Struggling to find reward seat availability in Business Class to Asia, Europe or North America on Oneworld airlines? Cathay Pacific may be the answer… if you have Asia Miles.

Over recent years, Cathay Pacific has started reserving a lot of Business and First Class award seats on its long-haul routes for its own Cathay members.

Gone are the days when you could easily lock in Cathay Pacific Business Class flights up to a year in advance from Australia to Europe using Qantas points. But if you have access to Asia Miles, the currency of the Cathay loyalty program, you could book as many as six Business Class award seats on the same flights out of Australia.

Cathay Pacific does still release some reward seats to book through partner airlines. For example, you can still redeem Qantas points to book Economy and Premium Economy Classic Reward seats on Cathay Pacific flights up to a year in advance. You may also be able to find Cathay Pacific Business availability through Qantas Frequent Flyer on short-haul routes within Asia, or on long-haul routes when booking closer to departure.

But Cathay Pacific no longer releases the vast majority of long-haul Business and First Class reward seats to partner airlines until a few months out from departure. If you want to book further in advance, you’ll find it much easier if you have Asia Miles!

Great Cathay Pacific award availability with Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific flies from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Hong Kong. Beyond its Hong Kong hub, it offers onward connections to cities across Asia, Europe and North America, as well as to Dubai, Johannesburg and (from October) Riyadh.

Booking with Cathay Asia Miles, we’ve recently found lots of award availability on all routes between Australia and Hong Kong. There’s also plenty of onward availability to European cities such as London, Manchester, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Zurich, Madrid and Barcelona.

For example, you could fly your entire family with Asia Miles from Brisbane to London in Cathay Pacific Business Class. We’ve found availability for up to six passengers on many dates, which is the maximum number of people you can have on a single Asia Miles award booking.

Cathay Pacific has a very good lie-flat Business Class product. When flying through Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific Business Class, you can also get access to Cathay’s excellent lounges including The Deck, The Pier and The Wing, as well as the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge.

Cathay award flight pricing

Cathay’s flight awards charts are very competitive. A Cathay Pacific Business Class ticket from anywhere in Australia to Hong Kong would cost 58,000 Asia Miles one-way, plus taxes. Flying all the way from Australia to Europe or North America in Business would cost 110,000 Asia Miles one-way, plus taxes.

For example, it would cost 660,000 Asia Miles + HKD16,410 (~AU$3,169) for six Cathay Pacific Business Class seats from Sydney to Paris via Hong Kong.

Although Cathay Pacific doesn’t offer First Class from Australia, you can also book First Class on some routes between Hong Kong and Europe or the United States using Asia Miles. It would cost 125,000 Asia Miles + HKD1,278 (~AU$247) for a First Class ticket from Hong Kong to London.

Booking on the Cathay Pacific website

You can book award flights using Asia Miles on the Cathay Pacific website.

This website even has a handy calendar that shows the chances of finding award availability on each date when searching for point-to-point flights within the next 180 days. This calendar appears when you select the date for your flight award booking. It doesn’t work for flights beyond 180 days out or connecting itineraries, but that doesn’t mean there are no seats.

How to get Asia Miles in Australia

As Cathay Pacific is part of the Oneworld alliance, you can of course earn Cathay Asia Miles by flying on Oneworld airlines. As well as Cathay Pacific, these include Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, American Airlines and British Airways.

But the easiest way to earn lots of Asia Miles in Australia is with credit cards. Fortunately, you can transfer points to Cathay from seven Australian credit card rewards programs:

The top-earning cards in Australia for Asia Miles are the American Express Platinum and American Express Explorer cards. These earn the equivalent of 1.1.25 and 1 Asia Miles per dollar respectively, with no points capping. ANZ Rewards Black earns the equivalent of up to 0.67 Asia Miles per $1 spent.

If you’d like a quick points boost, the Citi Prestige card currently has a sign-up bonus offer of 275,000 Citi Rewards points, worth 110,000 Asia Miles.

Until 25 June 2024, the American Express Platinum Business card even has a sign-up bonus available of 350,000 Amex Membership Rewards points, worth 175,000 Asia Miles. That’s more than enough for a round-trip Cathay Pacific Premium Economy flight from Australia to Europe.

See our guide to Australia’s best credit cards for earning Asia Miles for more information.

Cathay is not alone in reserving seats for its own frequent flyers

Cathay Pacific is by no means the only airline to reserve extra reward seats for its own frequent flyers. Even just within the Oneworld alliance, British Airways, Finnair, Qatar Airways and Qantas all do this.

British Airways even publicises the fact that they reserve at least 4 Business, 2 Premium Economy and 8 Economy seats per flight exclusively for Executive Club members.

If you’re earning points through credit cards, this is another good reason to collect points with a flexible points program. That way, you can transfer your points to a choice of different frequent flyer programs as needed, rather than being stuck with just one type of points. It’s a good “insurance” policy.

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Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & 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.