How to use Hong Kong Airport lounges

Lounge passes at status milestones

Cathay decides membership status from Status Points earned within a Status Points earning period, and its notice of key changes treats lounge passes as mid-status benefits — benefits earned at a Status Point threshold in addition to the status itself. [7]

The thresholds and passes described in the notice are: [7]

• Gold, under the arrangement the notice describes as current. Two Business class Lounge Passes on earning 800 Status Points, and four Bookable Upgrades on earning 1,000 Status Points, both as mid-status benefits. [7]
• Diamond, under the arrangement the notice describes as current. Two First class or Business class Lounge Passes on earning 1,400 Status Points, four Bookable Upgrades at 1,600 Status Points and one Gold Companion Card at 1,800 Status Points, all as mid-status benefits. [7]
• Silver, from 12.00am on 1 January 2027. On earning 450 Status Points, Silver members will still be able to earn two Business class Lounge Passes for themselves or travel companions when travelling together on a Cathay Pacific flight, under what the notice renames as Silver milestone benefits. [7]

How a pass is delivered — whether it is issued as a separate document, attached to a membership account, or exchanged for entry at a particular lounge — is not described in the notice. [7]

Timing and the changes from 1 January 2027

All dates and times in the notice refer to Hong Kong Time, and the removal of the Gold and Diamond lounge passes takes effect from 12.00am on 1 January 2027. [7]

From that moment the mid-status benefits feature is removed for both statuses: Gold members will no longer be able to earn two Business class Lounge Passes and four Bookable Upgrades as mid-status benefits, and Diamond members will no longer earn First class and Business Lounge Passes, Bookable Upgrades or a Gold Companion Card the same way. [7] The notice does not present any lounge benefit as the replacement for those passes. [7] What it describes for Diamond members instead is two single-sector Upgrade Passes, awarded to members who earn 1,200 Status Points and achieve a status upgrade to Diamond, and awarded again in February of the following year where the member earns the Status Points needed for renewal; each pass allows a single upgrade to the next immediate class up to Business, may be used by the member, the member's travel companions or Redemption Group Nominees, and is limited to flights marketed and operated by Cathay Pacific, subject to seat availability. [7]

Benefits already earned survive the change: mid-status benefits can still be earned during 2026, and all mid-status benefits remain valid for 12 months from the date of issue. [7]

The same notice changes how Status Points build up, which affects how quickly a member reaches a milestone. From 1 January 2027 a member's Status Points balance resets to zero only at the end of each Status Points earning period, at 11.59pm on 31 December each calendar year, rather than each time a higher status is earned, and Gold, Diamond and Diamond Exec members may roll over Status Points earned above their qualification requirement, up to 50% of the points required for the status achieved. [7]

The one HKIA-specific service in the notice

The notice introduces a status above Diamond, called Diamond Exec, from 1 January 2027, requiring a minimum of 2,400 Status Points during a Status Points earning period. [7] Among its listed benefits is buggy service when departing on a Cathay Pacific marketed flight from Hong Kong International Airport with a departure gate between gate 40 and gate 80, limited to one time per Diamond Exec member per flight and subject to the availability of the third-party provider; the member may bring one guest travelling on the same flight. [7] This is an airport service rather than a lounge, and the notice does not link it to lounge entry. [7]

Exceptions and limits

• Conditions attached to the Silver pass. The notice attaches two conditions to the Silver benefit: the passes are for the member or travel companions, and they apply when travelling together on a Cathay Pacific flight. [7] The notice does not say whether the same flight condition attaches to the Gold and Diamond passes. [7]
• Which lounge a pass opens.
• Cabin, status and network access.
• Departure, arrival and transit.
• Lounge passes redeemed as an award. Cathay's membership terms, effective on and from 1 January 2026 (Hong Kong Time), list "Flight Awards – Lounge Pass Redemption" among their sections, but the conditions for that redemption are not set out in the terms page checked. [5]
• Other statuses. The notice mentions lounge passes only for Silver, Gold and Diamond; it does not describe a lounge pass at any other status level, including the new Diamond Exec status. [7]

Related pages

Cathay's own lounge arrangements are covered on Cathay Pacific lounges. For alliance-wide rules see oneworld lounge access; for paid and third-party networks see Priority Pass and Plaza Premium Lounge. Before flying, the lounge access checklist sets out the details worth confirming, and the glossary explains status and pass terminology.

Sources

Sources accessed on 18 October 2026. The sources are Cathay's membership terms and its notice of key programme changes; lounge arrangements published by other airlines at Hong Kong International Airport, by oneworld, and by third-party lounge networks such as Priority Pass or Plaza Premium are not covered here.

1. Cathay Membership Programme Terms and Conditions, checked 18 October 2026
2. Key changes to the Cathay membership programme, checked 18 October 2026