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. This will include: 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.
Check out our list with the best credit card bonuses here.
Read below for more information on what they have to offer.
Asia Miles Quick Facts
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
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 |
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 offers 80,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. You'll earn: • 5X Membership Rewards Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year. • 5X Membership Rewards Points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel. This card comes with an annual fee of $695 (See Rates & Fees), but you cardholders can enjoy Uber VIP status and up to $200 in Uber savings on rides in the US annually. Uber Cash and Uber VIP status is available to Basic Card Member and Additional Centurion Cards only. Terms Apply. |
The American Express® Gold Card offers 60,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months. Terms apply. You'll earn: • 4X Membership Rewards Points at Restaurants, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S., • 4X Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1X). • 3X Membership Rewards points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com. $120 Dining Credit: Satisfy your cravings and earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations. Enrollment required. This card has an annual fee of $250 with no foreign transaction fees (See Rates & Fees). Terms Apply. |
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has a welcome offer of 120,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You'll earn: • 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on AmexTravel.com. • 1.5X Membership Rewards points on eligible purchases at US construction material, hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else, on up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year. • 1X points for each dollar you spend on eligible purchases • Unlock over $1,000 in value per year for statement credits on select purchases, including tech, recruiting and wireless with the Business Platinum Card. • $200 Airline Fee Credit: Get up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year for incidental fees charged by your one selected, qualifying airline to your Card. • $189 CLEAR Plus Credit: Use your card and get up to $189 in statement credits per calendar year on your CLEAR Plus Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use your Business Platinum Card. This card does come with a $695 annual fee. (See Rates & Fees) Terms Apply. |
The American Express® Business Gold Card offers 70,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You'll earn more rewards: • Earn 4X Membership Rewards points on the 2 categories where your business spends the most each billing cycle from 6 eligible categories. While your top 2 categories may change, you will earn 4X points on the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these categories each calendar year (then 1X thereafter). Only the top 2 categories each billing cycle will count towards the $150,000 cap. • Earn up to $20 in statement credits monthly after you use the Business Gold Card for eligible U.S. purchases at FedEx, Grubhub, and Office Supply Stores. This can be an annual savings of up to $240. Enrollment required. • Get $12.95 back in statement credits each month when you pay for a monthly Walmart+ membership (subject to auto-renewal) with your Business Gold Card. $12.95 plus applicable taxes. This card does carry a $375 annual fee, but no foreign transaction fees. (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:
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Jordanian Airlines
- S7 Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines
- SriLankan Airlines
- SWISS
- 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 onward 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 n 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 our 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 you’re in your “redemption group.” You’re allowed up to 5 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.
Conclusion
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 Qartar Airways, because of Asia Mile’s favorable redemption rates and rules.