Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles frequent flyer program is currently offering a potentially useful transfer bonus.
In this post:
Convert credit card rewards into Cathay Pacific miles
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is offering a 10-15% transfer bonus when you convert credit card points into miles with the program:
- If you convert credit card points and earn under 20,000 miles, you’ll receive a 10% bonus
- If you convert credit card points and earn 20,000 or more miles, you’ll receive a 15% bonus
This promotion is valid for transfers between December 30, 2022, and January 31, 2023, and registration is required. The bonus miles will only post within 8-10 weeks of the end of the promotion — my goodness, that’s a long time to wait! There’s no limit to how many bonus miles you can earn with this offer.
You can find the full terms here. Note that while the terms suggest that this offer is available for “selected members,” Cathay Pacific has confirmed that this is open to any eligible member who registers.
Often we see transfer bonuses being offered directly by credit card rewards programs, but in this case the bonus is being offered directly by Asia Miles. That’s why you won’t see this promotion when you go to the credit card rewards pages to transfer points. The standard points should post quickly, and then expect to wait many weeks for the 10-15% bonus to post.
As a reminder, in the United States Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, and Citi ThankYou.
Is this Cathay Pacific Asia Miles transfer bonus worth it?
While Cathay Pacific is one of my favorite airlines in the world (or at least was pre-pandemic — it’s a shell of its former self at this point), Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is far from my favorite frequent flyer programs:
- If I want to redeem for travel on Cathay Pacific, you’re typically better off booking through some partner programs, like American AAdvantage or Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles’ partner award chart isn’t terribly lucrative, as redemption rates can be high, and fuel surcharges can also be steep
Nonetheless some people do like the program, so if that describes you, then this offer is worth taking advantage of. Meanwhile for those who aren’t otherwise too familiar with the program, this offer shouldn’t get you too interested either, in my opinion.
One valuable sweet spot of the program is that when booking through Asia Miles, British Airways flights have lower carrier imposed surcharges than through other programs.
Bottom line
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is offering a 10-15% bonus when you convert credit card points into Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. If you’re looking to convert points with Amex, Capital One, or Citi, to Cathay Pacific, this is a good opportunity.
In general I don’t find Asia Miles to be a particularly compelling program. However, with Hong Kong now fully reopened and travel to Asia once again being practical, there’s certainly more use for flying with Cathay Pacific. I wouldn’t take advantage of this speculatively, but if you have a specific use in mind and you know what you’re doing, this could be worth it (just remember your bonus miles might not post for over four months).
Anyone taking advantage of this Asia Miles transfer bonus?
According to CX's website under "Other Partner Credit Cards", only AMEX, Citi and a handful of Asian banks are eligible for the bonus which means I can't transfer my Cap1 points and receive the same bonus. Bummer. For some reasons, CX is not releasing F/J seats to OW partners, I cannot find any of those seats with British Airways or Alaska, they're only available if I redeem with Asiamiles.
I took advantage of the prior 15% transfer bonus in the fall. The promo period ended toward the end of October and allowed for "8-10 weeks" for the bonus points to post. 10 weeks after the end of the promotion period would have been the 21st of January.
The bonus miles for me hit my CX AsiaMiles account the evening of the 15th of January, so if anyone is eyeing this and hoping the...
I took advantage of the prior 15% transfer bonus in the fall. The promo period ended toward the end of October and allowed for "8-10 weeks" for the bonus points to post. 10 weeks after the end of the promotion period would have been the 21st of January.
The bonus miles for me hit my CX AsiaMiles account the evening of the 15th of January, so if anyone is eyeing this and hoping the bonus points will come quicker than the T&C allow for, I would not bank on that. I would assume the bonus miles would be in accounts sometime during the first week in April.
Do you know if this only works on the first transfer after signing up for the offer?
Or does it apply to all the transfers in the one month window?
Don't know if you know it already
Apparently Cathay are also DOUBLING award availability on its flights.
You definitely got more availability on AsiaMiles than partners' program, such as Alaska's Milage Program. For example, I've been looking at HKG-LAX for my dad for the fall, and there aren't many available on Alaska website (I tried to book one just minutes ago, and apparently, that availability is a ghost - couldn't book it and it didn't show it was available on AsiaMiles when I cross checked). But if you search on AsiaMiles, almost...
You definitely got more availability on AsiaMiles than partners' program, such as Alaska's Milage Program. For example, I've been looking at HKG-LAX for my dad for the fall, and there aren't many available on Alaska website (I tried to book one just minutes ago, and apparently, that availability is a ghost - couldn't book it and it didn't show it was available on AsiaMiles when I cross checked). But if you search on AsiaMiles, almost everyday in the fall has at least 1 seat available on that route but don't show up in Alaska website.
Asia miles are difficult to book. It took considerable effort to book 2J Class BOS-HKG-CGK on CX and CGK-NRT-BOS on JL on the return for next December. The tickets were good value, 85K outbound and 90K return each. These flights were reserved on the website, but paying required calling. We tried 4 different credit cards and finally succeeded using PayPal. Apparently using credit cards is a known, persistent problem with CX awards.
Needless to say,...
Asia miles are difficult to book. It took considerable effort to book 2J Class BOS-HKG-CGK on CX and CGK-NRT-BOS on JL on the return for next December. The tickets were good value, 85K outbound and 90K return each. These flights were reserved on the website, but paying required calling. We tried 4 different credit cards and finally succeeded using PayPal. Apparently using credit cards is a known, persistent problem with CX awards.
Needless to say, we want to draw down CX miles.
Careful as based on their T&C, Capital One and Chase are not on the list of partners for this offer.
"other partner Credit Cards"
https://www.asiamiles.com/en/earn-miles/finance-insurance.html#other-partner-credit-cards
about 53k Amex points transferred to CX for BA J LHR-JFK. + @$500
Did BA reduce the fees and surcharges for its award tickets recently? It appears as $350 USD for NYC-LON and LON-NYC, which is about $500 less than usual. Glitch? Temporary?
looks like more point, lower taxes option now. ex. LHR-JFK 80k+$350 or 65k+$650
for the same flight, it defaults F for less miles than J but different tax amounts.
to make it more even on taxes, I see F for 68K+$664 and J as above 65K+$650.
Doesn't make sense
Yes. BA reduced the taxes. If your account has a UK address it's reduced even more.
But the mileage redemption rate went up a lot.
Do you know if this works retroactively if registering today? I transferred miles from AMEX to Cathay yesterday. Thanks
Only for Hong Kong. This is not avail to non HK credit cards. Confirmed by the Cathay Diamond hotline staff.
Based on the terms and conditions I believe you are incorrect. Matter of fact the list of ineligible cards include some CCs from Japan, Taiwan, US, Canada, etc. which would not be necessary if this promotion was not intended for people outside HKG.
Correct, their terms and conditions for this offer state....
"Under the Promotion Offer, selected members (OUTSIDE OF HONG KONG) who have
fulfilled the following requirements (“Eligible Members”) can enjoy an extra 10%
or 15% Miles (“Bonus Miles”):
I received this offer in my email and it is specifically for non-Chinese card holders. I would assume that there is a different offer code for Hong Kong/Chinese card holders
I called in to ask about US Amex cards and they said US based Amex should be applicable. Jenni, are you an HK-based cardholder? Perhaps you got a different promotion (with the same bonus structure) for HK cardholders?
Separately, The T&C's (poorly drafted from this lawyer's perspective) say its only for "Eligible Credit Cards" from "Eligible Finance Parties". There is a link to a list of credit cards, but I didn't see Cap One. Sort of a gamble, transfer your points and spin the wheel. I did that once before with AM and got bonus points for some transfers and not others. Was a bit too lazy to chase down the missing bonus miles.
Why it is not fair. I hold Amex want to transfer now i have to call Amex first
Has this actually posted in the past for US Amex transfers? I did the last one and am still in the waiting period, and I wasn’t sure if the terms meant I was excluded or not
Yes, it posted in a past 15% transfer along with 20% from Amex. It was a pretty nice deal!
I transferred the last time around and it still hasn’t posted. I chatted with them a month ago and they said it hasn’t been 8-10 weeks yet.
Now that it has, it still hasn’t posted and they want me to mail a missing mileage request form to Hong Kong. I swear they’re making this so difficult for no reason.