Transfer bonus to Cathay Asia Miles from Amex Membership Rewards [Targeted]

Greg wrote the other day about using Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles to get excellent value on premium-cabin flights through mixed-cabin tickets (See: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles mixed cabin award pricing. First class for less.). Later that day, some cardholders reported receiving a targeted transfer bonus good for up to a 25% bonus when transferring American Express Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. This would stack with the current 10% bonus being offered on the Asia Miles side for a total of a 37.5% transfer bonus for those targeted. Unfortunately, #TeamFrequentMiler was not targeted, but this one is worth consideration if you are.

The Deal

• American Express is offering a targeted transfer bonus of up to 25% on transfers from Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
  • Normal transfer ratio is 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,000 Asia Miles
  • With a 25% bonus, the transfer ratio is 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,250 Asia Miles
  • Register for this bonus from Asia Miles first and get an additional 10% bonus from Asia Miles
    •  This works out to a final bonus of 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,370 Asia Miles for those targeted for the 25% bonus

Key Details

• Amex transfer bonus is targeted
• No end date listed

Quick Thoughts

When we posted the transfer bonus from the Asia Miles side, I suggested registering and then holding off to transfer until you had an award to book. I said it was unlikely that we’d see a transfer bonus from Amex or Citi, but if we did it would be nice to be able to stack with the Asia Miles bonus. In this case, I’m glad to be wrong. With the recent improvement to the Cathay Pacific mileage expiration policy, this bonus might even tempt some to make a speculative transfer. Generally speaking, I do not recommend speculative transfers since your points are much more flexible as a transferable currency. However, if you’re reasonably sure that you’ll use the miles in the not-so-distant future (and you may have become more interested in the past few days), it might be worthwhile here with a large transfer bonus to a program that doesn’t often feature transfer bonuses from credit card points.

We have added this to our current point transfer bonuses.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

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