Cathay Pacific has announced some upcoming changes to redemption rates using Asia Miles on its flights and those of partner airlines, which will take effect around three months from now and result in both increases and reductions in the number of miles needed for an award ticket.
For the most part, however, it’s bad news for our readers with the airline’s good value Business Class awards between Asia and Europe or North America hiked in cost by up to 30%.
The good news is you’ll still be able to redeem (if you can find award space) until 30th September 2023 at the current rates, since the new pricing will only kick in for redemptions made from 1st October 2023 onwards.
Asia Miles ‘revaluation’
Here’s how the Asia Miles award chart will change when booking a Cathay Pacific flight, based on total distance travelled in your itinerary, for bookings made from 1st October 2023 onwards.
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles redemption changes
(one-way miles x 1,000)
| Distance in miles |
Eco | PY | Biz | First |
| 1 – 750 | 7.5 | 11 | 16 | 25 |
| 751 – 2,750 (Type 1) |
10 | 20 (+11%) |
28 (+12%) |
43 (+8%) |
| 751 – 2,750 (Type 2) |
12.5 (+25%) |
23 (+28%) |
32 (+28%) |
50 (+25%) |
| 2,751 – 5,000 | 20 (-9%) |
38 (+27%) |
58 (+29%) |
90 (+29%) |
| 5,001 – 7,500 (Type 1) |
27 (-10%) |
50 (+25%) |
84 (+29%) |
125 (+25%) |
| 5,001 – 7,500 (Type 2) |
27 (-10%) |
50 (+25%) |
84 (+20%) |
125 (+14%) |
| 7,501+ | 38 (-10%) |
75 (+25%) |
110 (+29%) |
160 (+28%) |
As you can see, while the miles outlay for some Economy Class redemptions is reducing, the far more valuable premium cabins like Business Class all take a hit – up to 29% in some cases.
This includes award redemptions such as:
- Singapore to Hong Kong in Business Class
25,000 miles to 28,000 miles (+12%) - Singapore to Frankfurt in Business Class
65,000 miles to 84,000 miles (+20%) - Singapore to London in Business Class
85,000 miles to 110,000 miles (+29%) - Hong Kong to London in First Class
100,000 miles to 125,000 miles (+25%)
On the plus side, if you’re the type who is happy to redeem 30,000 Asia Miles plus taxes and fees to fly in Economy from Singapore to Frankfurt, for example, that will only cost you 27,000 Asia Miles when booked from October onwards, a 10% saving.
Redemption zone changes
As you can see the “Short” redemption zone, for itineraries between 751 and 2,750 miles, will been split into two pricing rates:
- Type 1: Routes to/from Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea
- Type 2: Routes to/from India, Indonesia, Japan
This will see Singapore – Hong Kong flights suffer an award rate increase in Business Class of only 12% (from 25,000 miles to 28,000 miles), while a Jakarta – Hong Kong itinerary will increase by 28% (from 25,000 miles to 32,000 miles).
Meanwhile, the two Long distance 5,001 to 7,500 mile zones will harmonise in pricing and become a single zone, though a broad devaluation is still evident in premium cabins.
Currently, Long – Type 1 relates to itineraries which do not include any cities in the Americas (e.g. Singapore to Frankfurt), whereas Long – Type 2 includes those cities (e.g. Vancouver, San Francisco).
Old and new award charts
Cathay Pacific’s current and future award charts for Asia Miles redemption are available here:
- Current award rates (till 30th September 2023)
- New award rates (from 1st October 2023)
As you can see from the new award rate tables in the link above, Cathay is also increasing rates for Asia Miles upgrade awards, Asia Miles companion ticket awards and Oneworld multi-carrier awards, as part of these changes.
What about partner awards?
Asia Miles does not publish an award chart for use of its miles on Oneworld and other partner carriers (except for multi-carrier awards), but effectively it currently looks like this:
In its announcement, the airline has stated that it will be making “increases and decreases to the miles required to redeem flights with Cathay Pacific and our partner airlines“, so there’s clearly no way this chart is getting away unscathed from the (mostly negative) changes.
Expect to see increases of close to 30% in premium cabins on many routes, which would apply, for example, when using Asia Miles to redeem Qatar Airways flights from Singapore to Europe.
Currently those sit at 70,000 Asia Miles, but that certainly won’t remain the case from 1st October 2023.
We’ll update this section once we have confirmation of exactly how much single partner award pricing will change.
Fuel surcharges remain
One negative aspect of Asia Miles redemptions has always been that fuel surcharges are passed on in addition to your miles outlay when booking an award seat.
For the likes of British Airways and Qatar Airways, these can be very significant, but Cathay Pacific flights aren’t immune either.
The carrier currently applies the following fuel surcharges on tickets issued in July 2023 (updated monthly).
Good news: 12 weeks’ notice
The only saving grace for this award chart change, which is mostly negative for our readers, is that the airline is giving a generous 12 weeks’ notice to allow you to redeem at current rates before the re-pricing kicks in.
Cathay Pacific releases award seats 360 days prior to departure, so even on the final day of current pricing, 30th September 2023, you may be able to snag award space right through to 24th September 2024.
Here are a couple of points to be aware of:
- If you book at current rates and then make changes to your flight date on or after 1st October 2023, no additional miles will be required.
- Other changes made to your itinerary on or after 1st October 2023, like a different routing, will be repriced based on the new award levels.
Cathay Pacific hasn’t changed its award charts since 2018, and back then only one month of notice was given, similar to KrisFlyer’s most recent devaluation.
While the increases are high in many cases, we can at least be happy that members can redeem at current award rates for 12 more weeks, provided that all-important award space is there.
Otherwise the value of the programme is clearly significantly diminished from October 2023 onwards, which is sad but perhaps inevitable after such a long period with no changes.
Summary
Cathay Pacific is adjusting its Asia Miles award pricing charts from 1st October 2023, and broadly speaking it’s bad news for our readers with Business Class and First Class awards hiked by close to 30% in many cases.
This is the first devaluation from the airline in five years, so it’s hardly unexpected, but taking such a large hit in one go is tough to stomach and many probably prefer the latest Singapore Airlines tactic with the KrisFlyer programme – smaller devaluations more regularly.
The good news is that there are 12 weeks to take advantage of current award rates, assuming you can find award space, which is quite a generous window when you look at miles devaluations from other programmes that have sometimes offered limited notice, or even no notice whatsoever!
What’s your Asia Miles strategy following this announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.
(Cover Photo: Cathay Pacific)
Was trying to find an article about this on the internet and can’t say I’m really surprised it’s out here already! 👍 👍
Was hoping for Singapore to Jeju to return at 10k miles but seems like all hope is lost now, maybe should’ve moved the miles to another airlines instead..
Singapore-Hong Kong-Japan with the new chart in Business should be 58,000 miles, not 32,000. Also, interesting to note that there is currently no availability on many long-haul routes (e.g. North America). If this is not released before October, there is effectively no advance notice.
Thanks for the heads up. Is Cathay releasing first class award space to Asia Miles members? Every partner I seek those awards with is showing zero first class seats and about the same in business class awards.Since there’s literally no other option for getting Cathay first class awards right now the prices on very long flights really aren’t that bad if you can score a couple of those lovely first class awards.
Cathay Pacific Asia miles is a scam. There is no business flight that can be booked in the next 365 days. However, you can book them through miles + cash easily but not miles required/charged are more than 500% of the new chart. BIG TIME FRAUD.
I think for readers who are new to the game, it would be very difficult to find award space given the tight time frame. Even for KF, we have to commit to our travel plans 365 days in advance (as our travel dates are fixed) in order to redeem 2 F seats. For Cathay, its even much difficult and I guess similar to SQ, the elite members such as PPS will see more award space than us commoners. 3 months is actually a very short notice given that award space is almost non-existent and maybe limited to Diamond members.
It’s a huge increase considering 3 of the 5yrs since the last devaluation were lost to the pandemic
your staff should be able to handle matters and not just that we will call you back everytime i call
my reinstate program started now shes saying oh i cant find ur date of call so i hv to pay, its 290k over in miles y would anyone just let it go