Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Cuts Stopovers on One-Way Awards
Share this Article
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
29 Comments
Prince of Travel is the leading resource for using frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and loyalty programs to travel the world at a fraction of the price.
Join our Sunday newsletter below to get weekly updates delivered straight to your inbox.
Have a question? Just ask.
Platinum Membership
Our Platinum members get access to a Circle community, exclusive live learning sessions, and in-person gatherings with like-minded travellers.
Top Offers
Latest News
Prince of Travel Elites
Hi Ricky,
When calling into Cathay Pacific, they (the phone rep and escalated to a manager) advised that Roundtrip redemption tickets DO NOT offer stopovers. You can ONLY stop at the final destination. Layovers are allowed up to 24 hours.
Hi, I suspect Cathay has quietly removed the stopover feature of their roundtrip award ticket. As I could not find any mention of stopover in their Terms & Condition anymore. Cathay has revamped their award chart recently, that was when they might have changed it. If I see otherwise, I’ll report back!
Were you able to book the Qatar Tokyo-Doha-Montreal flight online or did you have to call in? I keep getting errors if I try to book to other cities in North America.
Dead. Midnight HK time.
Got a kinky YVR-HKG-LAX for 2 booked, thanks to you!
Have a kinky time! 🙂
Hi! Can I use Avios to redeem Cathay Pacific flights like those kinky one-ways ????. Merci!!
Not really, because Avios would charge you the full mileage amount for both directions. The value here is that the Asia Miles award chart "maxes out" at the Ultra-Long distance band, charging the same amount for a 7,501-mile journey as a 15,000+ mile journey.
The article frames this as losing the ability to have a stopover on a one-way award, but the new T&C language doesn’t specifically mention one-way awards. It says no more stopovers, period. Just wanted to confirm that you can’t have a stopover on a round-trip award now either or if i’m missing something. Thanks!
Correct, it applies to round-trips as well. The emphasis is one the one-way with stopover because that’s been the most popular and flexible use of Asia Miles.
Got it, thank you
"Therefore, assuming that the current stopover policy applies even if you need to make changes after April 1, you could in theory book travel for well into 2021 and even into 2022 under this sweet spot, as long as you make the booking prior to April 1. "
Where does it say that you can further change your dates and extend your ticket validity for another year into 2022?
A ticket can be changed to within one year of the first segment if the first flight has already commenced. So if you made a booking for say January and February 2021, flew the first segment, and then changed the second segment, you’d be able to change it all the way into January 2022.
I wonder if this trick could be used to effectively get this stopover even after the rules change…e.g. book a trip with a standard 18-hour layover or whatever, then move the second flight after flying the first flight?
Would the kinky miles trick also applies to redemption using Alaska miles?
They’ve tightened up on most of them, but there are still a few left, like this one: https://princeoftravel.com/blog/an-emirates-first-class-extravaganza
Thanks Ricky!
Just to confirm Alaska Miles allows a stopover on one way redemption i.e. YYZ – HKG (stopover) – YYZ, so after April 1st this stopover on one way still valid? Is this correct?
This wouldn’t be a one-way, though, it would be a round-trip. A one-way with Alaska is something like YYZ–HKG–JNB or YYZ–HKG–TLV, with a stopover in HKG. You wouldn’t be able to head back to North America on a "kinky" one-way.
Yes. My bad. I meant YYZ-HKG-JNB or something like that so stopover still available with Alaska one way redemption after April 1st?
Yes, that’s not changing.
Is a waitlist booking different from a regular booking? Where as if you book a flight before April 1 the stopover could be longer or 24 hours for any booking. Also will the kinky miles be going away on that date?
The Asia Miles statement on the rule change mentions that waitlist bookings will be subject to the new stopover rules if they clear after April 1 – that is to say, you won’t be allowed to book the ticket if your waitlist doesn’t clear before then.
I’d recommend securing a confirmed booking, not a waitlisted one, before that date.
Can you book using economy, and then upgrade to business/first and retain the stopover? Thanks!
I would think so.
I too would love to know this, I have enough points for 1/2 business tickets for me and P2.
Does this change remove the last remaining sweet spot for CX? Aside from their "regular" redemptions which may or may not make sense (eg NRT-DOH-YUL without a stopover)
The most interesting sweet spot (the kinky one-way flights) are ending. Other sweet spots, like mixed-cabin itineraries being priced as a weighted average, remain in play for now.
Wide open just managed to book through a pair to Male with layover in Hong Kong . Male was never ever available in businessbac. Then Turkish all the way back to YVR through Mauscat Oman in business on the new direct flight. If you have the points now is the time to pull the trigger.
Nicely done – although I’d point out that you can still book Canada–Hong Kong–Male for a pretty good price after the April 1 rule change, if it’s only a layover in Hong Kong.