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Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles is one of the most popular frequent flyer programs in Asia, offering a wealth of opportunities for earning and redeeming miles across a wide network of destinations and partner airlines. This guide will help you navigate the complexities of the Asia Miles program, from earning miles to finding the best redemption opportunities, understanding the expiration policy, and making the most of your membership benefits.
How to Earn Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Flying On Cathay Pacific
Earning Asia Miles by flying on Cathay Pacific is not super straightforward. The only true way to tell how many miles you’re going to earn on your flight is using their earn calculator. Here, you enter your flight details when flying on Cathay Pacific metal, and the calculator will do some magic to spit out some miles for you. I wish this was a bit of an easier system to understand, rather than be hidden behind some barrier.
Flying Partner Airlines
Cathay Pacific is a member of the Oneworld alliance, which means you can also earn miles when flying with other Oneworld member airlines, such as American Airlines, British Airways, and Qantas. Fortunately, the number of Asia miles you earn is determined based on your fare class and distance traveled, which makes it significantly easier to figure out how many miles you’ll be getting.
For instance, if you fly on British Airways, you’ll see how many miles you’re expected to earn as a function of your fare class.
Credit Card Transfer Partners
Cathay Pacific has partnerships with several major credit card issuers, making it easy to accumulate Asia Miles through credit card spending. These partners include:
Transfer bonuses from these partners can enhance the value of your points, so keep an eye out for promotional offers. For instance, we’ve most recently seen a small 10% transfer bonus offer from American Express to Cathay Pacific.
Buy Miles
Cathay has a unique program called “top off your miles” where if you have at least 70% of the Asia miles required for an award ticket, you can “top off” your miles in blocks of 2,000 Asia Miles/USD $60. While this effectively comes out to 3 cents per point, it can still be a good way to quickly get some miles in case of emergencies.
Do Asia Miles Expire?
Asia Miles expire after 18 months of inactivity. However, you can keep your miles active by earning or redeeming miles at least once within this period. Elite members (Silver, Gold, Diamond) enjoy an extended expiration period of 36 months.
How Do You Get Cathay Pacific Elite Status?
The Marco Polo Club is Cathay Pacific's loyalty program, which has four membership tiers:
Earning Cathay Pacific Asia miles differs completely from that of earning elite status. You need to earn a special metric called “Status Points.” Status points are accumulated at an entirely different rate than that of Asia miles.
Cathay does not publish a lot of information on specifics of earning status miles, but their calculator will help determine exact status point earnings for every route. Generally speaking, status points are determined by a combination of airline, cabin, fare class and distance traveled. For instance, a Premium Economy flight to San Francisco would earn 75 Status Points one way.
Who Are Cathay Pacific’s Airline Partners?
As a member of the Oneworld alliance, Cathay Pacific has numerous partner airlines, including the likes of American Airlines, British Airways, Qatar Airways, and more:
You can earn and redeem Asia Miles on these Oneworld member airlines. If you have status on Cathay, you’ll also receive reciprocal status benefits; your Cathay status will be matched to the relevant Oneworld status (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald).
Cathay also has several non alliance partners, including the likes of Air Canada (Star Alliance), Air China (Star Alliance), Bangkok Airways, Lufthansa (Star Alliance), and SWISS (Star Alliance).
How Cathay Pacific Prices Its Award Flights
Cathay Pacific uses three different award charts: one for people flying on Cathay Pacific metal, and another for those flying on Cathay Pacific partners.
- For flights fully marketed and operated by Cathay Pacific
- For partner award flights marketed by Cathay Pacific but operated by another carrier
- Multicarrier Oneworld award tickets
The award chart for flights marketed and operated solely by Cathay Pacific is based on the distance traveled and where you’re going:
For partner flights, Cathay Pacific unfortunately doesn’t publish an award chart (bummer). The only way to price out your itinerary is using their online booking tool, which can make it rather difficult to quickly figure out accurate pricing.
Tickets that have more than one Oneworld carrier on them are subject to a special award chart. For example, if a ticket was solely operated by Iberia, then the pricing would be hidden. However, if the ticket was operated by both Iberia and Japan Airlines, the ticket would be subject to the following award chart:
This chart is highly relevant when it comes to discussing Cathay’s incredible Round the World redemption.
Upgrading With Miles
You can also use your miles to upgrade on Cathay flights. The number of miles required varies based on the route and your current cabin:
Cathay Pacific Sweet Spots
While Cathay Pacific is necessarily known as the go to for awards, they still have some interesting redemptions that are worth taking a look into, especially their round the world one.
Cathay Pacific Round The World Redemptions
Cathay has a pretty excellent option you can use to travel around the world in economy, business, or even first class (if you can find the availability). Flying around the world will typically run you around 210,000–250,000 Asia miles in business class, which is really not all that bad when you think about it.
Some rules to consider when booking this:
- The maximum distance you can travel in one round the world ticket is 50,000 miles
- You may have up to five stopovers, two layovers/transfers, and two open jaws
- The ticket must be roundtrip (ending in the same city you started in)
- At least one segment must be on a Cathay Pacific flight
With this in mind, you could fly this business class itinerary around the world for just 230,000 points (shocker):
You could also do this itinerary (24,541 miles) in business class for just 250,000 Asia miles. An incredible deal considering the general price for any one of these legs by themselves is already about 80k+ points.
Cathay Pacific Long Haul International Business Class: 84-110k Miles One Way
When flying on Cathay Pacific metal on distances between 5,001–7,500 miles, business class is only 84,000 Asia miles. If your flight exceeds 7,501 miles, expect to only have to dish out 110,000 Asia miles.
These can be great flights to take, especially if you can find the award availability for them. For instance, SFO to HKG is about 7,000 miles long, and would cost 84,000 Asia miles. That is definitely not bad for a transpacific flight.
Cancellation Policy
Cathay Pacific charges fees to reinstate your miles or to change your travel dates.
- Cancel: USD $120 or 17,000 Asia Miles (done before the ticket expiry date)
- Change Dates: USD $50 or 7,500 Asia Miles (should be made prior to departure date)
Conclusion
Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles is a versatile frequent flyer program with a wide array of earning and redemption opportunities. Whether you're a frequent flyer or an occasional traveler, understanding how to maximize your Asia Miles can help you get the most value out of your miles and enjoy the extensive benefits Cathay Pacific has to offer.
