16 Best Ways to Earn Lots of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

BY 

Stephen Au

- UPDATED: March 17, 2020

1. Earn Points  / 
2. Earn Airline Points

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Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s largest airline, is a founding member of the Oneworld Alliance and offers flights to over 74 destinations. Its hub is located at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG).

In this post, we’ll show you all the ways to earn miles in the Cathay Pacific frequent flyer program, Asia Miles. Your earned miles can then be redeemed for various travel and lifestyle rewards!

The Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Program

1. Enroll in Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

You can earn Asia Miles by taking Cathay Pacific flights and booking travel with its many partners.

Free memberships are available to travelers ages 2 and up, but consent is required from a parent or legal guardian for those under 18.

After enrolling in Asia Miles, you will receive a confirmation email with an attached temporary membership card so that you can start earning Asia Miles right away. You’ll use your membership number on any eligible activity to earn Asia Miles, which are valid for 3 years from the month the miles are credited to the account.

The Marco Polo Club Program

Cathay Pacific has a separate elite status program called the Marco Polo Club.

While Asia Miles members earn miles they can redeem for travel rewards, Marco Polo Club members earn tier miles. These miles are used to move up status tier levels and get access to flight perks like priority boarding and lounge access.

Unlike many other loyalty programs that offer bonus miles based on status, Marco Polo Club members do not earn bonus Asia Miles. This is in contrast with programs like United Airlines, which award bonus miles for the same flight over a lower-tier member. This means that your elite status will not accelerate your ability to get to the next elite status.

Note that Marco Polo Club members are automatically enrolled as Asia Miles members, but Asia Miles members are not automatically enrolled in the Marco Polo Club. If you are interested in the Marco Polo Club, you can enroll here.

Bottom Line: Asia Miles is the program used for earning miles toward award flights. Marco Polo Club is the elite status program.

2. Earn Asia Miles for Cathay Pacific Flights 

Always provide your membership number when making a reservation. Then, present it during check-in to ensure you receive the applicable Asia Miles in your account. The airline advises keeping your boarding passes and tickets until miles have been applied to your account.

Asia Miles has the following earning table for Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon flights:

Hot Tip: Create a Redemption Group by nominating up to 5 friends and family members. As the Principal Member, you may transfer Asia Miles to group members in blocks of 5,000 with a 10,000-mile minimum. Service fees apply; see Terms and Conditions for more information.

Using Credit Cards to Earn Asia Miles

3. Cathay Pacific Credit Card

The Cathay Pacific Airways Visa® from Synchrony Bank directly earns Asia Miles. Bonuses have ranged from 25,000-75,000 Asia Miles.

4. American Express Membership Rewards Cards

You can transfer Membership Rewards to Asia Miles at a 1:1 ratio. Transfers from Amex to Asia Miles usually take 1-3 business days.

Keep in mind that there have been transfer bonuses of up to 30% from Amex, which boosts the ratio from 1:1 to 1:1.3.

Recommended American Express Cards (Personal)

Recommended American Express Cards (Business)

5. Citi ThankYou Rewards Credit Cards

Citi ThankYou points transfer to Asia Miles at a 1:1 ratio. Transfers to Citi take around 1 business day to execute. Citi has offered a 15% bonus on Asia Miles in the past, so it may be worth waiting for this.

You can see a list of the best Citi cards here.

6. Capital One Miles

Capital One miles transfer to Asia Miles at a 2:1.5 ratio. Instead of redeeming your Capital One miles in the Capital One Travel Portal for cash tickets, you now have the option to transfer them to your Asia Miles account. Just remember that transfers take around 36 hours.

Using Asia Miles can potentially save a ton of miles when looking to book first or business class tickets by using the Asia Miles award chart compared to 1 cent per point of the cash ticket price using the Capital One Travel Portal.

Make sure you have a Capital One card that has the transferable miles feature. Here are our picks:

Recommended Capital One Cards That Earn Miles (Personal)

7. Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

You can earn Marriott points and transfer Marriott points to Cathay Pacific at a transfer rate of 3:1. Plus, for every 60,000 Marriott points that you transfer, you’ll receive an extra bonus of 5,000 Asia Miles. Marriott transfers to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles in around 10 business days, which is something you’ll need to keep in mind.

Recommended Marriott Cards

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Travel Partners

8. Cathay Pacific Partner Airlines

Cathay Pacific is a Oneworld Alliance member and has additional partner airlines. Earn Asia Miles by flying these partner airlines and crediting your Asia Miles to Cathay Pacific. Here are some current rates.

Cathay Pacific also has its Asia Miles partners:

9. Cathay Pacific Hotel Partners

Cathay Pacific has a lot of hotel partners all over the world, making it easier than ever to earn loads of extra Asia Miles. 

Note that most, if not all of these hotel chains have partnerships with all the applicable brands in their portfolio. Also, the earning structure is consistent across different brands in a hotel portfolio.

10. Converting Hotel Points

Earning Asia Miles with partner hotel stays is great, but it’s not the only way to get Asia Miles from hotel stays. The hotels in the table below also allow you to convert reward points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles!

11. Partner Hotel Credit Cards

You can also use credit cards associated with hotel loyalty programs to earn reward points. Then, just transfer those points to your Cathay Pacific Asia Miles account. For example, Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG, and World of Hyatt all have co-branded credit cards.

12. Partner Rental Car Agencies

Rent a car with a Cathay Pacific partner or spend with a transport partner and earn lots of bonus miles. The programs may have different qualifying rentals and earning structures, so double-check with the individual links below to find out more.

Shopping for Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

13. Asia Miles iShop

The Asia Miles iShop includes online retailers in categories including fashion, home, office, and so much more.

It doesn’t cost more to shop through the iShop links. Most times, the prices are the same as if you shopped with the merchants directly, but you’re earning Asia Miles at the same time!

Making purchases through the Asia Miles iShop is simple:

1. Sign in to the Asia Miles iShop website.
2. Enable the “cookies” function, so Asia Miles can track your path from iShop to the merchant’s website and allocate miles.
3. Click “Shop Now” under the merchant’s description.
4. Purchase the items you want.

You’ll receive an acknowledgment email within 5 days and another email once the merchant approves your transaction, which can take up to 120 days. After that, Asia Miles will appear in your account within 30 days.

Special Offers from Asia Miles

14. Asia Miles Offers and Promotions Page

Find deals from Cathay Pacific travel partners and non-travel partners worth extra Asia Miles on the Special Offers page. Check back frequently for new deals!

15. Cathay Pacific Holidays

Purchase travel through Cathay Holidays Limited right from the Cathay Pacific website. Check out the table below to find out how many Asia Miles you can earn when booking a personalized package.

Each package will earn different amounts of Asia Miles depending on which class of service you book. For economy, you’ll earn:

For premium economy packages, you’ll earn:

For business or first class packages, you’ll earn:

16. Other Travel Partners

Asia Miles partners with a number of other companies, including top-tier booking portals and online travel agencies (OTAs). Here are some other ways to earn Asia Miles for travel expenses:

Even though you might get bonus miles for your spending, be sure that you aren’t paying significantly more for the same hotel room just to earn some more Asia Miles.

Earn Asia Miles for Booking a Hotel Meeting

If you book a qualifying event at some of the participating properties that Asia Miles partners with, you can earn bonus miles. Here are some options you can use should you decide to book a hotel event or meeting:

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this article has shown you how to maximize the Asia Miles you earn with Cathay Pacific in very simple ways. For an international airline based in Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific provides plenty of opportunities for members in North America to earn Asia Miles.

If you haven’t already enrolled in the Asia Miles loyalty program, it’s time to do it now! Then you can start racking up the miles in your Cathay Pacific Asia Miles account.