Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
7 Brilliant Redemptions with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
This article was originally published in September 2019. With the Asia Miles program undergoing some unfavourable changes earlier this year, it’s time to update this list of attractive Asia Miles redemptions for 2020 to reflect the best sweet spots in the program as of the present day.
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RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum
- Earn 15,000 Asia Miles when you get approved for the card
- Green Tier membership to the Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club in your first year
- No minimum income requirement
- Annual fee: $120
34 Comments
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Hi Ricky,
Could you add info about waitlist bookings? Thanks
Duly noted!
I would like to know more about waitlist booking on Asia Mile. Thanks
Thanks for the article Ricky. Question in regards to booking a one way on Qatar from SYD>YUL via DOH for 90,000 Asia Miles. When doing this search through the online portal on both "One way" and "Multi-city" it says this was unavailable. I tried to do the YUL>HND via DOH as well and was having the same issue. Any insights to the booking process? Cheers!
This is the result of the recent change to remove stopovers on one-way awards. The search engine now doesn’t support the multi-city "style" of one-way awards even if the connection is less than 24 hours.
Instead, you may need to call Asia Miles or use the Flight Award Request Form to get an agent’s help to make the booking: asiamiles.com/en/redeem-awards/flight-awards/flight-award-request.html
Asia Miles is a very nice program with many sweet spots, however there are no more stopovers on one way awards. Now if you want to fly for example SYD-HKG and then to LHR one week later, you will need to make two separate bookings. This would now cost 45000 miles for the first leg, and 65000 miles on the second leg, bringing the total to 110000 miles. You can still get 2 stopovers, one each way on round trip tickets. In addition, connecting within 24 hours counts as a layover and the award will still be 85000 miles. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-marco-polo-club/2013542-devaluation-no-more-stopover-one-way-tickets-effective-1-april-2020-a.html
Yep, this development was covered here: https://princeoftravel.com/blog/cathay-pacific-asia-miles-cuts-stopovers-on-one-way-awards
I’ll need to update this list of sweet spots at some point!
Hey Ricky,
I’ve spent a week evaluating the Asia miles program based on your recommendation.
I came to the conclusion that I won’t be collecting any points with them because I received the following email from them.
"A number of unusual transactions and/or unusual profile information were recorded in your account. For security reasons, and in the best interests of our members, your account has been automatically suspended.
To reactivate your account, please verify your identity within one month by sending us your name, membership number and a scanned copy of your passport.
Reactivate Now
If the Asia Miles Service Centre does not receive a reply within one month of the date stated at the top of this email, your account will be terminated and all mileage credits will be cancelled.
Thank you for your attention and understanding."
It’s pretty shocking that they take away all the points if a collector does not respond within a month. What if I missed this email or was traveling with little to no internet access?
I talked to them on the phone and they wouldn’t budge on this one month expiration policy.
Now that you’ve seen the email, though, it seems like an easy enough task to send them your name, membership number, and scanned copy of your passport within one month. Doesn’t it?
I gave up earning AsiaMiles. Just too hard for an American to earn. I have yet to see a situation that transferring points from Chase or Amex, makes it enough of a deal for me to use those points. With AA and Alaskan, one can earn miles more easily and use them on Cathay flights. But your post just convinces me that many of those sweet spots will eventually be closed. And for Japan using Virgin miles on ANA, is still the best deal.
Sure, but which sweet spots haven’t been closed in the past? Just think of Alaska’s overnight devaluation of Emirates awards and American’s relentless devaluation of their partner premium charts. Sweet spots are never a sure thing – and I’d venture that Cathay’s are particularly generous and worthy of time-sensitive attention, especially if you spend some time playing around with the search engine.
thoughtful
Don’t you hate it when you publish a post and the very next week the airline goes and devalues their point system? Well at least it doesn’t affect Canadians in the ultra long distance category…
The very next day it was. And it’s not the first time it happened either (see: Aeroplan Mini-RTW video).
I do like just how ultra-long the Ultra-Long distance zone really is. I’m glad Cathay hasn’t touched that.
One should note that the occasional bonus on Avion->Asia Miles transfers is 20% rather than 30% (at least it was last year).
You’re right, don’t know why I remembered it as 30%. I’ll adjust the article to reflect this.
Most everything else is 30% it seems…
RIcky ! SHHHHH! 🙂
My lips are sealed!
wonder if AM just increased their rate? YVR-NRT is now 61K on their site for 1 way.
Just curious what it got devalued from?
Used to be 50k instead of 61k.
Damn, this is actually a surprise overnight devaluation a day after I published the article. I guess Cathay looked at the post and decided that somehow that one was too generous. I’ve updated the article to reflect this.
🙁
was looking forward to use my points.
You are an influencer, Ricky!
That’s the risk with unpublished award charts, the airline can always say "the price is the price" as they please. It’s still a pretty good deal for a top-tier business class product though!
Would you better be off transferring your RBC Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles compared to AA Advantage Miles then? I assume that the exchange 1:1 ratio between RBC to Cathy Pacific miles is more impressive then the current bonus 1:0.84 to AA.
In general I’d prefer to transfer to CX, unless I’m trying to book one of AA’s non-Oneworld partners like Etihad.
What are the taxes and fees for flying CX from YYZ to HKG and then on to Europe? I tried to search on Asia Miles but it won’t show me since I don’t enough points.
Looks like 1,840 HKD so about $300.
That’s very reasonable. Thank you.
Thanks for the post! I’ve been scratching my head over my bucket of Asia Miles and Alaska Miles, and how to use them effectively together. Stitching together a trip to Asia.
@bingo: Asia Miles expires after 3 years in June, regardless of your activities. It is annoying!
Their sweet spots largely overlap, and I very much think that Asia Miles has an advantage because of how much easier you can earn them. Going forward I’m concentrating on Asia Miles for Cathay and JAL, and saving my Alaska miles for those all-too-special Emirates First Class experiences.
That Qatar route looks mighty tempting!
I checked out the RBC card page, and was hoping to find language on points expiry – I understand that’s likely not the place, but do you have a resource on the expiry of certain programs and points anywhere?
Yep as Mer said above, Asia Miles expire three years after you earn them regardless of activity. So you’d better have a plan to redeem every Asia Mile you earn!