Cathay Details Mostly Positive Changes Coming to Its Loyalty Program, Including a New Top Tier

Cathay Pacific has detailed some significant changes to its Cathay rewards program, which usually signals bad news for passengers. However, Cathay’s update is mostly great.

“We are evolving the Cathay membership programme with our current and future members in mind, offering them a smoother, simpler, and better membership experience,” said Vivian Lo, director of customer lifestyle at Cathay.

The changes will become fully effective on January 1, 2027, though there’s a transition period starting January 1, 2026. That gives you a full year to understand and adapt to these changes.

Status Points Will No Longer Reset

Cathay Pacific‘s frequent flyers have to deal with the frustration of their status points returning to zero after reaching a new status level.

Moving forward, once Cathay members hit 300 Status Points and Silver status, they can continue earning higher status levels from 300 Points, rather than starting again at zero.

Membership Cycle Moves to Annual

Rather than the member’s membership cycle starting from the account opening date, the earning period will now run from January 1 through December 31.

This is a move often made by airlines when updating their loyalty programs. Members will all follow the same elite status start and end dates, simplifying things for everyone involved.

Cathay says current 2025 membership status levels and benefits will remain the same until the current expiry date. However, once membership renews or changes in 2026, whatever level of status a member has at that point will be valid until December 31, 2026.

Then, from January 1, 2027, the member’s status level until December 31, 2027, will be determined by the Status Points earned between January 1 and December 31, 2026.

Excess Status Points Will Roll Over for Some Elites

Gold members get an interesting new perk: Any Status Points earned over 600 to reach Gold will now roll over to the next membership year. For example, if you earn 1,000 Status Points (200 shy of Diamond status), the remaining 400 Status Points will kick-start your status earning for the next membership year.

Diamond Elites Can Bank Status Years

Members who have held Diamond consecutively for 5 years will now earn a complimentary year as a Diamond member for every 6,000 Status Points earned since their membership started.

This is an excellent safety net for frequent flyers whose travel habits drop significantly for whatever reason. There’s no cap on the number of complimentary years. Those whose business or personal needs cause them to stop traveling for a while won’t lose their status in the process.

New Tier Alert: Diamond Exec

Hitting 2,400 Status Points will now unlock a new status level, Diamond Exec — yes, it’s not Executive but Exec.

Perks include:

• 4x single-sector upgrade passes to the class above, including to first class
• Buggy service for Cathay Pacific departures from gates 40 to 80
• Ability to gift Gold status to a Cathay member of choice
• A dedicated phone line to a “Relationship Manager”

This top level of status will only be achievable by Cathay and Oneworld airline super frequent flyers.

Top Status Holders Will Lose Mid-Status Benefits

The only notable drawback of the update is that Gold and Diamond members will no longer enjoy mid-status benefits from January 1, 2027.

This will end perks like lounge passes, bookable upgrades, and buggy rides for Diamond members in Hong Kong.

However, 2x upgrade passes will now be available on qualifying for Diamond status, so that perk isn’t going away altogether. Members can no longer use this to upgrade from business to first class, though.

At the other end of the scale, Green and Silver members will get new “milestone benefits.” Silver members will now enjoy 2x lounge passes once they hit 450 Status Points. Green members will learn more about their new perk at a later date. It’s very rare for an airline to respect the perks of lower-level elites while removing the perks of top-level members.

Final Thoughts

It’s great to see Cathay Pacific use the update to its loyalty program to improve the experience for its loyal members, rather than slashing the perks and benefits while calling it a “program refresh” like many other airlines have done in the past.

Here’s to January 1, 2026, and the soft start to Cathay’s new loyalty program. Luckily, we’ve got a lot of time to get used to these changes before they fully take effect.