Why elite status matters?

Why elite status matters?

I know that a lot of people do not really care. But read my example (which exactly happened to my family in last weekend). You will know why it is important.

My mother is a "regular" member of Asia Miles, a mileage accumulation program for Cathay Pacific and Dragonair (as Cathay Pacific and Dragonair has its elite program - Macro Polo Club).

She has some leftover miles at Asia Miles that is expiring. Since in most of the cases, I will sponsor my family's travel (To me, I feel it is a waste if I fly award travel as a elite. So I leave basically all of my miles to my family's disposal). There is no point that I attempt to renew those miles anyway (as they are merely 20000 miles).

Thanks to our fellow FlyerTalkers, I have helped my mother to score 75000 AAdvantage miles from Citi massive, crazy credit card promotion. My mother, then used those miles to book her a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong by Cathay Pacific (Why one-way? American Airlines seems to have difficulty finding the return flight. So I booked her on Singapore Airlines for return.)

Since that 20K miles from Asia Miles still worth something. So she attempted to use them to buy duty-free. When she wanted to complete the transaction, she realized that she did not have Cathay Pacific reservation locator.

So she called Asia Miles (I know it was wrong...). The only issue was Asia Miles was busy. She was given a chance to leave a message (she left 2)...

Here was what get interesting - I called Macro Polo Club for my mother (By the way, I am a Macro Polo Club Silver).

I first discussed my itinerary next week with Macro Polo Club. Then I asked the $1 Million question - my mother's reservation locator. The following is what I have observed from that call:

1. My waiting time is less than 5 seconds.

2. My entire call with Macro Polo Club lasted less than 5 minutes.

3. I have successfully gotten the necessary information - my mother's reservation locator.

Here was the greatest - how long did it take for Asia Miles to call back? 2 days.

You are the reader - of course you can tell the message hidden in this experience:

1. Elites status matters, as always!

2. Think twice before relating to Cathay Pacific in any of your travel

3. How can Paul Loo keep his job? (By the way, Paul Loo is the General Manager for Cathay Pacific Loyalty Programmes)

4. The most important is - Cathay Pacific lost 3 customers permanently (my father, mother and sister).