Most people will be familiar with Cathay Pacific and their loyalty programme Asia Miles as many credit cards across Asia Pacific allow you to transfer miles into the programme, which serves as a good alternative to KrisFlyer and Singapore Airlines, especially if you travel a lot on oneworld carriers.

In particular, Asia Miles is also rather popular with some Australians given its relatively cheaper redemption rates than Qantas Frequent Flyer. Hence this change is likely to impact many members across this part of the world.

In a nutshell, here are some of the changes they will be introducing come 22 June 2018:

Miles earned will no longer be based on distance travelled, but by distance zone, if you are travelling on Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon.

Also, the exact fare class within each cabin class matters too: for the lowest fare classes, you get the least miles. Even in Premium Economy and Business, the cheapest fare class for each cabin will also get you lesser miles.

All routes are now categorised into six different distance zones: ultra-short all the way to ultra-long. These are the same categories used by Marco Polo Club’s tier points accrual, as well as the new redemption charts (more on that below), providing more uniformity across the two programmes.

Asia Miles claim that members will “earn more miles on 80% of the airlines’ tickets, including to popular destinations such as Shanghai, Osaka and London.” Obviously this is written for a Hong Kong base, but let’s take a look at some of the common ones out of Singapore:

Cabin	Economy		Premium Economy		Business
Route	Current	New	Current	New	Current	New
Singapore- Bangkok	878	1800- 2000	969	2000- 2300	1098	2500- 2700
Singapore- Hong Kong	1592	1800- 2000	1751	2000- 2300	1990	2500- 2700
Singapore- Taipei	2093	2390- 2650	2302	2650- 3050	2616	3310- 3580
Singapore- Tokyo Narita	3433	3600- 4000	3776	4000- 4600	4291	5000- 5400
Singapore- Los Angeles	8840	7790- 8650	9724	8650- 9950	11050	10810- 11680
Singapore- New York	9651	9630- 10700	10616	10700- 14610	12064	13380- 14450

Seems like members are generally better off for a short- to mid-haul trip out of Singapore, but not so for transpacific flights.

If you frequent earn miles on partner airlines, the good (or bad, depending on who you are travelling with) news is that mileage earned on partner airlines remains the same.

Asia Miles will price all redemptions as a one-way, adjusts all redemption rates

Customers familiar wtih Asia Miles will know that it is typically cheaper to redeem a roundtrip ticket on Cathay Pacific/Dragon, but this will change come 22 June 2018.

To simplify its redemption requirements, all redemption tickets will now be priced one-way, so a return ticket will now simply cost twice as much as two one-way tickets. Kudos to Asia Miles for being upfront in saying that long haul flights in premium cabins will now also cost more.

Also, the redemption chart is now aligned to the Marco Polo Club’s 6 categories of distances, rather than the existing 7. This is a good move because I have seen so many people being confused by the Marco Polo Club tier points earning table and the Asia Miles redemption table.

It wasn’t clear from Asia Miles’ website, but I wrote to clarify if multi-sector itineraries (as most itineraries originating from outside of Hong Kong would be) will be priced as a sum of two sectors under the new charge, or as though its a single sector. Asia Miles confirmed in writing that it will be priced as a single sector. That means, if you are flying from Singapore to New York, it will cost you as much as flying from Hong Kong to New York. This means great value 

Let’s compare some of the redemption rates for routes out of Singapore (one-way, in ‘000 miles) before and after the changes:

Cabin	Economy		Premium Economy		Business
Route	Current	Standard	Current	Standard	Current	Standard
Singapore- Bangkok	15	10	18	18	25	25
Singapore- Hong Kong	20	10	24	18	30	25
Singapore- Taipei	20	10	24	18	30	25
Singapore- Tokyo Narita	25	22	30	30	45	45
Singapore- Los Angeles	55	42	66	60	85	85
Singapore- New York	55	42	66	60	85	85

(All mileage are one-way, in ‘000 miles)

At first glance it look like you will get a better deal off almost every route (except in Business), but that’s if you only redeem one way. Now let’s take a look at redemption for a return ticket:

Cabin	Economy		Premium Economy		Business
Route	Current	Standard	Current	Standard	Current	Standard
Singapore- Bangkok	20	20	24	36	40	50
Singapore- Hong Kong	30	20	36	36	50	50
Singapore- Taipei	30	20	36	36	50	50
Singapore- Tokyo Narita	45	44	54	60	80	90
Singapore- Los Angeles	90	84	108	120	145	170
Singapore- New York	90	84	108	120	145	170

(All mileage are one-way, in ‘000 miles)

You will almost end up paying more for all premium classes mid- and long-haul flights. For instance, for Singapore to LA, this is at 170,000 miles return in Business (at the same level as what KrisFlyer requires), up from 145,000 miles previously.

As a sweetener, Asia Miles has announced that they have made redemption seats more accessible, by increasing availability by 20% or more. While no one is really sure how accurate is this, a comparison of the charts do see a slight reduction in the number of miles overall.

Asia Miles is now introducing two more levels of redemption levels – Choice & Tailor

Obviously you should never be burning miles at these levels, but Asia Miles has now unveiled two additional levels of redemption levels with “improved availability” and also allows you to select your seat in advance. This is similar to the previous Priority Tiers 1 & 2, except that this provides a little better clarity as to what ‘perks’ these higher redemption levels accord, such as advance seat selection.

Side note: I’m constantly amused at how seat selection is such a great tool used by airlines to encourage people to spend more money (and miles in this case).

The skeptic in me feels that the bulk of the overall ‘improved’ award availability is going to go to the higher levels of redemption, given that at first glance Asia Miles is giving out more miles than before.

There will be changes to partner airlines redemption rates too

But this will be unveiled only on 22 June 2018. Based on some of the sample itineraries shown, it seems like across the board the mileage required will increase for round-trip itineraries, consistent with what it has applied for Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon prices.

More to come on this on 22 June 2018.

My take on the changes

Overall, this change looks good at first glance, in the sense that everyone will end up earning more miles. However, with more miles flooding the market, this will also mean that the miles will lose their value over time and lead to an increase in redemption rates down the road (which is already reflected), or resulting in Standard awards being harder to find.

Furthermore, Asia Miles is one of the few programmes (including Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer) that held steadfast in refusing to accord any status bonuses for Marco Polo Club elite members. Whether you are a Diamond, or a Green, you still earn the same number of miles. So this is somewhat unattractive as compared to some other programmes, such as Qantas Frequent Flyer, that awards a bonus for status holders.

Celebrate for now, especially if you fly a lot on Cathay Pacific because you are about to get a whole lot more miles. However, if I were you I will also not hoard too many miles and try to get award availability as soon as you can – you will never know if prices will rise again.