12 Best Ways to Earn China Eastern “Eastern Miles” [2020]

BY 

Stephen Au

- UPDATED: December 16, 2020

1. Earn Points  / 
2. Earn Airline Points

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China Eastern Airlines, also known as China Eastern, is a Shanghai-based, government-owned airline. Known as being one of the largest airlines in the world with a fleet size of nearly 600 and a route network of around 250 destinations, China Eastern is China’s second-largest airline.

The SkyTeam airline was founded in 1988 under the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Its unprofitable predecessor, China General Aviation, was overtaken by this new venture. Interestingly, this was the first time an airline’s share ownership was made available on an international stock market.

Incidentally, a fellow Chinese “Big 3” airline known as China Southern was founded in the same year. China Southern takes the crown for the largest airline in both China and Asia.

China Eastern and its wholly-owned regional subsidiary Shanghai Airlines joined SkyTeam in 2011 as its 14th member airline. Today, China Eastern partners with SkyTeam to offer global connectivity to China.

China Eastern’s frequent flyer program is called Eastern Miles. As you can expect from a SkyTeam partner airline, you can earn and redeem Eastern Miles points on China Eastern flights, in addition to all of China Eastern’s eligible partners.

In this guide, we’ll be looking at all the different ways you can accumulate China Eastern Eastern Miles points. There are quite a few, especially for those based in China. But fear not, there are still some great ways, even if you’re not living in China!

Sign up for an Eastern Miles Account

To begin racking up Eastern Miles points, you’ll first need to create an Eastern Miles account. In this section, we’ll be walking you through how.

Fair warning: The China Eastern and Eastern Miles websites are clunky, unintuitive, and downright buggy at times. 

To sign up for or log in to an Eastern Miles account, you will need to visit China Eastern’s website. After you either create an account or enter your account information to log in, you will then be redirected to the separate Eastern Miles website.

To create an Eastern Miles account, you can follow these instructions:

1. Visit China Eastern’s U.S. website.
2. In the top-right corner, click the button that says Register | Login.
3. Click the button that says Fast registration.
4. Enter your information; be sure to select Passport as your ID type because the ID card option only works for Chinese nationals.
5. You’ll need to verify your email address when clicking on the button that says Obtain verification code. You’ll receive a verification code in your email, which will be entered in the box that says Verification code.
6. Create an 8-digit password without any letters, special characters, or spaces.
7. Enter the CAPTCHA code and submit the registration form.
8. You’ll be provided with an Eastern Miles number that you will need to provide every time you want to earn Eastern Miles points.

Hot Tip: In general, your Eastern Miles points are valid for 3 full calendar years. For example, if you accumulate some miles in February 2021, your miles will expire at the end of the third calendar year, which is December 31, 2024.

Earn Eastern Miles Points With Credit Cards

The most way to earn Eastern Miles points easily regardless of where you live is through credit card spending.

In theory, it doesn’t matter where you’re geographically located or which specific merchants you decide to transact with — as long as you hold a credit card that can directly or indirectly earn Eastern Miles points, you’re golden.

China Eastern Eastern Miles used to be transfer partners with Marriott Bonvoy, but this partnership ended in early 2019, so there are currently no U.S.-based credit cards that can earn Eastern Miles points directly or indirectly. This includes all major U.S. flexible rewards currencies, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Capital One Miles.

But if you happen to have access to foreign credit cards, you’ll quickly find that there are a litany of great credit cards you can sign up for to help you earn Eastern Miles points.

Non-U.S.-Based Credit Cards

So, we already know that China Eastern Miles points can’t be earned via credit card spending in the U.S., but you can probably predict that there are tons of ways to earn Eastern Miles points in the country where China Eastern is based: China.

And because China has a lot of banks and a lot of appetite for credit card spending, you can bet that earning free flights from Eastern Miles is easier than ever for those based in China.

Currently, 9 banks offer co-branded China Eastern Airlines credit cards! Here are the different options available to Chinese residents:

Bottom Line: As you can see, tons of banks in China offer co-branded partnerships to earn Eastern Miles points directly. As usual, all of the credit cards offer different accrual structures, benefits, payment processors, and much more. In total, we count 25 total China Eastern credit cards you can earn points from in China.

Other Financial Partners

China also has a slew of flexible rewards currencies, in the same way that the U.S. does. To that end, China Eastern Airlines is transfer partners with a ton of China banks.

There are a whopping 18 transfer partners available to those who want to earn Eastern Miles points. You might recognize some of these banks such as Citibank, however, the transfer partnerships and transfer ratios are completely different from the U.S. credit cards, so you’ll want to bear that in mind.

As you can tell from the table above, the range of transfer ratios is completely wild and impossible to keep track of. To complicate matters more, your transfer ratio can vary a lot depending on which tier of rewards credit cards you are holding with each bank.

Nonetheless, there are tons of ways to transfer bank points to Eastern Miles.

Earn Eastern Miles Points Through Shopping

Another great way to earn Eastern Miles points is through shopping trips! China Eastern doesn’t usually have many shopping partners, but this list can change over time. The accrual rates for these shopping partners are extremely attractive, so you’ll want to pay close attention to this section.

Eastern Miles Shopping Partners

Eastern Miles points are easy to earn through shopping partners! Currently, Eastern Miles is partners with the following companies:

• The Bicester Village Shopping Collection: 3 miles for every €1/£1/¥10 spent
• China Eastern Airlines Mall: 1 mile for every ¥2 spent

The process for getting your miles from shopping at a Bicester Village is straightforward — show your Eastern Miles membership card and/or proof of membership with your shopping receipts at the Village Welcome or Tourist Information Center on the day of your visit, and you’ll get the miles deposited into your account.

There are many Bicester Village locations in Europe and China so you can easily earn points wherever you travel to.

The China Eastern Airlines Mall is an online e-commerce portal where you can buy electronics, appliances, travel accessories, and even baby products.

Note that according to the terms and conditions, it may take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to receive your miles for qualifying shopping activity.

Earn Eastern Miles Points Through Travel

The most time-tested way to earn Eastern Miles points is through butt-in-seat flying. As you will find out, you can earn Eastern Miles points without ever touching foot in China.

U.S.-based travelers can accumulate Eastern Miles points through China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines flights, SkyTeam partner flights, and non-alliance partner flights. Also, U.S.-based travelers can earn points through a few other travel categories, like hotel nights.

Without further ado, here are the ways to earn Eastern Miles points through travel.

Airfare and Airline Purchases

The usual way to earn Eastern Miles points is through travel on China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines. And while it might not be the most practical for a majority of the general population, it’s probably the method that immediately comes to mind.

When you book your China Eastern Airlines flight or flights on any of its subsidiaries, you’ll want to quote your Eastern Airlines membership information during the time of booking, as well as show your membership card or e-card at check-in.

Once this is done, your miles should be deposited into your account within a week of completing your travel. If you haven’t received your miles after a week, you can request a retroactive claim directly with China Eastern. But you’ll want to keep your ticket and original boarding pass because you’ll be asked for this as part of your claim.

Also, keep in mind that even though the loyalty program is called Eastern Miles, the points you earn are calculated as a percentage of the flight distance in kilometers.

You will earn a minimum of 500 points on every flight, even if your flight distance is less than 500 kilometers. This is known as the Minimum Standard Mileage Guarantee.

You can submit retroactive claims within 6 months after completion of any eligible flight.

China Eastern awards points based on the total distance flown. Here’s the accrual chart for China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines flights:

One of China Eastern’s subsidiary airlines is China United Airlines, which falls under this accrual chart:

Eastern Miles offers a points accrual calculator, but it’s extremely helpful to be able to calculate your earned points for any desired flight if the calculator doesn’t work.

Let’s discuss a few examples:

• If you fly on a short-haul flight from Shanghai (PVG) to Ningbo (NGB) on an H-class economy ticket, you’ll travel an approximate distance of 150 kilometers. In theory, you’d earn 30% of 150 kilometers, which is 45 Eastern Miles points. Luckily, all eligible plane tickets that earn points will earn a minimum of 500 Eastern Miles points, which is what you’d earn in this case for the flight.
• Let’s take another example: a one-way D-class business class flight from New York City (JFK) to Shanghai (PVG). On this flight, you’d travel 11,896 kilometers and earn 200% of the flight distance in miles. Therefore, you’d earn 23,792 Eastern Miles points.
• Let’s take 1 last example: a one-way O-class ticket from Shanghai (PVG) to Beijing (PEK). Because you are booked in an ineligible booking class, you’d earn 0 miles for this ticket.

Hot Tip: China Eastern and subsidiary flights take around 1 week to post miles to your account. If it’s been longer than a week, you can submit a claim to get the miles retroactively credited to your account.

Crediting SkyTeam Airlines to Eastern Miles

As we mentioned numerous times above, China Eastern is a SkyTeam alliance airline. This means that you can earn and redeem miles on any of its fellow SkyTeam airline partners, like Delta Air Lines, Air France, KLM, and many more!

Unfortunately, things start getting complicated because each SkyTeam airline has its own accrual chart that you’ll want to follow if you want to accurately calculate how many miles you’ll earn.

Here is the comprehensive accrual chart of how many Eastern Miles points you’d accrue on each SkyTeam partner:

As you can see, China Eastern’s dizzying SkyTeam alliance network offers tons of different ways to accrue Eastern Miles points.

For example, you can earn Eastern Miles points on a simple economy flight from the U.S. to Europe. You can earn Eastern Miles points on a short-haul flight from Portugal to the Netherlands. You can earn Eastern Miles points on a U.S. domestic flight, as well!

So with that being said, let’s calculate how many miles you’d earn with some examples:

• Let’s say that you are flying on a domestic ticket from Salt Lake City (SLC) to New York City (JFK) on Delta Air Lines in an economy, Q-class ticket. This ticket would earn 75% of the flight distance in kilometers as redeemable miles, which means that this 3,200-kilometer flight would earn you 2,400 Eastern Miles points, plus 2,400 elite qualifying points and 0.5 elite qualifying segments towards Eastern Miles elite status!
• Let’s take another example of a Korean Air first class flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Seoul-Incheon (ICN) booked as a P class ticket. This flight is 9,646 kilometers long, and you’d earn 165%, which is 15,916 redeemable Eastern Miles points, plus 15,916 elite qualifying points and 2 elite qualifying segments!

You can easily check the most updated accrual policy for China Eastern SkyTeam partners by clicking the link here and clicking on SkyTeam flight.

In general, SkyTeam partner flights take around 2-3 weeks to credit to your account. To ensure you get the miles as quickly as possible, enter your Eastern Miles number during the booking process and show your membership card during the flight check-in process at the airport.

You can submit a retroactive claim if you haven’t received your miles in the allotted time, up to 6 months after the travel has been finished.

Crediting Non-Alliance Partner Airlines to Eastern Miles

In addition to SkyTeam airline partners, it’s possible to credit flights on non-alliance partner airlines to rack up even more Eastern Miles points.

And China Eastern comes in clutch because 2 incredible useful airline partners cover the most obvious “gaps” in the SkyTeam portfolio.

2 of the most glaring gaps in the SkyTeam alliance are with Japan, one of the world’s richest and most popular countries, and Australia, the Great Outback.

Luckily, China Eastern has thought ahead about this and struck individual partnerships with Qantas and Japan Airlines.

For example, if you fly on a paid Japan Airlines economy ticket in H class from Chicago (ORD) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND), you’d fly a total distance of 10,147 kilometers. Therefore, at a multiplier of 70%, you would earn 7,102 redeemable Eastern Miles points.

Unfortunately, on both Japan Airlines and Qantas, you will not earn elite qualifying points or segments towards Eastern Miles elite status. To find out more about non-SkyTeam partners, you can visit this link and click the button that says Other flight.

To earn Eastern Miles points, you’ll want to provide your Eastern Miles number when you initially book your plane tickets. When you check-in at the airport, you’ll also want to provide your Eastern Miles membership card to the check-in agent.

It will take around 2 to 3 weeks for the Eastern Miles points to post to your account. If the miles don’t post, you can retroactively submit a claim, up to 6 months after the travel has been completed.

Use Elite Status to Earn More Miles

As usual with almost all the airlines in the world, you can earn elite status with Eastern Miles and begin to accrue miles much, much faster than you would otherwise!

Here are the elite status tiers available for Eastern Miles members, as well as how many bonus miles you’d earn with each status:

• Eastern Miles Platinum — 50% of the standard mileage
• Eastern Miles Gold — 30% of the standard mileage
• Eastern Miles Silver — 15% of the standard mileage

So, what exactly is standard mileage? Standard mileage is simply the flight distance in kilometers for your itinerary. For example, if you are booked on a business class flight on KLM in the D class from Houston (IAH) to Amsterdam (AMS), you’d be traveling a distance of 8,066 kilometers. Plus with the cabin class bonus, you’d earn 125%, which is 10,083 redeemable miles, 10,083 elite qualifying points, and 1.5 elite qualifying segments.

If, however, you were an Eastern Miles Gold member, you’d earn an additional 30% of 8,066 kilometers, which is 2,420 more redeemable miles and 2,420 more elite qualifying points, for a total of 12,503 redeemable Eastern Miles points and 12,503 elite qualifying points! You will not earn any bonus elite qualification segments with elite status.

Hotel Partners

Eastern Miles has partnerships with a few of the largest hotel chains in the world, in addition to a couple of smaller Chinese hotel chains. You can earn lots of Eastern Miles points through hotel stays you’re already planning on booking, so that’s great news!

If you leverage these close partnerships, you can end up earning bonus Eastern Miles points very quickly. Here is the current Eastern Miles partner hotel list:

To earn Eastern Miles points, you’ll have to provide your Eastern Miles number during the booking process and show your membership card or e-card during check-in.

According to Eastern Miles, it may take up to 3 months for the points to post to your account.

Travel Agency Partners

Our last travel booking partner is a company called SAL Holidays. SAL Holidays is short for Shanghai Airline Holidays, a travel agency operated and owned by China Eastern’s parent company.

SAL Holidays offers comprehensive tour packages for domestic China trips as well as overseas international trips.

Currently, SAL Holidays is the only travel agency partner, although this list has historically been much larger. When you book through SAL Holidays, you will earn 5 miles per ¥2 spent.

To earn points, you can simply book a tour on Shanghai Airlines Holiday’s site and quote your Eastern Miles membership number.

You’ll earn your miles within 3 months of completion of your tour. You’ll want to save your receipts if your miles aren’t posted to your account and you need to submit a retroactive claim.

Specialty Earnings for Eastern Miles

Now that we’ve gone over all the mainstream ways to earn Eastern Miles points from credit card spending, shopping, and travel, let’s take a look at some of the niche ways to earn Eastern Miles points.

Take Chinese Surveys with MyTianHui

MyTianHui is a survey platform offered by Shanghai Tianhui Haowen Information Technology and it enables you to fill out surveys and earn rewards.

In this sense, it’s essentially the Chinese version of a survey website like e-Rewards. When you fill out surveys, you will earn TianHui Rewards points, also known as Tian Hui Bao (THB).

You can convert 1,000 THB points to 100 Eastern Miles points.

Blog on China’s Largest Frequent Flyer Social Media Website

Flyertea is China’s largest social media website and community for frequent flyers and credit card enthusiasts. If you’re interested in participating in this platform, you can earn Flyertea points, known as “Feimi.”

You can convert 10,000 Flyertea Feimi points to 500 Eastern Miles points.

Buy China Eastern Eastern Miles Points

The very last option that we will discuss is to purchase Eastern Miles points outright.

You can only buy up to 20,000 Eastern Miles points per calendar year, in increments of 100.

Additionally, you can only purchase the miles online or by calling the Eastern Miles services hotline at 855-589-5530.

The price you’d pay is ¥25 per 100 Eastern Miles points, which is an astonishing price of around 3.7 cents per point. In general, we wouldn’t recommend buying Eastern Miles points unless you’ve exhausted all other options.

Final Thoughts

Overall, there are tons of different ways you can accumulate Eastern Miles points. And just like many other Chinese airlines, the list of eligible accrual partners changes much more frequently than U.S. airlines like American Airlines, for instance.

China Eastern is a SkyTeam partner, so you can accumulate miles through flying activity on SkyTeam airlines like Delta Air Lines. You can also earn points on non-alliance airline partners like Japan Airlines or Qantas.

There are also quite a few partners to earn Eastern Miles points at hotels, shopping outlets, and other unique activities like taking Chinese surveys!

And while China Eastern doesn’t have any U.S. transfer partners, there are tons of Chinese co-branded credit cards that can earn Eastern Miles points and lots of Chinese banks that offer transfer partnerships with Eastern Miles!

Overall, there are plenty of awesome ways to accrue lots of Eastern Miles points quickly. Happy earning!