For the second time in less than two years, Cathay updated its award flight pricing on 15 April 2025. These changes were relatively minor, but what’s more concerning is that Cathay Pacific’s frequent flyer program removed most award charts from its website in the process.
Without publicly-available award charts or any sort of calculator, it’s much harder 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!
Contents
Why Cathay is a useful program
Cathay 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. There are also solid opportunities to earn Asia Miles with Australian credit cards, making Cathay a very useful program for Australians.
Great Credit Cards for Earning Cathay Asia Miles
- Card Name
- American Express Explorer Credit Card
- Earn
- 2
- Signup Bonus
-
75,000 bonus Membership Rewards Points¹
Apply by 1st Jul 2025
- Annual Fee
- $395 p.a.
- Read more
- View Offer
on everyday purchases
- Card Name
- American Express Platinum Card
- Earn
- 2.25
- Signup Bonus
-
150,000 bonus Membership Rewards points¹
Apply by 6th May 2025
- Annual Fee
- $1,450 p.a.
- Read more
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on everyday purchases
Crucially, Cathay Pacific makes more award seats available to its own members. In fact, you can often find Cathay Pacific Business Class award seats on flights out of Australia when booking through the Cathay program.
In general, Cathay is reasonably priced for awards. 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 used for round-the-world itineraries.
The unofficial Cathay Pacific award chart
Cathay Pacific uses a distance-based chart 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 April 2025, you’ll need the following amounts of Asia Miles for one-way flights solely on Cathay Pacific:
| Miles Flown | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–750 (Ultra-short) | 7,000 | 11,000 | 16,000 | N/A |
| 751–2,750 (Short type 1) | 9,000 | 20,000 | 28,000 | 43,000 |
| 751–2,750 (Short type 2) | 13,000 | 23,000 | 32,000 | 50,000 |
| 2,751–5,000 (Medium) | 20,000 | 38,000 | 58,000 | 90,000 |
| 5,001–7,500 (Long) | 27,000 | 50,000 | 88,000 | 125,000 |
| 7,501+ (Ultra long) | 38,000 | 75,000 | 115,000 | 160,000 |
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, while you can fly from Australia all the way to Europe or the United States in Cathay Pacific Premium Economy for just 75,000 Asia Miles.
What changed on 15 April 2025?
The changes that went into effect on 15 April 2025 are as follows:
- Ultra-short flights (up to 750 miles) in Economy are now 7,000 Asia miles (down from 7,500)
- Short type 1 flights (to certain destinations between 751 and 2,750 miles from Hong Kong) in Economy are now 9,000 miles (down from 10,000)
- Short type 2 flights (to certain destinations between 751 and 2,750 miles from Hong Kong) in Economy are now 13,000 miles (up from 12,500)
- Long flights (between 5,001 and 7,500 miles) in Business Class are now 88,000 miles (up from 84,000)
- Ultra-long flights (above 7,501 miles) in Business Class are now 115,000 miles (up from 110,000)
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 April 2025:
| Miles Flown | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–750 (Ultra-short) | 10,000 | 14,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 |
| 751–2,750 (Short type 1) | 15,000 | 25,000 | 33,000 | 53,000 |
| 751–2,750 (Short type 2) | 17,500 | 28,000 | 37,000 | 60,000 |
| 2,751–5,000 (Medium) | 27,000 | 43,000 | 63,000 | 100,000 |
| 5,001–7,500 (Long) | 40,000 | 55,000 | 89,000 | 135,000 |
| 7,501+ (Ultra long) | 47,000 | 80,000 | 115,000 | 170,000 |
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. A curious exception is Business Class flights over 7,500 miles long, which are the exact same price as flying Cathay Pacific.
Despite the recent changes, Cathay award pricing is still relatively competitive compared to other Oneworld programs, especially in light of the coming devaluation to Qantas award charts.
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:
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