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It’s fairly uncommon to see transfer bonuses to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – the last one was American Express and it was almost a year ago. Now there’s an offer for Asia Miles that gives a 20% bonus on all transfers for Membership Rewards to Asia Miles until the end of August. This bonus has been reported as being targeted, but the whole FM team and our P2’s have it, so it’s widely targeted if that’s the case.
Asia Miles’ has a lot of value to offer for Oneworld redemptions to Asia, Europe and South America. If you have a stash of Membership rewards burning a hole in your pocket, it could be worth some exploration before the end of the month (when the bonus expires) to see if there’s anything enticing available for travel through next Summer…especially since Asia Miles calendar goes 29 days beyond American’s.
The Deal
- American Express is offering a 20% bonus on transfers from Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
- Normal transfer ratio is 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,000 Asia Miles
- With a 20% bonus, the transfer ratio is 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,200 Asia Miles
- Expires 11:59 p.m. MT on 8/31/22
Key Details
- You must be enrolled in Asia Miles in order to participate in this offer, visit https://www.asiamiles.com/en/enrolment.html to enroll.
- Minimum transfer is 1,000 Membership Rewards points.
- Redeem for this exclusive offer from 12:00 a.m. MT on 8/1/2022 to 11:59 p.m. MT on 8/31/2022 to receive 20% additional Asia Miles. Additional Asia Miles will be awarded at the time of transfer.
Best Uses for Asia Miles
- Oneworld Multi-carrier award: Asia Miles can be used for terrific value on a round-the-world trip (RTW) using a Oneworld multi-carrier award. Oftentimes, a RTW award can end up being 50% or more cheaper when compared to the mileage cost of booking the included legs individually. You can see the Asia Miles Oneworld multi-carrier chart here to get an idea of pricing. Most RTW itineraries will price between 165,000-210,000 Asia Miles.
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- You can use two different Oneworld airlines if Cathay Pacific is not one of the carriers in the itinerary.
- You can use three or more Oneworld airlines if Cathay Pacific is one of the carriers in the itinerary.
- Total flight distance cannot exceed 50,000 miles
- Maximum of 5 stopovers
- Maximum of 2 layovers
- Maximum of 2 open-jaws
- You must start and end in the same city
- Europe on AA: A one-way American Airlines flight from the Midwestern or East Coast U.S. to Europe is 61,000 Asia Miles in business class or 25,000 miles in economy. Flights from the West-coast are more expensive at 75,000 Asia Miles in business or 40,000 in economy. Taxes and fees one-way are ~$30.
- US to Australia on Qantas: Business class one-way from the US to Australia starts at 75,000-90,000 Asia Miles one-way. Flights to Brisbane price out at 75,000 miles, while flights to Melbourne are 90,000 miles. Sydney is 90,000 from LAX and 75,000 from SFO. It's best to use British Airways or Alaska Airlines to search for Qantas award space, then move to the Cathay site if you find availability. Sometimes, it's necessary to call Cathay. Availability can, of course, be very difficult to find and taxes and fees one-way are ~$420-450.
- Southern South America on AA or LATAM: Business class one way from the US to Chile, Brazil and Argentina is 50,000 Asia Miles one-way on AA or LATAM. Traditionally, it was best to use British Airways or Qantas to search for award space, but LATAM availability on BA has become tricky, either showing phantom availability or none at all. Some folks have found better luck searching for space on ExpertFlyer. Taxes and fees one-way are ~$30.
- Early Oneworld availability: Cathay Pacific opens up award bookings 360 days before departure, as opposed to 331 days for American Airlines. This can allow you to reserve award seats using Asia Miles almost one month before AAdvantage members.
Things to Know
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AsiaMiles.com (you’ll need to create a free Asia Miles frequent flyer account to search). For some awards, it can be easier to locate space on BritishAirways.com first.
- How to book awards: Book online at AsiaMiles.com for Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, Qantas, Alaska and Finnair. All other partners or complex itineraries (and some awards for the previous carriers) should be booked via phone (Asia Miles U.S. office is 866-892-2598).
- Key warnings: Fuel surcharges are moderate depending on route and origin, but can be $200-$400 on some carriers.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Marriott
We have added this to our current point transfer bonuses.
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Before you take “advantage” of this bonus, make sure you’re aware of the tremendous issues resulting from the new CX award search engine (rolled out a few weeks ago). It’s much, much less flexible than the previous engine. Check the recent threads on Flyertalk.
Trying to use the 20% bonus points from Amex to Asia miles. Looking to fly from Seoul to Maldives. i’m not limited to the Cathay Pacific portal, right? Can I search from all AsiaMiles partners???? HELP!!
Important point on the Mileage Renewal Offer, it requires registration first.
Note that there is also an offer to convert old CX miles to the new expiration scheme if you transfer in 30,000 miles from a finance partner (like Amex, Citi). Renewal offer goes through September 30. I am doing this to extend my old miles and the 20% bonus is icing on the cake. I was not sure if the terms required 30k total or 30k pre-bonus so I transferred 30k pre-bonus to be safe.
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/offers/mileage-renewal.html
Details:
Mileage Renewal Offers
Take advantage of our exclusive mileage renewal offers, and the balance of miles you earned before 1 January 2020 will be renewed, free of charge! That way, all your miles will fall under the activity-based system and stay active as long as you earn or redeem miles at least once every 18 months.
Promotion period: 1 July – 30 September 2022You can renew your unused miles earned before 1 January 2020, free of charge by meeting one of the following requirements:
I think CX’s precarious financial position due in no small part to Hong Kong’s COVID restrictions certainly merit inclusion in the warnings section. CX seems like one of the most likely large airlines now to go belly up. Hopefully not, but they don’t seem to be in a good spot right now.
I noticed that there was wide open availability for 2 people on Finn Air from ORD to Helsinki next Summer with Asia Miles for 61K + $157. MUCH better availability than I was seeing on the AA website. That seems like a strong deal when you factor in the 20% transfer bonus from Amex. I’d book it if the flight wasn’t at 4:35 pm–just too early for me as I want to be able to sleep on those redeyes.
I also saw that booking BA metal becomes viable if using Asia Miles. Business seats ORD-LHR-CDG were $750 in taxes with AA miles but only about $300 with Asia miles.
>> Europe on AA: A one-way American Airlines flight from the Midwestern or East Coast U.S. to Europe is 50,000 Asia Miles in business class <<
It’s 61k now.
Will be looking to try to go round trip NYC – Rome next August in business class. Easily have ability to transfer 400K+ miles into Asia Miles but obviously would want to make sure have something bookable before doing an unreversable transfer. Any suggestions on how to know what reward space looks like? (Figuring AA might be best bet from NY).
“especially since Asia Miles calendar goes 29 days beyond American’s”
seems perfect for summer 2023
I have the promo as well
Unfortunately award space on Cathay seems to be non-existent right now.
Yeah they are flying only a small portion of their schedule but AM is still very good for partners. I have used six figures of their miles this year and haven’t stepped foot on a CX flight. That said while I wouldn’t want to overstate the risk, CX still faces significant challenges going forward so there is a low but non-zero risk of transferring points to them. I have transferred some but at an amount I am willing to risk.
It is…but I don’t think I’ve ever used CX miles on CX metal. The best values, IMHO, are with partners.