Cathay’s New Asia Miles Award Charts in 2026

Cathay updated its award flight pricing in May 2026. This was the third time Cathay Pacific has done this in less than three years, following previous price increases in April 2025 and October 2023.

Although Cathay gave notice that it would change award flight pricing, it did not reveal what the most recent changes would be until they had already come into effect on 1 May 2026. In fact, there still isn’t an easy way to find out how many Asia Miles you’ll need for an award flight on Cathay Pacific or its partner airlines, since Cathay Pacific removed most award charts from its website last year.

Luckily, the most recent changes were fairly minor. The changes affect selected Premium Economy and Business Class awards, and most of the prices have increased by 1,000-4,000 Asia Miles (one-way). There were also a few small price reductions. But when you consider that this is the third time since 2023 that Cathay has increased award prices, and that Cathay Pacific has recently raised its fuel surcharges, the changes are a bit less palatable.

Without publicly-available award charts or any sort of calculator, it’s not easy to determine exactly how many Asia Miles you would need to book a reward ticket. So, we’ve put together our own unofficial Asia Miles award charts, for travel on both Cathay Pacific and partner airlines.

Why Cathay is still a useful program

Cathay’s Asia Miles can be valuable if you want to fly to Asia, the Americas or Europe, either on Cathay Pacific or partners including Oneworld airlines.

A big reason for this is that Cathay Pacific makes more award seats available to its own members. In fact, you can often find Cathay Pacific Premium Economy and Business Class award seats on flights out of Australia, when booking through the Cathay program. These seats aren’t always available to book through other programs, such as Qantas Frequent Flyer.

And even after the recent changes, Cathay’s award pricing is still very reasonable. Long-haul Cathay Pacific itineraries, such as to Europe or the United States from Australia, can be especially good value.

You can also use Asia Miles for award flights on Oneworld airlines. The Asia Miles Oneworld multi-carrier award can be particularly useful for simple round-the-world itineraries.

There are solid opportunities to earn Asia Miles with Australian credit cards, making Cathay a very useful program overall for Australians.

The unofficial Cathay Pacific award chart

Cathay Pacific uses distance-based zones for pricing award flights, with six separate zones. Flights between 751 and 2,751 miles cost slightly different amounts, depending on the destination.

As of May 2026, you’ll need the following amounts of Asia Miles for one-way flights solely on Cathay Pacific:

The “short type 1” band covers flights to destinations closer to Hong Kong such as Bangkok, Singapore, Shanghai or Seoul. The “short type 2” band is for destinations further away in Asia, such as Colombo, Mumbai, Tokyo or Jakarta.

The medium band covers flights from Australia to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, you can fly from Australia all the way to Europe or the United States in Cathay Pacific Premium Economy for just 78,000 Asia Miles.

What changed in May 2026?

The changes that went into effect on 1 May 2026 are as follows:

• Short type 1 flights (to certain destinations between 751 and 2,750 miles from Hong Kong) in Premium Economy are now 18,000 Asia Miles (down from 20,000) or 27,000 Asia Miles in Business (down from 28,000)
• Short type 2 flights (to certain destinations between 751 and 2,750 miles from Hong Kong) in Business are now 33,000 miles (up from 32,000)
• Medium flights (between 2,751 and 5,000 miles) in Premium Economy now cost 39,000 Asia Miles (up from 38,000) and 60,000 Asia Miles in Business (up from 58,000)
• Long flights (between 5,001 and 7,500 miles) in Premium Economy are now 52,000 Asia Miles (up from 50,000) and in Business Class are now 91,000 Asia Miles (up from 88,000)
• Ultra-long flights (above 7,501 miles) in Premium Economy are now 78,000 Asia Miles (up from 75,000) and in Business Class are now 119,000 miles (up from 115,000)

The unofficial Cathay partner airline award chart

Cathay hasn’t published a partner airline award chart for some time – so we’ve put together our own.

These are the amounts of Asia Miles you’ll need for one-way journeys on partner airlines, as of May 2025:

The “short type 2” band mostly covers flights on partner airlines to/from the same destinations that are considered “type 2” on the Cathay Pacific chart. So if you’re flying on Sri Lankan Airlines in Economy from Colombo, for example, and your flight is between 751 and 2,750 miles, you’ll pay 17,500 miles. But a Qantas flight from Sydney to Perth falls under the “Short type 1” band, thus is 15,000 miles in Economy.

In general, these amounts are slightly higher than you could expect to pay when redeeming Asia Miles for equivalent flights operated by Cathay Pacific.

What changed in May 2026?

On 1 May 2026, Cathay increased the cost of Business Class flights on partner airlines:

• From 89,000 to 93,000 Asia Miles on long routes, and
• From 115,000 to 120,000 Asia Miles on ultra-long routes.

Cathay’s Oneworld multi-carrier award chart

The partner airline award chart shown above is for flights on a single partner airline, or if the itinerary includes one partner airline + Cathay Pacific.

You can’t combine more than one partner airline on a Cathay award ticket, unless you use the Oneworld multi-carrier award.

Cathay still publishes an award chart for this award type on its website. But since it has form in removing award charts from its website without notice, here’s a screenshot of this chart for longevity:

Cathay did not make any changes to its Oneworld multi-carrier award chart as part of the May 2026 changes.