Cathay Devalues Asia Miles Award Charts

Cathay will increase the number of Asia Miles needed to redeem for most award flights on Cathay Pacific and its partner airlines on 1 October 2023.

Most award tickets in Premium Economy, Business and First Class will become more expensive. The increases are particularly significant for long-haul redemptions, such as between Australia and Europe or North America. But some long-haul Economy awards will become a bit cheaper.

Overall, this is clearly a devaluation from Cathay. But the loyalty program is doing its best to try to sell this as a positive change. On the page of the Cathay Pacific website outlining these changes, Cathay gives the following reason for increasing the price of redemption tickets:

We strive to provide a better Cathay Membership Programme to our members and to continue to increase seat availability, we do review our programme on a periodic basis.

And in answer to the Frequently Asked Question “Are you devaluing Asia Miles?”, Cathay says:

We are confident that the changes will deliver more value to our members. This will ensure that we are able to provide more redemption options to our members, so they can redeem their seats on their preferred flights. 

If this change does indeed result in Cathay Pacific releasing more award availability on its flights, that could be a good thing. The Hong Kong-based airline hasn’t been releasing many premium cabin award seats lately. Unfortunately, those award seats will soon also cost more.

Many Australians use the Cathay frequent flyer program because they can get good value when redeeming Asia Miles at the current rates.

Cathay is also the only frequent flyer program of a Oneworld airline to partner with most of Australia’s major credit card rewards programs. (Australians can earn Qantas points through credit card spend. But this is generally only possible with a Qantas co-brand credit card, not by transferring points from a credit card reward program. There is an exception for American Express Platinum cardholders.)

These changes somewhat resemble the Qantas Frequent Flyer devaluation of 2019. At that time, Qantas increased Classic Flight Reward pricing for premium cabin seats but reduced long-haul Economy redemption rates. This pricing seems to better reflect the outsized value received – and much higher demand – for premium cabin redemptions.

So, what exactly is Cathay changing? Here’s a full breakdown of the 2023 Cathay Asia Miles devaluation…

The new Cathay award charts

From 1 October 2023, Cathay will introduce new award charts for Asia Miles standard awards, upgrade awards and companion awards (for travel on Cathay Pacific), as well as Oneworld multi-carrier awards.

You can view the current award charts here, and compare them to the new award charts here.

To summarise, the main changes are as follows:

• The “Short” zone (for flights between 751-2,750 miles) will be split into two zones called “Short – Type 1” and “Short – Type 2”, with different pricing depending on the origin/destination
• The “Long – Type 1” and “Long – Type 2” zones (for flights between 5,001-7,500 miles) will be combined into a single “Long” zone
• Long-haul Economy awards on Cathay Pacific will become slightly cheaper
• Most Premium Economy, Business and First awards become more expensive (especially ultra-long trips over 7,500 miles)
• There are similar price increases applicable to Cathay Pacific upgrade awards

There are no changes to the “Ultra-short” zone pricing for flights under 750 miles in the 2023 Cathay devaluation.

As an example, a one-way Cathay Pacific Premium Economy award ticket from Sydney to Hong Kong will soon increase from 30,000 Asia miles to 38,000 Asia Miles (plus taxes). A one-way Business Class award on the same route will increase in cost from 45,000 to 58,000 Asia miles (plus taxes).

In another example, a one-way Business Class award from Melbourne to London (via Hong Kong) currently costs 85,000 Asia Miles (plus taxes). This will soon become 110,000 Asia Miles (plus taxes). But the same trip in Economy Class will soon cost 38,000 instead of 42,000 Asia Miles (plus taxes).

Admittedly, the new rates are still a good deal compared to the number of points charged by Qantas Frequent Flyer and other similar frequent flyer programs. But British Airways Executive Club and Qatar Airways Privilege Club will soon have the edge with their one-way Business Class awards from Australia to Europe for 90,000 Avios (plus taxes & carrier charges).

Oneworld multi-carrier award changes

All redemptions on the Oneworld multi-carrier award chart are also becoming more expensive. For example, the cost of a Zone 12 award (25,001-35,000 miles flown, which is enough for a round-the-world trip) will change from:

• 130,000 to 140,000 Asia Miles for Economy Class
• 210,000 to 265,000 Asia Miles for Business Class
• 300,000 to 365,000 Asia Miles for First Class

Cathay’s Oneworld multi-carrier award is similar to Qantas Frequent Flyer’s Oneworld Classic Flight Reward. You can use it to travel on a mix of Oneworld airlines on a multi-city itinerary.

Changes to partner airline award pricing

Cathay will also make changes to award flight pricing on partner airlines.

Unfortunately, Cathay no longer publishes a partner airline award chart. We don’t yet know exactly what the new prices will be from October. So far, we just know that some will increase and others may decrease.

We expect the new partner award rates to be slightly above the rates charged for redemptions on Cathay Pacific flights.

Book by 30 September 2023 to lock in the current prices

The good news is that you can still redeem Cathay Asia Miles at the current rates until 30 September 2023. You’ll just need to make sure that Cathay Pacific tickets your booking by this date.

If you book by 30 September 2023 but change the date of your flight on or after 1 October 2023, you won’t need to pay any additional miles.

But if you change your routing or type of award ticket after 1 October 2023, you would need to pay any difference in miles between the old and new rate.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.