Cathay Pacific Quietly Downgrades Oneworld Emerald Members

Historically, Cathay Pacific has been the most generous airline in the world when it comes to honoring oneworld Emerald perks, including for those earning the status through partner airlines. However, is that slowly changing?

Cathay Pacific’s amazing oneworld Emerald treatment

If you ask me, oneworld Emerald is the most useful alliance-wide airline elite status, as oneworld is the only one to have three tiers of alliance status. Up until now, Cathay Pacific has done an amazing job taking care of oneworld Emerald members, regardless of whether they belong to the carrier’s frequent flyer program, or a partner frequent flyer program:

• oneworld Emerald members receive first class check-in and first class class boarding (and on planes without first class, boarding ahead of business class)
• oneworld Emerald members receive access to the carrier’s first class lounges, including in Hong Kong (HKG) and London (LHR)
• oneworld Emerald members generally receive excellent treatment from flight attendants, similar to Cathay Pacific’s own top tier elites

Cathay Pacific is a shining example of how good oneworld Emerald status can be, though admittedly other oneworld airlines don’t act nearly as much within the spirit of the program. For example, Qatar Airways doesn’t give oneworld Emerald members access to its Al Safwa First Lounge, let alone its Al Mourjan Business Lounge, but instead has dedicated (lesser) lounges for oneworld elite members.

Cathay Pacific cuts back oneworld Emerald perks

Historically, Cathay Pacific has essentially treated its first class passengers and oneworld Emerald members the same on the ground. That applied regardless of whether the oneworld Emerald status is earned through Cathay Pacific’s own program, or through a partner program. However, we’re slowly seeing some differentiation in terms of treatment.

Several months back, Cathay Pacific started accepting spa reservations for The Pier First Lounge in advance, but only for first class passengers and its own Diamond members. Okay, fair enough, that’s not unreasonable, since everyone was still getting access to the same facilities.

But now we’ve just seen Cathay Pacific open The Bridge Lounge in Hong Kong, as The Wing First Lounge prepares to close for a renovation. What’s interesting is that this lounge has a first class section, but it’s being limited to first class passengers and Diamond members. In other words, the airline is explicitly excluding those who earn oneworld Emerald status through other programs.

This is the first time (that I can recall) that Cathay Pacific is excluding oneworld Emerald members from first class lounge access, as a policy (in other words, aside from capacity constraints). Admittedly this is just one specific situation as of now, and oneworld Emerald members can continue to use The Pier First Lounge. But I do think this is something to watch, and one wonders if we’ll see more of this in the future.

As someone who earns oneworld Emerald through a program other than Cathay Pacific’s, I of course love and hugely benefit from Cathay Pacific’s historic policy. However, I also see it from Cathay Pacific’s side:

• I adore how Cathay Pacific has done an amazing job treating oneworld Emerald members from partner airlines so well, but at the same time, other airlines don’t have as good treatment, so Cathay Pacific is really being exceptionally generous
• In some ways, the issue with the Cathay Pacific ground experience is that first class passengers didn’t really receive differentiated service, and it seems like that should happen; like, someone paying $20K+ per ticket should get a better ground experience than a oneworld Emerald member from a partner airline flying a short haul sector in economy

For now we’ll mark this as “developing,” and I’m curious how this situation plays out in years to come. The reality is that Cathay Pacific has two massive first class lounges (with one now undergoing a renovation), so I don’t think we’ll see the airline totally cut oneworld Emeralds from first class lounge access in the long run.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised to increasingly see certain perks limited to first class passengers and the carrier’s own elite members.

Bottom line

Cathay Pacific seems to increasingly be downgrading perks for those earning oneworld Emerald status through other programs. Most recently, we’ve seen the opening of The Bridge Lounge, which has a first class section, but oneworld Emerald members from programs other than Cathay Pacific’s are excluded.

I wouldn’t consider this a huge deal as of now, though I don’t love the trend.

What do you make of Cathay Pacific’s oneworld Emerald perk updates?