Asia Miles is not just Cathay Pacific’s frequent flyer program. Members have extensive opportunities to earn rewards by spending from a wide range of lifestyle categories as well, including hotels, dining, financial services, retail, technology and much more. Asia Miles also offers great awards, such as hotel stays at 60,000 hotels, car rental services in 21 countries and thousands of lifestyle and experience options. To date, Asia Miles has over 12 million members, more than 800 program partners and 1,000+ destination with 20+ airline partners.
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Keep reading for everything you need to know about Asia Miles.
| Ways To Earn | Cathay Pacific Visa Signature Card, Cathay Pacific & partner flights, hotel stays, car rentals, airport transfers |
| Ways To Burn | Award flights, seat upgrades, extra baggage, companion tickets, extra-legroom seats, travel, lifestyle, entertainment, transfer partners, donations |
| Transfer Partners | Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt |
| Average Mile Value | $0.013 |
Earning Asia Miles
Compared to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, Delta SkyMiles and other frequent flyer programs based in the United States, earning rewards with Asia Miles comes with a little more difficulty, but it’s not impossible. Uncover all the ways to earn Asia Miles below.
Cathay Pacific Visa Signature Credit Card
There are a few ways to earn Asia Miles in the U.S., but the quickest is to use the co-branded Cathay Pacific credit card:
| Credit Card | Cathay Pacific Visa Signature |
| Welcome Bonus | 35k miles ($455 value) when you spend $3k in 90 days. |
| Ongoing Rewards | 2x miles on Cathay Pacific purchases 1.5x miles on dining & international purchases 1x miles on all other domestic purchases |
| Elite Status | Complimentary Green status |
| Other Perks | Savings on Asia Miles* 2-day priority redemption for discount flight awards No foreign transaction fees |
| Annual Fee | $95 |
*10% savings on Asia Miles Gift Miles, Mileage Renewals and Mileage Transfer Fee transactions. 10% redemption discount on hotel, car rental and experiences award via Travel Asia Miles.
American Express Membership Rewards & Other Transfer Partners
Another excellent way for Americans to rack up on Asia Miles is to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards®, Capital One® Rewards, Citi ThankYou® Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy or World of Hyatt.
| PROGRAM | TRANSFER RATIO | TRANSFER TIME |
| American Express Membership Rewards® | 1 : 1 | 1 to 3 days |
| Capital One® Rewards | 2 : 1.5 | 1 to 5 days |
| Citi ThankYou® Rewards | 1 : 1 | 1 to 2 days |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 3 : 1 | 5 days |
| World of Hyatt | 2.5 : 1 | 1 week |
Amex Membership Rewards has great earning potential, with members earning thousands of points through welcome bonuses, upgrade offers, bonus categories, spending and their special Rakuten partnership. Amex also occasionally offers bonuses between 10% to 30% for transfers from Membership Rewards to Asia Miles.
Credit cards that earn Amex Membership Rewards include:
| Personal Cards | The Platinum Card® from American Express American Express® Gold Card |
| Business Cards | The Business Platinum Card® from American Express American Express® Business Gold Card |
THE PLATINUM CARD® FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Platinum Card® from American Express has a special offer for 100,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $6,000 in purchases within your first 6 months.
Membership Rewards® points are some of the most valuable in the market. Redeeming these points by booking travel through American Express or by redeeming for gift cards will give you a standard 1 cent per point value. The 100k bonus points are worth $1,000 going this route.
You can potentially get more value by transferring your points to Membership Rewards travel partners. Using this strategy can get you up to an average value of 2 cents per point. Get around $2,000 in value with 100,000 points this way. Read more on this here.
With this card, earn 5X Membership Rewards® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year.
The biggest drawback to this card is the $695 annual fee (see Rates & Fees, Terms Apply), which puts it in the premium class of credit cards. The card has a market because it offers premium travel benefits, such as 5X points for flights (up to $500,000 on these purchases) and eligible hotels, access to 40+ Centurion Loung and Studio locations worldwide, up to $200 airline fee credit annually, and an annual Walmart+ membership. These benefits are given as statement credits.
For frequent travelers, the added benefits make sense in terms of value and added luxury.
AMERICAN EXPRESS® GOLD CARD
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The American Express® Gold Card has a welcome bonus for 60,000 Membership Rewards Points when you spend $4,000 within 6 months.
Membership Rewards Points have great flexibility. We value each point to be worth up to an average 2 cents per point. At this value, 60k Membership Rewards Points can be worth up to $1,200.
The Amex Gold Card has plentiful perks. You’ll get:
- Choice between Gold or Rose Gold.
- 4X points at restaurants, including takeouts and deliveries in the U.S.
- 4X points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per year in purchases (1X thereafter)
- 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com
- Up to $120 in annual dining credits (get up to $10 monthly statement credits)
- No foreign transaction fees
The annual fee is $250. See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply.
THE BUSINESS PLATINUM CARD® FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has a welcome offer for 80,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases within your first 3 months of Card Membership. We value 80k points to be worth around $1,600.
This card earns 5X Membership Rewards® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (amextravel.com). Also earn 1.5X Membership Rewards® points on eligible purchases in key business categories, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else. Cap applies.
This is a premium business card with a $695 annual fee. See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply.
AMERICAN EXPRESS® BUSINESS GOLD CARD
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
For a limited time, the American Express Business Gold Card has an offer for 70,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
This card earns 4 Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on 2 select categories where your business spent the most each month. These 4X points are capped at the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these 2 categories each calendar year.
Other card benefits include an Airline Bonus, where you’ll get 25% points back after you redeem points for all or part of an eligible flight booked with Amex Travel. This is capped at up to 250,000 points back per calendar year.
The annual fee is $295 for this card. See Rates & Fees, Terms Apply.
Capital One miles, Marriott Bonvoy points and World of Hyatt points don’t provide significant value, but they could be useful if you’re short on Asia Miles for an award.
Other Ways to Earn Asia Miles
Of course, there are a number of other ways to earn Asia Miles, including:
- Flying on Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Oneworld alliance airlines
- Shopping via the Asia Miles iShop online mall
- Booking hotel stays with partners
- Booking car rentals with partners
- Booking luxury airport transfer services with partners
- Buying Asia Miles
You can also credit Qantas flights to Asia Miles instead of your Qantas Frequent Flyer account.
Redeeming Asia Miles
If you want the best value for your Asia Miles, you’ll want to redeem them for flights with Cathay Pacific and its airline partners:
- Finnair
- Gulf Air
- HK Express
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- Jet Airways
- LATAM
- Lufthansa
For the ultimate value, save your Asia Miles to redeem for a round-the-world trip in Business (240,000 miles) or First Class (345,000 miles).
You can also use Asia Miles for:
- Upgrades to the next class of service
- Extra baggage
- Extra-legroom seats
- Companion tickets (business or first-class only)
The following are other ways to redeem Asia Miles, but we generally don’t recommend them because they won’t give you the best mileage value:
- Travel awards: hotels, cars, experiences
- Lifestyle awards: travel accessories, electronics & gadgets, home & kitchen, beauty & wellness, wine & gourmet
- Entertainment awards: concerts & shows, events & experiences, memorable moments
- Transfer to points
- Charitable donations
Asia Miles Expiration
Asia Miles earned from January 1, 2020 and onwards expire after 18 months of account inactivity, so make sure to earn or burn miles once every year and a half. Miles earned up until December 31, 2019 still expire after three years.
If you have some Asia Miles that are expiring, and you have no use for them, consider donating them to one of the many non-profit organizations that Asia Miles supports.
Asia Miles Tips & Tricks
Asia Miles lets you book an award flight 360 days out from departure. That’s 30 days farther than American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, giving you first dibs on award availability.
Asia Miles allows stopovers and open-jaws on awards that can potentially save you thousands of miles. On a one-way award, you can have up to two segments and one stopover. So you can fly from New York, make a pitstop in Hong Kong for a few days, then continue on to Bangkok. This award ticket has the same pricing as a flight from New York to Bangkok with a four-hour layover in Hong Kong.
Pricing is also the same if your award ticket includes an open jaw. So you can fly from New York to Bangkok, then choose to fly out from Chiang Mai instead on your return trip to New York.
Unfortunately, you can’t book award tickets with stopovers or open-jaws online, so you’ll need to call Asia Miles or fill out a redemption request form and mail it in.
When transferring points from another loyalty program (Amex, Citi, etc.), make sure that the names on both accounts match exactly. Otherwise, your rewards might not transfer smoothly. If a transfer is taking an unusually long time, we suggest you give Asia Miles a call.
You can redeem Asia Miles awards for someone else, but only if they’re in your “redemption group.” You’re allowed up to five individuals in your redemption group at any time. Once you’ve added your five members, Asia Miles will charge you $50 to replace an existing member.
Bottom Line
Asia Miles members from the United States can easily earn rewards through the Cathay Pacific Visa Signature credit card, transferring points from Amex Membership Rewards and other transfer partners, flying Cathay Pacific and much more. Miles can then be redeemed for award flights in all classes and more. The program is appealing to those who fly Cathay Pacific, as well as its partners like Qantas and Qatar Airways, because of Asia Miles’s favorable redemption rates and rules.
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