Cathay Pacific is an airline many people enjoy flying, and its mileage program is called Asia Miles (known in Chinese as 亚洲万里通, often abbreviated as 亚万). Similar to the relationship between Aeroplan and Air Canada, Asia Miles and Cathay Pacific are two separately operated companies. Since Cathay Pacific is a member of oneworld, flights on oneworld partners such as American Airlines (AA), British Airways (BA), and Japan Airlines (JL) can all earn Asia Miles, and Asia Miles can in turn be used to redeem flights on those airlines as well. In addition to oneworld partners, Asia Miles also has other partners, including the very familiar Air China (CA), China Eastern (MU), Alaska Airlines (AS), Qantas (QF), and some less familiar but still very useful partners like Bangkok Airways (PG) and Aer Lingus (EI).
Because Asia Miles imposes fuel surcharges, the naive OneMoreDay of years past basically ignored this mileage program. But after looking into it recently, I found that it actually has quite a few sweet spots, so let me go through them one by one. 
Asia Miles signup link: https://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/about/join?WAright=JoinNow
Here is the award calculator for figuring out how many Asia Miles you need (it only calculates round-trip and one-way itineraries).
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Earning miles
Asia Miles is also fairly easy to earn, because its transfer partners include AMEX MR, Citi TYP, and Starpoints:
- AMEX Membership Rewards (MR), 1,000 MR = 1,000 Asia Miles.
- Citi ThankYou Points (TYP), 1,000 TYP = 1,000 Asia Miles.
- SPG points (Starpoints), 20,000 SPG = 25,000 Asia Miles, equivalent to 1 SPG = 1.25 Asia Miles.
Award charts
The Asia Miles award chart is split into two types. The first chart applies to redemptions on a single partner, or a single partner plus Cathay Pacific/Dragonair:
- You can only redeem a single partner, or a single partner plus Cathay Pacific/Dragonair. For example, you can book a purely AA itinerary, or AA + Cathay Pacific, but the chart above does not apply to something like AA + Japan Airlines. However, Air China, S7, and Jet Airways cannot be combined with Cathay Pacific/Dragonair on one ticket.
- The miles required depend on the total flight distance. For example, for an AA economy ticket from New York–Chicago–Los Angeles, the one-way distance is 2478 miles, so the required mileage is 20,000 Asia Miles one way, or 30,000 Asia Miles round-trip.
- The mileage required for a one-way is not half of the round-trip price, so OneMoreDay recommends booking round-trips when possible for better value. Finnair (AY), Japan Airlines (JL), Iberia (IB), Royal Jordanian (RJ), and LAN (LA) can only be redeemed as round-trips, not one-ways.
- If the outbound and return use different routings, the longer one is used to calculate the mileage. In other words, if you redeem a round-trip like New York–Chicago–Los Angeles outbound and Dallas–New York return, and Los Angeles–Dallas–New York is longer (2624 miles), then the pricing will be based on 2624 miles, so this round-trip economy ticket would require 45,000 Asia Miles.
- One-way awards can include one stopover; round-trips can have two stopovers and one open jaw, with a maximum of two transfers total (one in each direction). Awards on Air China or Iberia cannot include stopovers or open jaws. If the open jaw is at the origin, you must return to the same country as your departure city.
- Air New Zealand (NZ) can only be redeemed on Hong Kong–Auckland flights (so if you want to go to Tahiti or Fiji, no luck).
- You cannot redeem Alaska Airlines business class, and you also cannot redeem Alaska round-trip tickets to Mexico under 1200 miles. (What a bizarre restriction.)
The second chart applies to itineraries mixing two oneworld partners, or 3P three oneworld partners (one of which must be Cathay Pacific/Dragonair):
- You can have 5 stopovers, 2 open jaws, and 2 transfers.
- All airlines involved must be oneworld partners.
Fuel surcharges
Let’s first look at which routes do not incur fuel surcharges, or have only low surcharges with Asia Miles:
Cathay Pacific/Dragonair-operated flights, AA domestic U.S. flights, Aer Lingus (EI), TAM (Brazil), airberlin (AB), LAN (LA), Air China (CA) and China Eastern (MU) domestic China flights, Alaska Airlines (AS), and Air New Zealand (NZ). There are also airlines like S7 and some others that most of us probably would not fly regularly, so I won’t go into those.
Even though Asia Miles charges these awful fuel surcharges and comes with a bunch of messy and quirky restrictions, it still has quite a few bright spots:
Sweet spot #1: short-haul Air China flights
15,000 Asia Miles can get you a round-trip Air China ticket within 600 miles, including routes like Shanghai–Okinawa, Shanghai–Fukuoka, Shanghai–Seoul, Shanghai–Taipei, Nanjing–Seoul, Beijing–Xi’an, and so on. These short round-trip flights that cross regions would require 30,000 UA miles or 20,000 AC miles, but with Asia Miles they cost only 15,000. Domestic short round-trips can also be a good deal. Air China’s hubs include Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and others, so people based in these cities can conveniently use Asia Miles to plan a short trip. So where can you get from Shanghai within 600 miles? The places inside the circle in the image below are the destinations you can reach for 15,000 Asia Miles:
Centered on Beijing, the areas within 600 miles are shown below:
You could even make a casual visit to pay respects to the Kim leadership. Although this costs somewhat more miles than the short-haul powerhouse BA, oneworld does not have any mainland China member airlines, so for redeeming on Air China, which has the broadest domestic coverage among Air China and China Eastern, Asia Miles is still pretty solid.
If you expand the range to within 1200 miles, the options increase significantly, such as Beijing–Guangzhou, Beijing–Shenzhen, Xi’an–Chengdu–Lhasa, Shanghai–Tokyo, Shanghai–Manila, Shanghai–Sanya, and so on. All of these price at 20,000 Asia Miles round-trip in economy.
Sweet spot #2: U.S.–China round-trips
If you prefer flying economy when going back to China, and your home base in China is a relatively major city, then Asia Miles can also be a good option. Round-trip flights with one-way distance under 7500 miles cost only 60,000, which is fewer than both AA and UA require.
If your base is Beijing or Shanghai, the table below shows the flight distances for AA nonstop flights between China and the U.S. (in miles):
| City | Dallas | Chicago | Los Angeles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beijing | 6971 | 6579 | N/A |
| Shanghai | 7351 | 7057 | 6485 |
All of these are within 7500 Miles. If you don’t live in one of these major cities, you may still be able to add a short positioning flight to one of them and keep the total flying distance within 7500 Miles. For example, suppose Xiaoming studies at Ohio State University and wants to return to Shanghai for summer break, connecting in Chicago on AA. The airport closest to OSU is CMH, and the one-way distance for CMH-ORD-PVG is 7353 MIles. Since the entire itinerary is on AA flights, a round-trip economy award would require only 60,000 Asia Miles, which is still a bit more generous than the 70,000 AA miles required.
If your Base is Hong Kong or Guangdong, you can simply redeem for Cathay Pacific flights directly. On the West Coast, both San Francisco-Hong Kong and Los Angeles-Hong Kong are under 7500 Miles one way. From the East Coast, however, the distance exceeds 7500 MIles, so the value is somewhat worse.
Another option between China and the U.S. is Japan Airlines. Japan Airlines serves Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco in North America, and Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou in mainland China. For instance, if you fly JAL from Chicago back to Dalian with a connection in Tokyo, gcmap.com shows the total flying distance as 7332 Miles:
That would cost 60,000 Asia Miles plus a few hundred dollars in fuel surcharges. Readers in other cities can also try gcmap.com to see whether their planned routing stays under 7500 Miles.
Of course, no discussion of U.S.-China round trips would be complete without our dear Air China. The redemption logic is similar: if your U.S. Base is a major city but you usually return to a second- or third-tier city in China, Asia Miles can also work well. For those on the U.S. East Coast, Air China can be especially helpful.
To sum up: for small U.S. cities to major Chinese cities, redeem AA; for major U.S. cities to smaller Chinese cities, redeem Air China; if your destination in China is in the north, consider Air China or JAL more often; if it’s in the south, try China Eastern or Cathay Pacific.
Sweet Spot 3: Round Trips from the U.S. East Coast to Europe
Let’s start with a simpler redemption example. Depart from New York for Dublin on Aer Lingus (if you’re not familiar with Aer Lingus, check out my introduction to British Airways miles), spend some time in Dublin, then head to Paris, continue from Paris to Prague, and after that fly Aer Lingus back to New York. The itinerary looks like this:
The one-way distance prices at 4086 Miles, so a round-trip economy award requires 45,000 miles, and business class requires 80,000. You can stop over in Dublin in both directions, and because Aer Lingus has low fuel surcharges, the out-of-pocket costs beyond the miles are not very high.
Now OneMoreDay will go over a slightly more complex redemption: using Asia Miles for a round-trip Air Berlin AB ticket between New York and Berlin. Since the one-way distance is 3968 Miles, according to the first chart, round-trip economy is 45,000 and business class is 80,000. But if I’m going to Europe, I can’t visit just one place, right? I also want to see Naples, Rome, Zurich, and more. So here’s an itinerary for you:
Start in New York, spend some time in Berlin, then head to Rome, take the train south to Naples to visit Pompeii and enjoy some of southern Italy’s oldest Pizza, then fly to Zurich to see the Alps, and finally connect in Dusseldorf on the way back to New York. Since the entire itinerary is operated by Air Berlin AB, it prices according to the first chart, so round-trip economy is still only 45,000, and business class is still just 80,000! On top of that, Asia Miles does not collect fuel surcharges on Air Berlin awards. We previously mentioned that Aeroplan can book round-trip business class between the U.S. and Europe for only 90,000 miles, which is already a great value, but this example shows that on certain routes, redeeming Asia Miles can actually be even cheaper.
How to Book
Many partner airlines can be booked directly on the Asia Miles website, including Cathay Pacific/Dragonair, British Airways BA, Qantas QF, Alaska Airlines AS, Finnair AY, Iberia IB, Qantas QF, and Qatar Airways QR. You can use this link: Cathay website booking link. The interface looks like this; just enter your departure city, date, and cabin class:
Awards on other partners cannot be booked on the website, so you can fill out a Request Form at the following URL:
https://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/redeem/flights/form
However, OneMoreDay recommends calling customer service directly to issue the ticket instead (after all, processing a Request Form takes time, and the seats may disappear in the meantime). The North America Asia Miles booking phone number is: 1-866-892-2598。
Discounted Award Redemptions
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Asia Miles occasionally offers award discounts. From now through January 31, redeeming Asia Miles for Cathay Pacific flights departing from or arriving in Hong Kong comes with a 20% discount. The promotion covers flights to 13 cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco on the U.S. West Coast, making it useful for those returning to China from the West Coast or for parents visiting from back home. It pairs especially well with the extra 30% bonus when transferring hotel points to Asia Miles. The origin can be Hong Kong or an overseas city. Here are some examples from the official site:
- Business class discount routes include round trips between Hong Kong and Bangalore, Chennai, Dhaka, Hyderabad, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Manchester, Paris, and Zurich.
- Premium economy discount routes include round trips between Hong Kong and Düsseldorf, Zurich, London, Manchester, Paris, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
- Economy discount routes include round trips between Hong Kong and all of the above cities except Paris.
- Redemption period: now through January 31.
- Travel period: 1/15-6/15 (Paris route), 1/15-6/15 (Asia routes), 2/1-6/15 (Düsseldorf and Zurich routes), 2/5-6/15 (London and Manchester routes), 2/13-3/31 (Los Angeles and San Francisco routes).
Here is an example pulled from the official site: a round trip from Los Angeles to Hong Kong costs 48000 Asia Miles + 1174 HKD in taxes and fees. If you live in another city, you can consider using Avios to redeem flights between your home city and Hong Kong.
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