Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific, the flagship carrier of Hong Kong, is one of the world’s largest airlines. Cathay Pacific’s loyalty program, Asia Miles, is a great resource for unlocking premium discounted Cathay Pacific flights.

With Cathay Pacific being one of the founding members of the Oneworld alliance, Asia Miles can also be redeemed on a vast array of Oneworld and other airline partner flights.

In fact, the possibilities when redeeming Asia Miles are fairly expansive, including increased access to Cathay Pacific premium award space and a lucrative Oneworld Multi-Carrier Award Chart.

Earning Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

The easiest ways to earn Asia Miles are with specific credit cards, and by transferring points from partner programs.

That being said, you can also earn Asia Miles when you fly with Cathay Pacific or other eligible airline partners.

There are other, lesser-known ways of earning Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, albeit at a much slower rate by comparison.

Credit Cards

Cathay Pacific has two co-branded cards in the US and one in Canada.

In the US, Synchrony bank offers the Cathay Pacific Visa Card and the Cathay Pacific Visa Signature Card. Both co-branded cards are identical when it comes to earning Asia Miles.

The welcome bonuses on both cards have historically fluctuated between 35,000–50,000 Asia Miles, which you earn after reaching the minimum spending requirement.

Both Cathay Pacific Visa cards come with an annual fee of $95 (USD), which is usually waived for the first year. Both cards also let you spend while you’re abroad with no foreign transaction fees.

In terms of Asia Miles, you’ll earn at the following rates with either Cathay Pacific Visa card:

• 2 Asia Miles per dollar (USD) spent on eligible Cathay Pacific purchases
• 1.5 Asia Miles per dollar (USD) spent on dining and all eligible purchases made outside the US
• 1 Asia Mile per dollar (USD) spent on all other eligible purchases

In Canada, there is now only one Cathay Pacific co-branded card. Up until Fall 2023, there was a second co-branded card issued by RBC; however, the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum was closed to new applications in September 2023, and all cardholders have been migrated to different RBC cards.

The Cathay World Elite^® Mastercard^® – powered by Neo is now the only co-branded Cathay Pacific credit card in Canada.

The card has an annual fee of $180 (CAD), and it comes with a welcome bonus of up to 30,000 Asia Miles, which is earned in two chunks, as follows:

• 15,000 Asia Miles upon activating the card
• 15,000 Asia Miles after spending $3,000 (CAD) within three months of activation

The Cathay World Elite^® Mastercard^® earns miles at the following rates:

• 2 Asia Miles per dollar (CAD) spent on eligible Cathay Pacific purchases
• 2 Asia Miles per dollar (CAD) spent on all eligible purchases outside Canada
• 1 Asia Mile per dollar (CAD) spent on all other eligible purchases

The card also offers the opportunity to earn up to 5x Asia Miles through Neo’s partners across Canada.

Transferring Points

Even though there aren’t too many Cathay Pacific co-branded credit cards, there are still several other credit cards that can be used to rack up Asia Miles, and, in fact, there are many loyalty points programs in Canada and the US that can be directly transferred to Asia Miles.

In Canada, you can transfer points from the following programs, at the rates below:

• RBC Avion: 1 Avion point = 1 Asia Mile
• American Express Membership Rewards: 1 MR point = 0.75 Asia Mile
• HSBC Rewards: 3.125 points = 1 Asia Mile (25,000 HSBC points = 8,000 Asia Miles)

In the US, you can transfer from the following programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards: 1 MR point = 1 Asia Mile
• Citi ThankYou Rewards: 1 ThankYou point = 1 Asia Mile
• Capital One Miles: 1 mile = 1 Asia Mile
• Bilt Rewards: 1 point = 1 Asia Mile
• Brex Rewards: 1,670 points = 1,000 Asia Miles

From time to time, there may also be promotions offering bonus Asia Miles when transferring from select programs. In the past, we’ve seen transfer bonuses of anywhere from 10% to 30%.

You can also transfer points from many hotel loyalty programs. The full list of hotels and how much you can earn by transferring points can be found on the Asia Miles website, but here are some of the more popular hotel chains and their transfer rates:

• Hilton Honors: 10 points = 1 Asia Mile
• Best Western Rewards: 5 points = 1 Asia Mile
• IHG One Rewards: 5 points = 1 Asia Mile
• World of Hyatt: 2.5 points = 1 Asia Mile
• Marriott Bonvoy: 3 points = 1 Asia Mile (plus a bonus of 5,000 Asia Miles for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred)

Flying with Cathay Pacific

Earning Asia Miles through credit cards and transfer partners is the quickest way to grow your balance. However, you can also earn Asia Miles when you fly with Cathay Pacific and partner airlines on paid fares.

For Cathay Pacific flights, you can use Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles calculator to determine exactly how many miles you’ll earn on your next flight.

The amount you’ll earn depends not only on your routing but also on your fare class. For example, you’ll earn different amounts of Asia Miles if you book a flight in economy flex, economy essential, or economy light.

For a paid one-way flight from Hong Kong (HKG) to New York (JFK), you can expect to earn anywhere from 3,000–9,000 Asia Miles in economy, 8,000–9,500 Asia Miles in premium economy, 11,000–12,000 Asia Miles in business, and 15,000 Asia Miles for a First Class flight.

Flying with Partner Airlines

You can also earn Asia Miles on some non-Cathay Pacific paid flights. Here are all the Cathay Pacific’s airline partners through which you can earn Asia Miles when you fly in a specific fare class:

Oneworld Partners

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines
• Fiji Airways (Oneworld Connect partner)

Other Partners

• Air Canada
• Air China
• Air New Zealand
• Austrian Airlines
• Bangkok Airways
• Gulf Air
• LATAM
• Lufthansa
• S7 Airlines
• Shenzhen Airlines
• Swiss International Air Lines

The amount of Asia Miles you’ll earn is calculated based on the total length of your trip. However, not all partner airlines allow you to earn Asia Miles on all fare classes.

As an example, if you’re flying on an Air Canada paid flight, you’ll only be eligible to earn Asia Miles if your fare class is J, C, D, Z, or P. This means that you won’t be able to earn Asia Miles on any Air Canada economy tickets.

It’s also worth noting that not all partner airlines follow the same rules. You can look up your desired airline on the Asia Miles website, or by using the Asia Miles calculator that we mentioned earlier, and selecting “Other airlines” instead of “Cathay Pacific.”

Buying Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific allows you to buy Asia Miles directly, but you can only do so at the time of making an award booking, and only if you already have at least 70% of the required Asia Miles for that booking.

If you meet this criteria, you can purchase blocks of 2,000 Asia Miles for $60 (USD) until you have enough for the award flight.

Purchased Asia Miles must be redeemed immediately, and following the award redemption, your account balance may not have more than 2,000 miles remaining.

Other Ways to Earn Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

There are quite a few additional ways you can earn Asia Miles.

First, by booking travel through special links, you can earn Asia Miles on hotels and activities booked through Agoda, Trip.com, Kkday, and more.

Next, by staying at specific hotels, you can earn Asia Miles. For example, at applicable Marriott Bonvoy hotels, you can earn 2 Asia Miles per dollar spent (USD). At eligible hotels under the World of Hyatt umbrella, you can earn 500 Asia Miles per stay.

You can also earn Asia Miles when dining at specific restaurants in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan.

Lastly, you can earn Asia Miles with some car rental companies and gas stations, and you can earn them when you shop at specific in-person stores, or by shopping online through Cathay Pacific’s online shopping portal.

Redeeming Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

While there are many ways you can redeem your Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, the most valuable way is to redeem them for flight rewards.

Flights

Cathay Pacific uses a published distance-based award chart when redeeming Asia Miles for Cathay Pacific flights.

While there isn’t an award chart for redeeming Asia Miles for partner airlines award flights, you should expect all airline partner awards to cost 5,000 miles more than their Cathay Pacific awards counterpart.

To help you figure out how many miles you’ll need for your desired route, you can easily search using Asia Miles’ dedicated search tools.

As with every airline loyalty program that has a distance-based award chart, you’ll get the most value out of your Asia Miles by redeeming them for flights that reach the upper limit of any given distance band.

For example, a one-way economy flight from Seattle to Hawaii will fall just under the 2,750-mile limit for the “Short” distance zone. This means you can expect to get great value out of a Seattle to Hawaii flight.

In fact, an economy award flight on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Honolulu will only cost you 15,000 Asia Miles, plus a modest $22 (USD) in taxes and fees.

Additionally, there’s also great value to be found in redeeming Asia Miles for long-haul flights.

Cathay Pacific currently offers flights from Hong Kong to Vancouver and Toronto, and the one-way award pricing on these routes is as follows:

• Vancouver: 27,000 miles (economy), 50,000 miles (premium economy), 84,000 miles (business class)
• Toronto: 38,000 miles (economy), 75,000 miles (premium economy), 110,000 miles (business class)

By using Asia Miles, you’ll also have access to a lot more availability on Cathay Pacific premium flights. Cathay Pacific First Class is one of the most sought-after aviation experiences, and redeeming Asia Miles for this top-tier, world class cabin provides tremendous value.

On the lower end, a flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo is under the 2,750-miles threshold, which means a ticket in Cathay Pacific First Class will only cost 43,000 Asia Miles.

For longer flights, a Cathay Pacific First Class ticket from Hong Kong to Europe falls in the “Long” category and is bookable for 125,000 Asia Miles.

Additionally, a one-way Cathay Pacific First Class flight to Los Angeles from Hong Kong would also cost 125,000 Asia Miles.

Further, any one-way Cathay Pacific First Class flight that’s over 7,501 miles will cost 160,000 Asia Miles, no matter how much above the distance threshold it ends up being.

While you can’t add a stopover with an Asia Miles reward booking, you can add on another First Class flight if you’re flying to Hong Kong, for no extra miles.

In fact, you can even add on another flight in business class or economy class after the First Class flight and the total price may in fact decrease, as Asia Miles calculates its mileage pricing using a weighted average of the distance flown in each class of service on an itinerary.

Oneworld Multi-Carrier Award Chart

If you’re looking to put together more complicated bookings, you can take advantage of Cathay Pacific’s Oneworld Multi-Carrier Award Chart.

Under this award chart, you can have up to five stopovers, two connections or layovers, and two open-jaws.

In order to be applicable, your flights have to include at least two Oneworld alliance airlines and not include Cathay Pacific, OR have three or more Oneworld alliance airlines when one of them is Cathay Pacific.

The maximum distance range for this type of booking is 50,000 miles, calculated by adding up all of the individual segments.

The amount of Asia Miles required will be based off of the highest class booked for any single part of the itinerary. This means that if you have six economy segments and one First Class segment for a total of 12,000 miles, you’ll be charged 250,000 Asia Miles, based on the First Class segment.

Comparatively, if you were to fly the same trip but with all the segments in economy, it would only cost 95,000 Asia Miles.

The takeaway from this is that if you have a business class or First Class flight on your itinerary, you’ll want to have as many segments in the same class as possible to get the most value out of the Oneworld Multi-Carrier Award Chart.

Unfortunately, when it comes to booking using the Oneworld Multi-Carrier Award Chart, the itineraries do need to be booked over the phone.

Finally, it should be noted that the taxes and fees can be significant when booking with Asia Miles, depending on which airlines are on your itinerary.

British Airways and Qatar Airways are among the airlines that have relatively high fuel surcharges on Asia Miles bookings, while Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, American Airlines, and LATAM seem to have more moderate surcharges, and Alaska Airlines, Aer Lingus, and Air New Zealand have none.

Therefore, you can either choose exclusively from the latter set of airlines or originate your itinerary in one of the world’s jurisdictions that has regulated fuel surcharges to minimize your out-of-pocket expenses

Flight Upgrades

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can also be redeemed for upgrades on Cathay Pacific flights. Similarly to booking award flights, there’s a published chart showing how many Asia Miles are required to upgrade from one cabin to the next.

Note that you can only upgrade directly from economy to business class if there are no premium economy seats on the plane.

Other Ways to Redeem Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Redeeming Asia Miles for flight rewards will always be the best way to get the most value out of your miles. However, there are also other options available in case you don’t plan on flying ever again.

One option is to redeem Asia Miles for hotel stays at around 1 cent per Asia Mile.

You can also redeem Asia Miles for a lot of overpriced items through Cathay Pacific’s lifestyle awards online shop. As an example, a GoPro purchased through the shopping portal will cost you over 100,000 Asia Miles.

You can also simply transfer your Asia Miles into another loyalty program at very unfavourable rates.

Marriott Bonvoy is one such transfer option, and if you choose this redemption avenue, you’ll have to redeem at a rate of 2 Asia Miles = 1 Marriott Bonvoy point.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Status

Previously called the Marco Polo Club, Cathay Pacific’s elite membership program, through its four tiers, grants its most loyal customers with a slew of benefits.

All Cathay Pacific members start at the basic Green status tier. From the Green tier, you can climb to Silver, Gold, and the top-tier, Diamond.

In order to reach the higher tiers, you’ll have to earn Status Points, which can be earned by flying with Cathay Pacific as well as with partner airlines.

You can use Cathay Pacific’s Status Points calculator to determine how many Status Points you’ll earn on your next Cathay Pacific or partner flight.

For example, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco would earn you anywhere from 25 to 70 Status Points, depending on the class of service you book.

You’ll need to earn 300 Status Points to reach Silver elite status, 600 to reach Gold elite status, and 1,200 to reach Cathay Pacific’s Diamond status.

Each status level comes with different benefits, and all of these benefits can be found on Cathay Pacific’s website.

As an example of these benefits, after earning 300 Status Points and reaching the Silver level, you’ll immediately have access to business class lounges, and you’ll automatically receive Oneworld Ruby status.

Oneworld Ruby status, while not amazing, does come with priority check-in, preferred or pre-reserved seating, and priority standby and wait-listing on all Oneworld alliance airlines.

Additionally, Cathay Pacific Gold will get you Oneworld Sapphire status, which grants you access to all Oneworld business class lounges, and Cathay Pacific Diamond will get you Oneworld Emerald status, giving you even more benefits, including First Class lounge access with Oneworld Airline alliance members.

Conclusion

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles are a great tool for unlocking some amazing business class and First Class flights at a significant discount. With a distance-based award chart, there’s a lot of value to be found, especially when flying Cathay Pacific First Class.

What’s more, Asia Miles are fairly easy to earn with transfer partners in Canada and the US, as well as co-branded credit cards offered through Neo in Canada and Synchrony bank in the US.

With some careful research and planning, there are many lucrative ways to transform your Asia Miles into highly aspirational trips on some of the world’s best airlines at a spectacular value.