[ANALYSIS] Asia Miles

You can earn Asia Miles by flying on any of the Oneworld alliance flights. But for the most part, Asia Miles is associated the Cathay Pacific airline.

The reason why Asia Miles can be valuable for Canadians is because you can use these points to fly on any Oneworld alliance member flights. Whenever you fly on a paid ticket with a partner airline, quote your Asia Miles membership number on your reservation. Points are earned as follows:

• First Class = 150% x actual miles flown
• Business Class = 125% x actual miles flown
• Premium Economy Class = 110% x actual miles flown
• Economy Class = 100%, 50% or 25% x actual miles flown (depending on which type of ticket you bought)

For example, if you flew on a round-trip between Hong Kong and Toronto on Cathay Pacific, you would earn the following number of points:

• First Class = 23,388
• Business Class = 19,490
• Premium Economy Class = 17,152
• Economy Class 100% = 15,592
• Economy Class 25% = 3,898

Quite the difference depending on which type of flight ticket you bought.

As a Canadian, you can rack up your Asia Miles “in a hurry” through several avenues:

1) If you have American Express Membership Rewards point, you can transfer a minimum of 1,000 Membership Rewards Points for 750 Asia Miles, and increments of 100 thereafter.

2) Earn a 10,000 sign up bonus with the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum. You will also earn 1 point for every $2 spent on Cathay Pacific plane tickets purchases on their website and 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases , (though this card comes with a $150 annual fee).

3) You can transfer Starwood Preferred Guest points at a 1:1 ratio.

The reason I mentioned “in a hurry” is because Asia Miles expire 36 months after the day it was deposited into your account. So you will need to use your points within 36 months of when you earned them. That could be a major pain if you cannot accumulate points quickly enough.

That being said, I find Asia Miles very useful because they are a member of the Oneworld alliance, so the points are very flexible if you make a lot of international trips. If you have a way to take advantage of this program, you can potential get a lot of value out of your points.

Message to Asia Miles: You need to get with the times. I suggest having an 18 months expiry policy if accounts are inactive, but points never expiring so long as the account remains active.