Transfer credit card points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles with up to 15% bonus

Asia Miles is back with one of its regular bonus offers when you transfer credit card points across to the programme, with 10% or 15% additional miles for each transfer made and no upper cap.

The month-long transfer bonus offer is now live for members outside Hong Kong (but including those in Singapore), and is running between 30th December 2022 and 31st January 2023.

This one comes hot on the heels of a recent transfer bonus between September and November 2022. Asia Miles also recently ran a 1,500 miles sign-up bonus for new members, but this has sadly expired.

Under this offer you’ll get either a 10% or 15% bonus when making transfers to the programme, based on the number of miles you transfer in each conversion:

• Convert credit card points and earn less than 20,000 miles: 10% bonus
• Convert credit card points and earn 20,000 miles or more: 15% bonus

Importantly, unlike some previous deals, there is no limit to the number of conversions and number of points that can be converted within the promotion period with this bonus offer.

Registration required

You will have to successfully register for this Asia Miles offer during the promotion period, using the following link.

  Asia Miles 10-15% Bonus Registration

The link may also have been provided to you in the form of a marketing email from Cathay, as mine was.

You can register ay any time during the promotion period, but to keep it ‘tidy’ we’d recommend doing so before transferring your credit card points into the scheme.

Registering your account for the bonus will generate an email confirmation from Asia Miles confirming that you have enrolled successfully, so it’s good to show you did this from the outset in case of any issues later on.

After 31st January 2023 it will be too late to register for the bonus, even if you made one or more transfers during the promotion period.

Again, there is no limit to the number of miles conversions you can complete and no limit on the amount of points converted during this promotion.

Cathay’s promotional email for this deal mentions it being offered “as a selected member”, but there is nothing in the terms and conditions about it being targeted. In any event, on completion of the registration link you will receive the confirmation email as shown above, confirming your inclusion, so simply make sure you have that first before transferring any miles.

Eligible transfer partners

Converting points from all international banks offering transfer of credit card points into Asia Miles will be eligible for the 10% or 15% bonus under this promotion, with the exception of Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles co-brand credit cards and China Merchants Bank credit cards.

In Singapore that means points held with the following banks are eligible:

Bank	Eligible Points
	Membership Rewards
	BOC Points
	Citi ThankYou Points / Citi Miles
	DBS Points
	HSBC Reward Points
	Maybank TREATS Points
	UOB UNI$

For our overseas readers, here are some example eligible banks in other countries.

Malaysia American Express AmBank Citi Maybank Standard Chartered UOB USA American Express Brex Capital One Citi

Australia American Express ANZ Citi Commonwealth Bank HSBC National Australia Bank Westpac United Kingdom American Express HSBC

Transfer ratios

Here are the new ‘effective’ transfer ratios from seven eligible Singapore banks into Asia Miles during this promotion, depending on whether you are participating at the 10% or 15% bonus level.

The minimum transfer quantity is shown for each finance partner / credit card.

Note that OCBC and Standard Chartered are the only two banks in Singapore that do not support Asia Miles conversion.

* Amex Platinum Charge and Centurion members require only 400 Points per transfer block

The bonus won’t credit immediately

Bonus miles under this promotion will be credited to your Asia Miles account within 8 to 10 weeks after the end of the promotion, which means you’ll get the standard transfer rate applicable for your bank / card product initially, topped up with the relevant bonus level as a separate credit by 11th April 2023 at the latest.

During a recent Asia Miles bonus promotion for credit card points transferred in December 2020, the miles were actually credited by mid-March 2021, 6 weeks after the promotion ended, despite the same 8-10 week timeframe being quoted.

Similarly in the previous two bonus promotions we participated in, miles were credited at around the 6-week mark, so while there are no guarantees it does look as though you should see the bonus a bit earlier than promised this time round too.

What if the bonus doesn’t credit?

You’ll have until 30th April 2023 to notify Asia Miles if you do not receive the expected bonus miles. That’s quite a short window since the bonus might only have come through a couple of weeks before that (by 11th April 2023).

From 1st May 2023 onwards it’s unfortunately too late to claim any missing bonus, so be sure to check and plan a chase-up with Asia Miles if required.

Transfer time

Aside from registering your Asia Miles account for the 10% or 15% promotional transfer bonus, it’s important to consider the lead time for your bank to miles transfer.

The processing time of Eligible Miles Conversion might vary among Eligible Finance Partners. AML accepts no liability for failure or delay in the provision of the Promotion Offer to the Eligible Members for any reason beyond AML’s control.

Asia Miles

Many banks will quote 5-10 working days (i.e. up to two weeks) to complete this process, but in reality most are much quicker. While we have more experience with KrisFlyer transfers, we have the following data points for Asia Miles transfers we have made, or our readers have shared:

• BOC SG: 6 weeks (why bother?)
• Citi SG: 2 working days
• Citi USA: Instant
• DBS SG: 4 working days
• UOB SG: 3 working days

Our recommendation is to initiate any transfers by Monday 23rd January 2023 to allow five clear working days before the end of the promotion.

If you prefer to err on the safe side (and sleep better at night!), do it by Monday 16th January 2023 to allow an additional week.

Asia Miles ‘sweet spots’

Asia Miles is probably one of our favourite FFPs for long-haul oneworld redemptions. It’s also a great ‘backup balance’ alternative to KrisFlyer, primarily when:

• we can’t secure a Singapore Airlines redemption using KrisFlyer miles;
• we don’t mind a connection on the way to Europe, to save miles; or
• we are flying to a European or US destination SIA doesn’t serve non-stop anyway (e.g. Dublin or Chicago).

In these cases it makes good sense to stop in Hong Kong en-route and enjoy Cathay’s excellent lounges in the process.

In more recent good news, Hong Kong is finally fully relaxing its border measures (almost) and Cathay Pacific is ramping up its flight schedules, with a target of 75% pre-COVID capacity by the end of 2023.

Transits through Hong Kong are also restriction-free, with no testing whatsoever, provided your final destination country does not impose any.

Note: Long – Type 1 relates to itineraries which do not include any cities in the Americas (e.g. Singapore to Frankfurt), whereas Long – Type 2 includes those cities (e.g. Vancouver, San Francisco).

Singapore – Europe from 65,000 miles in Business Class

There are great options to fly in Business Class from Singapore or Bangkok to Europe for just 65,000 Asia Miles with Cathay, though unfortunately the airline has brought back its hefty fuel surcharges, which you definitely need to consider as part of the overall cost.

The key is to keep your trip within 7,500 miles total distance to take advantage of the competitive Long – Type 1 award rate.