The Cathay Pacific credit card returns soon; here are its new features & benefits

In late 2024, the Cathay Pacific credit card issued by Synchrony stopped taking new applicants. We didn’t know at the time if or when it would make a return, nor if it would be issued by Synchrony or another card issuer if it did return.

We now have a lot more answers. The all new Cathay World Elite Mastercard will be returning soon and will once again be issued by Synchrony.

Two important things we don’t know yet are when exactly the card will be relaunched and what – if any – welcome offer there’ll be. However, we do know much more about the new card’s features and benefits courtesy of this page.

The annual fee will $99 per year, with no indication that it’ll be waived in the first year. You’ll be able to earn bonus miles in certain categories of spend:

• 3x – Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Express travel and in-flight purchases
• 2x – Dining and dining delivery services
• 1x – All other spend

If you’re interested in earning status with Cathay Pacific, the card can help you get closer to the next status level, but you won’t be able to spend your way to status entirely, or even majorly. For every $5,000 you spend on the card, you’ll earn 10 Status Points, with a limit of 100 Status Points earned per calendar year. You have to earn 300, 800 or 1,200 Status Points per year to earn Silver, Gold or Diamond status respectively, so maxing out with $50,000 spend on the card in a year will only get you a third of the way to Silver status.

For frequent Cathay fliers, one of the card’s best features will be the ability to use promo code CXSYF15OFF to save 15% on paid flights on Cathay that originate in the US. That discount is valid not only on flights to Hong Kong, but beyond to other countries including Australia, Japan, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and more. You can read more about that the 15% discount here.

Other features include:

• Priority boarding (board at same time as Premium Economy passengers)
• Priority check-in (check in at Premium Economy counters). Those traveling with you on the same itinerary are also eligible for this benefit
• 10% discount when redeeming Asia Miles for hotels, experiences and car rentals
• 10% discount on Gift Miles and fees when transferring Asia Miles
• The ability to redeem Asia Miles for Cathay Pacific Business Class lounge access

Quick Thoughts

This new Cathay Pacific card is, as things stand, far from being the most compelling airline credit card. Something that could change that is if they offer a very generous welcome offer when officially launching the card. I wouldn’t hold out much hope for that though because for much of its history in its previous incarnation, the welcome offer only awarded 40,000 bonus Asia Miles after $3,000 of spend. Credit cards issued by Synchrony also aren’t known for having the most generous welcome offers, so I’d be surprised if we saw anything about 50,000 miles. I’d be more than happy to be proven wrong though.

One way that Cathay could’ve had a more interesting card is if they provided an avenue to earn status in its loyalty program through spend and, by extension, with Oneworld. Being limited to earning 100 Status Points in spend per year when the lowest rung on the status ladder requires 300 Status Points means there’ll be little incentive to put more than $50,000 spend on the card per year. As it is, even putting that much spend on the card won’t make any sense given its earning categories other than those who’ll actually need those additional Status Points.

As mentioned earlier, this card isn’t available for applications yet, so we’ll provide an update as soon as that’s possible.

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