Cathay Pacific announces changes to Asia Miles – May 2018

Cathay Pacific has announced changes to the Asia Miles frequent flyer programme. In summary, more miles can be earned on most flights, there are more seats to redeem with your miles, and the amount required to redeem flights and upgrades have changed significantly. Firstly, the number of miles earned from flights are now standardised according to fare class and distances. All flights in the same fare class and distance band will earn the same number of miles regardless of distance. People who mainly buy the cheapest Economy Class tickets will benefit the most, because earnings have at least doubled for most flights. In one of the extreme cases, miles earned for flying to Shanghai will increase fourfold!

Discounted Economy (fare classes M, L and V) and Premium Economy class tickets are a mixed bag. To put it simply, people flying regularly from most of Australia (except Perth) and North America (except Chicago and Toronto) will earn fewer miles, while people who fly regularly from Western Europe (except Dublin and Spain) will earn more miles. Personally, the number of miles I earn will not change much, because UK destinations are pretty much at break even point.

All ticket redemptions will come in the form of one way redemptions. If you want to redeem a round trip, you will have to redeem a ticket in each direction. One way tickets will cost less or the same number of miles to redeem, but just how often will you need a one way ticket by itself?

The most important change has to be that all short haul Economy Class round trips that cost more than 20,000 miles to redeem will now cost that much to redeem. You are looking at reductions of 10,000 to 25,000 miles, or 33% to 56%. Destinations affected include Japan and South Korea, which are very popular with Hong Kong people, as well as Beijing, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. In the meantime, Economy Class round trips to Australia, the Maldives and the Middle East will cost 1000 fewer miles to redeem, big deal.

Upgrade redemptions are hit very hard by the changes. Upgrades from Premium Economy to Business Class flights, which are quite popular for long haul flight will cost over 50% more. But hey, as someone based in the UK, redeeming such upgrades is still the most cost efficient option for me. When it comes to short haul upgrades from Economy to Business Class (if your flight does not have Premium Economy), flights to destinations between 750 and 1100 miles from Hong Kong are the hardest hit, with a 70% increase in cost!

In conclusion, Cathay Pacific is changing the Asia Miles programme to target the typical Hong Kong person, who stands to benefit the most given their travel habits. However, it is at the expense of long distance travellers. Someone’s got to give for others to take, right?