Cathay Pacific Asia Miles major devaluation

[WilsonM]

https://flights.cathaypacific.com/en_HK/redeem-flights/flight-award-chart-new.html

Got a horrible email flying back from ZQN today - Cathay are "updating" (devaluing) their entire award chart.
Major changes:

Division of ‘Short’ zone into:

Type 1 – incl. Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore

Type 2 – incl. Japan, Indonesia, India and Nepal

'Long' distance zones merged together

Changes in award prices:

No award changes in Ultra Short
Flights to destinations in Short Type 1 increase by 2k in PE, 3k in J and 3k in F
Flights to destinations in Short Type 2 increase by 2.5k in Y, 5k in PE, 7k in J and 10k in F
Flights to destinations in Medium decrease by 2k in Y, increase by 8k in PE, 13k in J, 20k in F
Flights to destinations in Long Type 1 decrease by 3k in Y, increase by 10k in PE, 19k in J, 25k in F
Flights to destinations in Long Type 2 decrease by 3k in Y, increase by 5k in PE, 14k in J, 15k in F
Flights to destinations in Ultra-long decrease by 4k in Y, increase by 15k in PE, 25k in J, 35k in F

Up to 40% increase on J oneworld multi carrier awards, 27% increases in F.

The 35,000 mile award increased from 130k to 140k in Y, 210k to 265k in J and 300k to 365k in F.

Haven’t looked at any price changes for partner awards, but can’t imagine its good.

 

[clifford]

Doesn't sound too bad when you consider what's happening with other FF programs, eg UA.

It's the post-Covid greedflation approach. Everyone's doing it.

 

[ltwo]

they need to make the balance sheet look better somehow...

 

[levelnine]

Will be sad if they devalue partner awards. They were a cheaper way of booking many BA flights.

 

[SydneySwan]

Incorrect terminology in the title - devaluation needs to be replaced by enhancement.

 

[Human]

Will be sad if they devalue partner awards. They were a cheaper way of booking many BA flights.

According to The Milelion's post, the changes will also include partner awards. They haven't been announced yet but his educated guess is that we should expect increases of about 30% in Business and First.

It makes sense. If flights to Europe in Business are increasing from 85,000 points to 110,000 points on Cathay metal, it makes no sense if the same flights on partner airlines stay at 90,000 points.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles devaluation coming October 2023 - The MileLion

From 1 October 2023, Asia Miles awards for Cathay Pacific and its partners will mostly increase, with sweet spots to Europe nerfed.

milelion.com

 

[Human]

As someone whose focus is on using points to fly in premium cabins to Europe (I have relatives there), this is my take:

• Increasing the price of Cathay flights to Europe in Business from 85,000 points to 110,000 points is a big pain, but realistically, 85,000 points to Europe is one of the sweetest of sweet spots, and it wasn't going to last forever. 110,000 points is still a really good deal compared with Qantas (144,000 points and 159,000 points on partners), KrisFlyer (130,000 points), Velocity (139,000 points) etc. It's just not the amazing deal that it used to be.
• Similarly, even if Cathay increases the cost of a partner award in Business to, say, 130,000 points (which they haven't announced yet), that's the same as KrisFlyer and less than Velocity, Qantas etc.
• Qatar Privilege Club's 90,000 Avios to get to Europe in Business is looking more and more attractive! Especially given that very soon we'll be able to earn Avios via Amex Membership Rewards.

There's no doubt that this is a massive devaluation and really annoying. What's even more annoying is the almost total lack of availability for flights using Asia Miles. If, as Cathay says, this devaluation leads to more availability (and I doubt it will, but here's hoping!) then maybe there might be a silver lining to this.

But, annoying as this devaluation is, the reality is that it's still the programme of choice for Oneworld redemptions using the fewest points.

 

[levelnine]

Qatar Privilege Club's 90,000 Avios to get to Europe in Business is looking more and more attractive! Especially given that very soon we'll be able to earn Avios via Amex Membership Rewards.

My prediction is this won't last long now that hoards of Australians are going to be tripping over each other to redeem them.

 

[djtech]

Honestly could've been worse. Obviously it's not a good change overall, but at least they softened the blow lowering the economy prices by around 10%. I actually do find Economy awards on Cathay's own metal to be fairly decent recently and it's not bad value. With capacity still coming back, fares to Hong Kong are still high at around 2000 return for decent options. Even though we often only focus on Business or First redemptions, I'm willing to bet that there are plenty of happy campers who are just glad they can travel further for cheaper than before, even if it is in Economy.

 

[I love to travel]

Has anyone even seen any available Cathay awards? Certainly nothing on QF.

 

[RealtimeY]

Seen plenty in Y to HKG on QF rewards and lots on CX redemption, but virtually nothing in J.

 

[djtech]

Has anyone even seen any available Cathay awards? Certainly nothing on QF.

Haven't seen a lot on QF/other partners. Just checking the calendar on AA, it seems that CX opens up a lot for Asia Miles members only, and then just a fraction of that to OW partners - I reckon around 25-50% of seats - this is just anecdotal as I can see almost a full month of availability sometimes on Asia Miles but only one or two weeks worth of availability on partners.

 

[GlennT]

Incorrect terminology in the title - devaluation needs to be replaced by enhancement.

I think 'enhancement' is pretty worn and threadbare now and is rarely seen in even the most shameless of airlines (lookin' at you Qantas!)

 

[miketoner76]

As someone whose focus is on using points to fly in premium cabins to Europe (I have relatives there), this is my take:

• Increasing the price of Cathay flights to Europe in Business from 85,000 points to 110,000 points is a big pain, but realistically, 85,000 points to Europe is one of the sweetest of sweet spots, and it wasn't going to last forever. 110,000 points is still a really good deal compared with Qantas (144,000 points and 159,000 points on partners), KrisFlyer (130,000 points), Velocity (139,000 points) etc. It's just not the amazing deal that it used to be.
• Similarly, even if Cathay increases the cost of a partner award in Business to, say, 130,000 points (which they haven't announced yet), that's the same as KrisFlyer and less than Velocity, Qantas etc.
• Qatar Privilege Club's 90,000 Avios to get to Europe in Business is looking more and more attractive! Especially given that very soon we'll be able to earn Avios via Amex Membership Rewards.

There's no doubt that this is a massive devaluation and really annoying. What's even more annoying is the almost total lack of availability for flights using Asia Miles. If, as Cathay says, this devaluation leads to more availability (and I doubt it will, but here's hoping!) then maybe there might be a silver lining to this.

But, annoying as this devaluation is, the reality is that it's still the programme of choice for Oneworld redemptions using the fewest points.

Great sum up of exactly what this is. Despite the fact there is a devaluation, its still the best and cheapest option. Would you happen to know why there is next to zero availability on Cathy right now. I used to use CP to fly Aus-Europe all the time but so struggling to see any flights available atm. Are they at full capacity on every flight?

 

[woomp001]

Haven't seen a lot on QF/other partners. Just checking the calendar on AA, it seems that CX opens up a lot for Asia Miles members only, and then just a fraction of that to OW partners - I reckon around 25-50% of seats - this is just anecdotal as I can see almost a full month of availability sometimes on Asia Miles but only one or two weeks worth of availability on partners.

How do you search for a full month on the Asia miles/cathay site?

Apologies if this is a newb question... I can only ever seem to get the search for the day selected....

 

[Happy Dude]

Further to @woomp001's question, can you search Asia Miles site with a zero or low balance, ie prior to moving points there from Amex?

 

[woomp001]

Further to @woomp001's question, can you search Asia Miles site with a zero or low balance, ie prior to moving points there from Amex?

Ok, so I figured out the month thing.. i hope..

After spending an hour or so looking around, I can't find a single business reward seat from AU to the major EU airports, for ANY date, out over the next 12 months.

I searched a matrix of

MEL
SYD
BNE
PER

crossed with

LHR
CDG
MUC
ZRH
AMS

In both business and first!!

That's 40 search's/combinations, and NOT A SINGLE AWARD SEAT OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS

Which frankly is ridiculous.

So I couldn't recommend moving points into the program.

And trying to use "Book with miles plus cash" only ever seems to toss up a full cash price.


My current conclusion: Asia miles are toilet paper.

No wait, that is too mean to toilet paper. At least toilet paper can be used.

I have circa 1,700,000 asia miles (thanks AMEX deval) but I might as well have none.

My next strat is to look at redeeming something on Qatar using them, found on the aa site then the AM call centre??

Post automatically merged: Sep 7, 2023

Further to @woomp001's question, can you search Asia Miles site with a zero or low balance, ie prior to moving points there from Amex?

Yes i belive you can.

 

[woomp001]

Further to @woomp001's question, can you search Asia Miles site with a zero or low balance, ie prior to moving points there from Amex?

But there is no point currently.....

 

[levelnine]

I have circa 1,700,000 asia miles

That's a nice problem to have!

CX is, indeed, a frustrating program at the moment. Not only is availability poor and the website a pain, but what's there rapidly changes — sometimes a bunch of availability pops up but then disappears quickly.

It seems to be mostly last minute availability at the moment.

There is some, but not much.

 

[Happy Dude]

Wow. Terrific info @woomp001, but a little depressing. I have CX F on my bucket list so might as well push it down the list.