Last year OCBC added eight new frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programme partners to its previous single offering for those converting points from its credit cards in Singapore, fulfilling a long-awaited promise to improve transfer options for its customers in late 2022.
Among the new entrants was the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles programme, though unfortunately your points don’t credit across to miles there at the same ratio from your OCBC account as they would into the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer programme.
Instead, OCBC expects its customers to take a 25% haircut on transfers into Asia Miles, compared to a KrisFlyer transfer, something very few would be willing to do while points from all other banks in Singapore convert into Asia Miles at exactly the same rate as they do to KrisFlyer!
OCBC to Asia Miles 35% bonus
OCBC has rolled out a bonus promotion for transfers into Asia Miles between now and the end of 2024, which effectively removes this inconsistency, temporarily bringing the transfer ratio in line with a KrisFlyer conversion.
This isn’t the first OCBC bonus offer since additional partners were added, with recent promotions including:
- a 20% bonus for Flying Blue conversions
- a 50% bonus for IHG One conversions
- a 15% bonus for Asia Miles conversions (capped at 2,500 bonus miles)
- a 15% bonus for BA Avios conversions
Between 1st November 2024 and 31st December 2024, those holding the following OCBC credit cards can transfer into the Cathay Asia Miles programme with a 35% bonus:
- OCBC Titanium Rewards Credit Card
- OCBC Rewards Credit Card
- OCBC 90°N Card
- OCBC Voyage Card
- OCBC Premier Voyage / Premier Private Client Voyage Card
- Bank of Singapore Voyage Card
Don’t get too excited though.
Under this offer, transferring a rewards quantity from OCBC that would give you 10,000 KrisFlyer miles will now give you 10,130 Asia Miles points, instead of the usual 7,500.
That effectively just “repairs the damage” of the original lousy conversion rate (plus a little bit extra).
You will need to meet the usual minimum transfer volume to Asia Miles of either 1,000 Voyage Miles, 1,000 90N Miles or 10,000 OCBC$ in order to be eligible.
For example, a transfer of 1,000 Voyage Miles during this promotion will see you receive 1,013 Asia Miles in your account once the transfer has been completed and the bonus element has credited, instead of the usual 750 points.
(Photo: Finnair)
The bonus Asia Miles may be reflected as a separate transaction to the originally-transferred points in your Cathay account.
Nonetheless, bonus Asia Miles will be credited at the same time as the base points, which should take only one business day.
A S$25 transfer fee applies for each conversion from OCBC to the Asia Miles programme, so you’ll probably want to be transferring a decent amount to make it worthwhile.
Rather obviously, you must be enrolled in the Cathay programme in order to transfer your OCBC points across and participate in this promotion. If you’re not a member yet, you can join for free here.
Asia Miles never expire provided you earn or redeem at least one point every 18 months. A transfer from OCBC to Asia Miles counts as earning activity.
Full terms and conditions for this transfer bonus are available here.
Is it worth it?
Given that this deal is only really giving you the opportunity to transfer credit card points to Asia Miles at the regular rate when compared to the ‘proper’ full transfer rate to KrisFlyer, it’s not likely to be something you feel that you must jump on.
Let’s say you have sufficient points on your OCBC credit card to transfer them into 10,000 KrisFlyer miles, which would be 10,000 90°N Miles / Voyage Miles, or 25,000 OCBC$.
Here’s what you’ll get instead with an identical transfer into the bank’s alternative partner programmes, including to Asia Miles during this promotion.
| Longstanding Option | Miles or Points |
 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer |
10,000 |
| New Partner Programmes | Miles or Points |
 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles |
10,130 (till 31 Dec ’24) |
 Air France-KLM Flying Blue |
10,000 |
 IHG One Rewards |
10,000 |
 Marriott Bonvoy |
10,000 |
 British Airways Executive Club |
9,000 |
 Etihad Guest |
9,000 |
 United MileagePlus |
7,000 |
 Accor Live Limitless |
5,000 |
As you can see, the promotion has made the Cathay transfer option good, but not exactly compelling – it’s now the same as KrisFlyer or Flying Blue.
However, if you don’t have any points in other banks in Singapore, this is an opportunity to transfer from OCBC into Asia Miles at a good rate for once, which you might well consider if one of the programme’s redemption ‘sweet spots’ is on your radar.
These include:
- Cathay Pacific Singapore to Hong Kong for 28,000 miles in Business Class (including a Oneworld ‘lounge safari’ at Changi).
- Qantas Singapore to Perth for 33,000 miles in Business Class.
- Finnair Bangkok or Phuket to Helsinki for 63,000 miles in Business Class.
- Finnair Singapore to a range of European destinations via Helsinki for 89,000 miles in Business Class.
20% bonus for 100,000 miles+ transfers
OCBC is also offering a further 20% bonus for single transfers into 100,000+ Asia Miles from its eligible cards between 1st November 2024 and 31st December 2024.
For example:
- 100,000 90N° / Voyage Miles > 121,560 Asia Miles
- 250,000 OCBC$ > 121,560 Asia Miles
This takes advantage of the 35% initial bonus, plus a further 20% bonus on top.
These bonus miles will also reflect in your Asia Miles account together with the original transfer, or within one business day as a separate transaction in some cases.
For those with a large stash of points in the OCBC programme, this could be of some interest, especially since the Asia Miles 15% transfer bonus from credit card points just ended yesterday.
Summary
OCBC is offering a 35% bonus on transfers from its credit card points to the Cathay Asia Miles programme.
The problem is, OCBC transfers to Asia Miles already came at a 25% disadvantage compared to other options like KrisFlyer, and so this bonus is actually only brining the conversion ratio up to what it should always be anyway – identical to KrisFlyer.
With other cards on the market in Singapore transferring to Asia Miles at an identical rate to KrisFlyer, this effectively just brings OCBC ‘on par’ with them for a few weeks.
Nonetheless, there’s a further 20% bonus available for those making a single transfer equivalent to 100,000 Asia Miles or more during this promotion, which might be of interest to those with a large points balance.
(Cover Photo: Cathay Pacific)