Asia Miles is back with one of its regular bonus offers when you transfer credit card points across to the programme, with 15% additional miles added to your account for each transfer made, and no upper cap.

This promotion is applicable to all Cathay members with a residing address in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

Unfortunately the Cathay programme suffered a devaluation in October 2023, with some flight awards increasing in cost by up to 29%.

That’s seen award costs hiked on many popular redemptions, like Singapore to Frankfurt in Business Class, which now costs 84,000 miles, a 20% increase on the previous competitive 65,000 miles rate, so this transfer bonus isn’t quite the deal it used to be.

Under this offer you’ll get a 15% bonus when making transfers to the programme, provided you:

• Register to participate in the promotion on or before 31st October 2024; and
• Convert credit card points from an eligible finance partner any time from 18th September 2024, with the conversion completed and credited to your Asia Miles account by 31st October 2024 at the latest

Importantly, unlike some previous deals Cathay has run, there is no limit to the number of conversions and number of points that can be converted within the promotion period with this bonus offer.

Under this deal you’ll also get a 15% bonus with eligible transactions across other ‘lifestyle categories’, including shopping with Cathay and its partners, Cathay Holidays and dining accruals, though it’s the credit card transfer element that will be of most interest to our readers.

Registration required

You will have to successfully register for this Asia Miles offer during the promotion period, using the following link.

  Asia Miles 15% Bonus Registration

You can register ay any time during the promotion period, but to keep it ‘tidy’ we’d recommend doing so before transferring your credit card points into the scheme.

Registering your account for the bonus will generate an email confirmation from Asia Miles confirming that you have enrolled successfully, so it’s good to show you did this from the outset in case of any issues later on.

After 31st October 2024 it will be too late to register for the bonus, even if you made one or more transfers during the promotion period.

Again, there is no limit to the number of miles conversions you can complete and no limit on the amount of points converted during this promotion.

Eligible transfer partners

In Singapore you can transfer credit card points across to the Asia Miles programme from the following banks.

Bank	Eligible Points
	Membership Rewards
	BOC Points
	Citi ThankYou Points / Citi Miles
	DBS Points
	HSBC Reward Points
	Maybank TREATS Points
	OCBC$ 90°N Miles Voyage Miles
	360° Rewards
	UOB UNI$

Transfer ratios

Here are the new ‘effective’ transfer ratios from eight eligible Singapore banks into Asia Miles during this promotion, at the 15% bonus level.

The minimum transfer quantity is shown for each finance partner / credit card.

Bank
	15% Bonus
MR Points	450* Points	250 287 Miles
Points	27,000 Points	6,000 6,900 Miles
Miles	10,000 Miles	10,000 11,500 Miles
ThankYou Points	25,000 Points	10,000 11,500 Miles
Points	5,000 Points	10,000 11,500 Miles
Reward Points	25,000 Points	10,000 11,500 Miles
TREATS Points	12,500 Points	5,000 5,750 Miles
OCBC$	10,000 Points	2,900 3,335 Miles
90°N Miles	1,000 Miles	750 862 Miles
Voyage Miles	1,000 Miles	750 862 Miles
360° Rewards	25,000 Points	10,000 11,500 Miles
UNI$	5,000 UNI$	10,000 11,500 Miles

* Amex Platinum Charge and Centurion members require only 400 Points per transfer block

The bonus won’t credit immediately

Bonus miles under this promotion will be credited to your Asia Miles account by 31st December 2024 at the latest, which means you’ll get the standard transfer rate applicable for your bank / card product initially, topped up with the relevant bonus level as a separate credit by the end of this year.

That means you won’t be able to take advantage of the 15% bonus for a short-term flight redemption.

What if the bonus doesn’t credit?

You’ll have until 15th January 2025 to notify Asia Miles if you do not receive the expected bonus miles. That’s quite a short window since the bonus might only have come through a couple of weeks before that (by 31st December 2024).

From 16th January 2025 onwards it’s unfortunately too late to claim any missing bonus, so be sure to check and plan a chase-up with Asia Miles if required.

Transfer time

Aside from registering your Asia Miles account for the 15% promotional transfer bonus, it’s important to consider the lead time for your bank to miles transfer.

Eligible Transactions should be credited and recorded in the member’s statement by 31 October 2024 to be eligible for the Promotional Offer

Cathay

Many banks will quote 5-10 working days (i.e. up to two weeks) to complete this process, but in reality most are much quicker. While we have more experience with KrisFlyer transfers, we have the following data points for Asia Miles transfers we have made, or our readers have shared:

• BOC SG: 6 weeks (why bother?)
• Citi SG: 2 working days
• DBS SG: 4 working days
• UOB SG: 3 working days

Our recommendation is to initiate any transfers by Thursday 24th October 2024 to allow five clear working days before the end of the promotion.

If you prefer to err on the safe side (and sleep better at night!), do it by Thursday 17th October 2024, to allow an additional week.

Asia Miles post-devaluation

As we mentioned earlier in the article, the Asia Miles programme unfortunately suffered a post-COVID devaluation, which came with plenty of notice but took effect for redemptions made from 1st October 2023.

While some shorter award trips did not change in price, and in Economy Class there were actually some reductions in miles needed, the devaluation had the effect of increasing prices on award tickets in the more attractive distance bands in premium cabins by 8-29%, as shown below.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles redemption changes
October 2023
(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	18 20 (+11%)	25 28 (+12%)	40 43 (+8%)
751 – 2,750 (Type 2)	10 12.5 (+25%)	18 23 (+28%)	25 32 (+28%)	40 50 (+25%)
2,751 – 5,000	22 20 (-9%)	30 38 (+27%)	45 58 (+29%)	70 90 (+29%)
5,001 – 7,500 (Type 1)	30 27 (-10%)	40 50 (+25%)	65 84 (+29%)	100 125 (+25%)
5,001 – 7,500 (Type 2)	30 27 (-10%)	45 50 (+25%)	70 84 (+20%)	110 125 (+14%)
7,501+	42 38 (-10%)	60 75 (+25%)	85 110 (+29%)	125 160 (+28%)

Some popular redemptions among our readers took quite a hit, 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 now only costs you 27,000 Asia Miles, a 10% saving.

Award pricing for partner bookings, including on Oneworld carriers, suffered a 3-28% increase in Business Class, with no awards reducing in price even in Economy Class, as shown below.

Asia Miles Partner redemption changes
October 2023
(one-way miles x 1,000)

Distance in miles	Eco	PY	Biz	First
1 – 750	10	14	20	n/a
751 – 2,750	15	22 25 (+14%)	30 33 (+10%)	n/a
2,751 – 5,000	27	43	61 63 (+3%)	87 100 (+15%)
5,001 – 7,500 (Type 1)	35 40 (+14%)	45 55 (+22%)	70 89 (+27%)	110 135 (+23%)
5,001 – 7,500 (Type 2)	40	50 55 (+10%)	75 89 (+19%)	120 135 (+13%)
7,501+	47	65 80 (+23%)	90 115 (+28%)	135 170 (+26%)

Note: There are some minor differences for Japan Airlines domestic and short-distance award flights

This impacted some great value awards, to varying degrees, like:

• Singapore to Perth in Business Class on Qantas
  30,000 miles to 33,000 miles (+10%)
• Bangkok to Helsinki in Business Class on Finnair
  61,000 miles to 63,000 miles (+3%, not bad)
• Singapore to London in Business Class on Qatar Airways
  70,000 miles to 89,000 miles (+27%)

Keeping your Asia Miles balance from expiring is easy

Since 1st January 2020, any Asia Miles credited to your account will no longer expire provided you earn or redeem at least one mile every 18 months.

Transferring miles during this promotion, for example, will recharge your entire balance (assuming it was all deposited after 1 Jan 2020) for 18 months.

Even if you are not a regular user of the programme and end up approaching the expiry point, it’s relatively easy to refresh your balance for an additional 18 months, with methods including:

• Book a flight redemption
• Credit a paid Cathay Pacific, oneworld or partner flight to Asia Miles
• Top up your balance by transferring credit card points into Asia Miles
• Earn through a hotel booking portal like Kaligo or Rocketmiles
• Transfer NTUC LinkPoints to or from Asia Miles (it’s back)
• Transfer Esso Smiles Points into Asia Miles
• Contributing 100 Asia Miles (or more if you prefer) to Cathay’s Fly Greener carbon offset programme
• Make a purchase via the Asia Miles iShop (Singapore merchants include Zalora, Decathlon and Far East Flora)*

* Be careful: Miles from iShop purchases take up to 5 months to credit to your Asia Miles account.

Given the much better activity-based expiry policy, a transfer to Asia Miles could be considered a slightly safer option than a KrisFlyer transfer, since you won’t run the risk of your miles expiring in three years (like they do in KrisFlyer), provided you interact with the programme once in a while.

Asia Miles: Other things to know

Here are some other basics of the Asia Miles programme it’s worth knowing before you commit to a significant points transfer.

• You can change the date of your Asia Miles award booking for US$25 per person per sector (online) or US$40 per person per sector (over the phone).
• You can change the destination of your Asia Miles award booking for US$100 per person per ticket.
• You can cancel your Asia Miles award booking and have your miles redeposited and taxes / fees refunded for US$120 per person per ticket.

You may lose flexibility

Transfers from bank points to miles are strictly one-way, so by taking advantage of this bonus you will be restricting yourself to the Asia Miles programme for future redemptions using the miles transferred under this offer.

That might be enough to put you off, with Cathay Pacific’s post-COVID schedule and award space still lagging behind many other carriers.

If you’re a Citi customer for example, with a large volume of Citi Miles or ThankYou Points, you can transfer those into 10 different frequent flyer programmes, with options across all three major alliances plus Etihad Guest, which has a good ‘mini-alliance’ of its own.

Here’s the latest list of loyalty programmes you can transfer your Singapore credit card points into, as of 19th September 2024.

By transferring a large volume of your points into Asia Miles, you may also be exposing yourself to any potential future devaluations in the programme before you get chance to use them.

Keeping your miles at the bank side, especially with Citi, protects you against this since you can then opt to transfer into a range of other programmes instead if you wish (on the theory they won’t all devalue at the same time!).

Terms and conditions

You can view full details about this promotion including a list of terms and conditions on this page of the Cathay site.

Cathay is offering a 15% transfer bonus to Asia Miles from credit card points between now and 31st October 2024, but as usual you must register to receive the bonus (whether you’ll take advantage or not, there’s no harm in registering anyway).

Also be sure to factor in the variable transfer times from credit card providers to make sure you don’t miss out.

We recommend initiating any transfer no later than Thursday 24th October 2024, to allow five clear working days for the miles to credit into your account before the deadline.

  Asia Miles 15% Bonus Registration

Unfortunately with the Asia Miles October 2023 devaluation there are limited “sweet spots” left in the programme, though some great value awards like Bangkok to Helsinki on Finnair in Business Class still come in at a competitive 63,000 miles, with minimal taxes.

Remember that you will be waiting up to two months after the end of the promotion to have the bonus miles credited to your account. That’s something to bear in mind if you’re planning to make a transfer with the intention of locking in a specific Asia Miles award in the near future.

(Cover Image: Cathay Pacific)