7 Brilliant Redemptions with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is one of the easiest points programs to access in Canada, as it’s available via a co-branded credit card and through transferable points currencies.
In addition to booking flights with Cathay Pacific, there are some compelling partner-airline redemptions, too, with a host of oneworld airlines.
With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look at some brilliant redemption opportunities that represent great value for your Asia Miles.
Earning Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Is Easy
Prior to looking into redemption sweet spots, let’s remind ourselves of the various ways to access Asia Miles in Canada.
First and foremost, you can earn Asia Miles through the welcome bonus and daily spending on the Cathay World Elite® Mastercard® – powered by Neo. The historical-high offer on the card is currently at 60,000 Asia Miles, which would put you all the way or a good chunk of the way towards most of the redemptions on this list.
First-year value
$380
Annual fee: $180
• Earn 15,000 points on approval
• Earn 15,000 points upon spending $5,000 in the first 3 months
Earning rates
Key perks
- 15% discount on Cathay Pacific flights
- Bonus Asia Miles with Neo partners
Annual fee: $180
• Earn 15,000 points on approval
• Earn 15,000 points upon spending $5,000 in the first 3 months
Earning rates
Key perks
- 15% discount on Cathay Pacific flights
- Bonus Asia Miles with Neo partners
Furthermore, RBC Avion points transfer to Asia Miles at a 1:1 ratio. We’ve also seen the occasional transfer bonus to Asia Miles in the recent past, which is something to look out for to get outsized value from your points.
Plus, you can supercharge your Asia Miles earning rates on daily spending by building an Optimized RBC Credit Card Portfolio, which includes the RBC® ION+ Visa and any RBC Avion credit card.
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Meanwhile, American Express Membership Rewards transfer to Asia Miles at a 1:0.75 ratio.
While the ratio is less lucrative than that of RBC Avion, the juicy welcome offers on most Membership Rewards credit cards and the supercharged earning rates on the American Express Cobalt Card should make up for much of the difference.
American Express Membership Rewards Credit Cards
Welcome bonus: 70,000 Membership Rewards points
Annual fee: $199
First-year value
$2,001
Welcome bonus: 130,000 Membership Rewards points
Annual fee: $799
First-year value
$1,914
Welcome bonus: 70,000 Membership Rewards points
Annual fee: $250
First-year value
$1,654
Welcome bonus: 110,000 Membership Rewards points
Annual fee: $799
First-year value
$1,581
Welcome bonus: 15,000 Membership Rewards points
Monthly fee: $15.99
First-year value
$336
Welcome bonus: 12,500 Membership Rewards points
Annual fee: No fee
First-year value
$301
It shouldn’t take too long to pad your Asia Miles balance, and once you’ve built up a nice little stockpile, your attention should then turn to redeeming them effectively.
If you’d like some expert tips on optimizing your earning and redeeming of Asia Miles, join us in the Prince of Travel Community. You’ll have access to some of the most engaged loyalty enthusiasts in the country, as well as experts from the Prince of Travel team.
Join the Prince of Travel community to connect with like-minded Miles & Points enthusiasts, learn directly from the experts, and much more!
1. West Coast to Hong Kong and Beyond for 88,000 Asia Miles
Asia Miles uses distance- and class-based pricing for flights on its own metal. As you’d expect, you’ll pay more in miles as you travel in higher classes of service, and as you travel farther distances.
It no longer officially publishes an award chart – which is frustrating – but we know that flights between Hong Kong and North America fall into two distances:
- Long-haul (5,001–7,500 miles): 88,000 Asia Miles in business class
- Ultra-long haul (7,501+ miles): 115,000 Asia Miles in business class
Flights to or from cities in Western North America, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver, cost 88,000 Asia Miles.
Plus, if you fly from Vancouver, you’ll have about 1,100 more miles to fly before you cross into the ultra-long-haul threshold.
This leaves a number of destinations in Asia accessible at 88,000 miles, including Bangkok, Manila, Beijing, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and more.
Fortunately, Cathay Pacific is operating its latest business class product – Aria Suites – on the Hong Kong–Vancouver route as of June 5, 2025.
These days, competition for transpacific awards in premium cabins is fierce. Asia Miles offers the only meaningful way to access Cathay Pacific premium cabins, and award availability has improved.
If your travel plans take you to East and South East Asia, be sure to keep an eye on awards in the 88,000-mile price range.
2. Last-Minute American Airlines Flights to Australia
In addition to flights with Cathay Pacific, Asia Miles offers access to other airlines in the oneworld alliance.
If you have your eyes set on Australia – which is another destination for which competition for premium award travel is fierce – consider looking for redemptions with American Airlines to Australia with Asia Miles.
While you’re unlikely to find awards available through Asia Miles in advance, availability for last-minute flights is pretty good. This is a great option to have at your disposal if you’re unable to find award flights with other programs, such as Aeroplan.
American Airlines offers non-stop flights from Los Angeles to Brisbane and Sydney, as well as from Dallas to Brisbane. There’s also a route that connects Los Angeles with Auckland.
The easiest way to search for these routes is to use the calendar view on American Airlines AAdvantage website. Simply enter your origin and destination, tick the “Redeem miles” box, choose your number of passengers, and then hit “Search”.
On the results page, select “Calendar”, make sure “Business/First” is toggled, then look for dates that have even numbers (such as 80,000 miles or 95,000 miles) as an option. (American Airlines AAdvantage uses dynamic pricing, and the even numbers tend to be ones that are “Saver”-level prices).
Once you’ve found a flight that works for you, double-check that it’s also available on the Asia Miles website. It should price out at 89,000 Asia Miles, which is an excellent price for 15+-hour flight in business class.
The downside to this is that you’ll have to wait until the last minute to book, so you may want to have a refundable backup option booked instead, and then be ready to pounce when you see something that you like pop up as available.
American Airlines isn’t necessarily known for having the best premium cabin products out there; however, it’s a great option at a competitive price to consider if you’re not finding luck anywhere else.
3. Great Pricing for British Airways Flights to Europe
Another excellent use of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles will take you across the Atlantic instead of the Pacific.
If you’re headed to London (or to Europe), be sure to consider redeeming Asia Miles for an award flight with British Airways using your Asia Miles.
As a reminder, British Airways levies a significant amount of taxes and fees onto its own flights booked through The British Airways Club. Depending on how you structure your redemption, you could wind up forking over more than $1,000 for a business-class redemption, in addition to the points you use.
However, you can book those same flights with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles for a competitive cost in miles, plus a much lower amount of taxes and fees.
For example, a one-way flight with British Airways in business class from Toronto to London costs 80,000 Avios plus $375 in taxes and fees for a Reward Flight Saver booking, or 50,000 Avios plus $890 at the standard rate. There are also other combinations of Avios and cash to choose from.
That same flight booked with Asia Miles costs only 63,000 miles plus $390 in taxes and fees.
In other words, you’d have to redeem 17,000 more Avios to pay the same amount of taxes and fees, but why pay more for something if you don’t have to?
4. Take the Long Way Around with the Ultra-Long Category
As mentioned above, Cathay Pacific uses a distance-based system for pricing awards.
What’s important to know is that the final distance band – Ultra-Long – includes any flights that measure 7,501+ miles. This means that any valid itineraries that you can find that are over 7,501 miles will have the same price: 115,000 miles in business class.
For example, you could fly from Toronto to Hong Kong for 115,000 Asia Miles in business class, since the flight measures roughly 7,810 miles.
However, you could also continue onward to, say, Australia, and still pay just 115,000 miles with both flights in business class…
This also works for taking the long way from Toronto to Johannesburg via Hong Kong…
Alternatively, you could route through Europe or the Middle East with a oneworld partner, and then continue onward to Hong Kong, again for just 115,000 miles.
There are plenty of ways to extend your flying time with Cathay Pacific by leveraging the Ultra-Long category – your only limit is going to be finding back-to-back long-haul flights with award availability.
5. Try Cathay Pacific First Class from Hong Kong to Japan or Beijing
Cathay Pacific offers First Class on only a handful of routes. At the time of writing, these include Beijing (PEK), Tokyo (HND), London (LHR), New York (JFK), and Los Angeles (LAX).
Of these, the most affordable options are to fly between Hong Kong and Beijing or Tokyo, which price out at 43,000 Asia Miles or 50,000 Asia Miles, respectively.
Cathay Pacific First Class award availability to Beijing is quite easy to find, whereas finding availability to Tokyo is a bit harder to come by.
Fortunately, it’s easy to spot the days on which there are award seats available.
After entering in your origin, destination, number of passengers, and class of service, a calendar appears when you go to select the date.
Here, you’ll notice that there are seats showing on dates with availability. If you see a green double seat, there are multiple seats available, while if you see a brown single seat, the availability is more limited.
If you’re flexible with dates, use the calendar to quickly spot what you’re looking for, and then finish your redemption from there.
6. Long and Ultra-Long Haul Cathay Pacific First Class
As described above, Cathay Pacific offers First Class on a few select routes.
In addition to the shorter-haul flights between Hong Kong and Beijing or Tokyo, you can also find pockets of availability to London, New York, and Los Angeles.
Flying between Hong Kong and Los Angeles or London in First Class will cost 125,000 Asia Miles, while the ultra-long flight to New York will cost 160,000 Asia Miles.
Of these, I’d say that it’s a much better deal to fly to Los Angeles or London, since you get a similar amount of time in the skies (roughly 14 hours to LHR/LAX versus 15 hours 40 minutes to JFK) for 35,000 miles less than flying to New York.
At the time of writing, there were small pockets of availability to New York and Los Angeles, but more ample award space to London.
Whenever possible, try to base your Cathay Pacific First Class flight out of Hong Kong, since you’ll have access to the excellent lounges on offer.
7. First Access to oneworld Partner Awards
Lastly, one important factor to keep in mind for Asia Miles redemptions is that you have access to award availability starting at 360 days prior to departure.
If you’re someone who likes to plan in advance, or if you have your eyes set on some of the most sought-after redemptions in the game, then this fact plays an important role in where you want to send your miles.
For example, Japan is a hotspot for tourism these days, and so are flights with Japanese airlines in premium cabins.
Japan Airlines is a oneworld airline, and you can also use Asia Miles to book award flights with Japan Airlines.
With its relatively extensive North American network, excellent in-flight dining, and its decadent First Class cabins, premium cabin award travel with Japan Airlines is hotly contested.
Other oneworld award programs might open up to award bookings at 355 or 330 days prior to departure, and by that point, many of the most desirable awards may have already been booked.
Therefore, if you have your heart set on premium cabins with Japan Airlines, consider strategically accumulating loyalty points in your Asia Miles account, and then pounce on the redemption as soon as it becomes available.
Conclusion
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles offers members the opportunity to book flights on its own metal and with oneworld partners.
Despite having gone through a few devaluations over the last few years, Asia Miles remains one of the most easily accessible loyalty programs for Canadians, and there’s plenty of value to be found.
For these tips and more, consider joining the Prince of Travel Community for expert advice on the best ways to earn and redeem Asia Miles!
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