burning, however, you would have to check how much you earn when flying for instance CX and crediting to AA. Normally you will earn base mileage but nothing extra, whereas flying CX and crediting to CX you get bonus milegae for cabin class and status in the FF program. Some carriers do have the need for you to at least fly 4 sectors on that carriers metal (QF and UA for instance). In general you would get better treatment and have more chances on op ups when flying a home carrier (e.g. CX and being a MP member would get you upgrades ) but as you asked for an alternative I would consider AA for their generous mileage burning. Should make sure to fly AA to the US in that case (which is not as pleasant as flying CX).
If you want to go for Star Alliance joining UA is a good option, again, not too pleasant to fly with them but in C it should be fine and you will get good burn opportunities with NH, LH or OZ. UA has introduced a minimum spend requirement to reach higher levels in their program (thus eliminating people who do mileage runs on dirt cheap tickets).
SQ can be considered as an alternative, but in that case try to do all your longhaul on their metal. They used ti have a flight via HKG and NRT to LAX but I think that stopped. If you need to route your travel via SIN all the time it can be time consuming. Their program is quite ok and they have a PPS level, which basically looks at your spend with the airline and gives you extra privileges. tTo get SQ Gold you need 50K miles which is very achievable and gets your Star Gold as well.
If you give some more info on amount of flights and class and what your goals are I am sure we can give some more insights.
danielm873
danielm873
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer - Silver
Member since 15 May 2012
Total posts 30
I am a Silver QFF and a Green CX Marco Polo Club Member, and I aim to keep both, Qantas because I reached the silver status with them, so I get the limited perks that go with that, plus the better points accrual with all the bonuses and things, and you can still earn on CX flights as well (oneworld), as well as other oneworld airlines flying out of HK if you plan to go elsewhere around the asia pacific region.
The main reason I spent the $50 to join the Marco Polo Club with CX as a green member is due to the fact that I travel to HK for holidays a fair bit, so next time that I go, I am going to enrol in the Frequent Visitor E-Channel, as ALL tiers of marco polo can register for this service just after passport control at HKG. Although I can also register for this with Qantas FF, you have to be a minimum of Gold Status to access this (and I won't meet the quota for the status credits required for that), so green marco polo was the next best thing. You get fast immigration clearance for departing and inbound to Hong Kong and Macau (airport and ferry), as well as at the border crossing at Lo Wu when travelling by train, which is a bis bonus, as often the queues for immigration can be rather large (especially when hopping off an A380 during peak!!)
Hope this helps!
cxflyer
cxflyer
Member since 12 Feb 2013
Total posts 19
If you are comparing the number of flights (for example SYD-HK return or vice versa) needed to retain Silver status, then CX MPO is the one i would recommend, as you would need to take 4 return economy flights within a membership year. With QF Silver, you would need to undertake 5 flights to retain silver, not to mention with QF, Silver membership includes one invitation to the Qantas Club/Business Lounges.
CX also allow their Silver members (no guest) access to business class lounges worldwide when departing on CX flights (for Sydney, this means to the QF International Business Lounge). At Sydney, silver members also get express (departure) path cards.
The other consideration is that CX offers 4 flights per day between SYD and HK whereas QF only offer one daily flight.
cxflyer
cxflyer
Member since 12 Feb 2013
Total posts 19
The other thing to also consider is the reciprocal earning rates (i.e. economy @ 50% or 100% earn rate) if you are comparing CX and QF with other oneworld/partner airlines.
iFLYflat
iFLYflat
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 20 Nov 2012
Total posts 40
If you are flying from HKG, it would be highly likely you will fly CX most of the time.
Hence the Marco Polo program would suit the best, as putting your points into any other program will only be diluted.
When in HKG, get yourself a Cathay co-branded AMEX card, and you will get access to Lounge and other benefits.
Also, once you move there, you will get a Perm resident card?, which will give you access to the special resident lines anyhow...?