A bit of a primer
Asia Miles is one of the most generous programs out there for the average US or Canada based miles hound, both from earning and redemption standpoints. Because it is Cathay Pacific Airways frequent flyer program based in Hong Kong, most North American flyers fail to consider its benefits for them. It is not my preferred program for crediting flight miles to because of their lack of a generous status based mileage bonus, But combine the most generous fee free credit card earning potential of any North American FF program with the lowest award requirement for premium transatlantic travel and you have a winner!
Lets start with redemption before moving on to earning.
For those trying to gain a better understanding of Asia Miles redemption, study this redemption chart.
With this chart all distances are the one way distances. So, for example, if I want to fly Chicago-Paris on LX I would calculate the distance of ORD-ZRH-CDG = 4740 miles travelled each way. So I would look under the "2,500-5,000" Award zone to see how many miles are required for an award. All redemption levels are for round trip award travel unless specified "One-way" on the left.
So.... since NYC, CHI, SEA, MIA, ATL, etc to Europe are usually under 5K distance (routing), a roundtip Business Class ticket to Europe in Business Class would cost 60,000 Asia Miles and a rountrip First Class ticket would cost 90,000 Asia Miles. Eligible carriers include all One World Airlines and LX (Swiss International Airlines), with BA's Business product being one of the best in the industry. Note, however, that cities in the southwest USA would exceed the 5K distance and thus fall into the next (higher) award zone.
Asia Miles IS NOT a good deal on every route - if fact on many routes it is a bad deal. For example, say I wanted to fly Chicago-Hong Kong in First Class. The one-way distance is 7794 miles, so going down the "7,500-10,000" zone chart we see 180,000 Asia Miles would be required for First Class. Compare with AA at 135K Miles or UA at 120K Miles, etc for this same route.
It really pays to know different programs and bank in diverse programs - ones that calculate awards differently. For US residents (not living in the southern west as Europe exceeds 5K from there) wanting to redeem for premium transatlantic flights on airlines like BA and LX, Asia Miles may win bigtime.
Please note, with this chart one CAN NOT mix multiple carriers on the same ticket - unless CX is one of the carriers (not applicable yet to Europe).
Upgrade awards are valid on BA, AA, and CX. On BA, it seems only bookings in fare classes that would be upgradeable if using BA miles are eligible for upgrades. Also, you must have an e-ticket to upgrade and Asia Miles will process the upgrades electronically. You can waitlist for upgrades on CX flights but I don't know if you can waitlist for BA/AA upgrades.
Also, when upgrading BA, "Upgrade award tickets on British Airways are now possible with just 50% of the Economy Class round-trip required mileage. Choose from an Economy Class (World Traveller) to Premium Economy Class (World Traveller Plus) upgrade OR Premium Economy Class (World Traveller Plus) to Business Class (Club World) upgrade."
So, a roundtrip upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World would cost 22,500 Asia Miles - probably one of the best vallues out there!
I have yet to use Asia Miles for AA flight upgrades, but as Tclin helpfully pointed out below, AA has restricted Asia Miles awards to higher booking classes - so for uprade purposes upgrading BA flights from World traveller Plus remains the best value.
For awards requiring multiple carriers, either one needs to somehow inlclude CX in the mix with the before mentioned award chart,or use a One World Award. Unlike the previous award chart, the distances shown on this chart are total distance - not one-way distance! This is because these awards need not be roundtrips - they can be practically any routing (Members are allowed to make a maximum of five stopovers, two transfers and two open-jaws at either origin, en-route or turnaround point,) and the distance = sum of all sectors. To use a OneWorld award, a min of two O.W. carriers other than CX need to flown. All eight One-world carriers may be used.
Asia Miles is a great program for US travellers because of their incredibly low requirement to Europe in premium cabins, the abiltiy to save miles on one-way awards on many airlines, it gives flyers the ability redeem and upgrade on BA transatlantic flights with their relatively high level of service and great choice of destinations, and because they are the only airline program with a no fee MasterCard option of earning more than 1 mile/$ spent on all purchases:
Earning Asia Miles
Earn Asia Miles by earning eBay Anything Points and converting them to Asia Miles!
MBNA eBay Anything Points MasterCard 1.125 Asia Miles/$
1 eBay point/$ - converts to 1.125 Asia Miles through Points.com
No annual fee - 2500 point sign up bonus - transfers works easily with a low minimunm and no max. IF they run another promo like they did last May, this could get even better. To get started with Points.com: Sign up for a Pointsplus membership - choosing 2500 eBay points as your bonus - then convert the eBay points to 2800 Asia miles. Your Pointsplus membership costs $30/year and it gives you unlimitted free points.com transfers for a year. They offer the same points for renewals too, so you can get something back for what you pay them each year.
The Amex SPG - FTers favorite credit card is also a good option - 1.25 miles/$ if transfered in 20K chunks. I recomend using your SPG Amex everywhere it is accepted and MBNA Anything Points MasterCard where Amex isn't.
Also, accoring to Shareholders post in the CX forum, there appears to be a current (possibly targetted) promo where 20K SPG = 35K Asia Miles (promo good through Feb).
Earn Asia Miles at a generous rate from CC spending, from booking your flights, hotel, car, etc on most any airline, hotel, or rental with this website, from hotels directly, from Hotels and Restuarants through the Rewards Network (I-Dine), and even when booking priceline hotel stays. (Remember - Ebay Points convert to more Asia Miles than the points you started out with).
FYI - I have redeemed 8 BA tansatlantic tickets so far with Asia Miles and all has gone well.
In my opion, Asia Miles CS is pretty good - they have a toll free US number with generally low wait times but a long string of options to work through each time you call - tickets usually take about 2 weeks to get issued though - they won't do it fast unless your travel date is imminent. You can request e-ticket or paper for BA redemption - they do both. BA availability with Asia Miles has been identical to BA.com BA miles availability.
Asia Miles do expire after 3 years but so long as you are earning at a decent rate and burning at a decent rate that shouldn't be problem.
And to clarify - don't get confused between the Marco Polo club and Asia Miles. Some people get confused thinking Cathay Pacific has two frequent flyer programs...not really. They just chose to separate the "frequent flyer benefits" from the "loyalty program currency." Asia Miles is the loyalty program currency and you can sign up for Asia Miles never flying Cathay but earning lots of points and redeeming them for flights. You only want to sign up for the Marco Polo Club (and pay a small sign up fee) if you want to be rewarded for your loyalty to Cathay (and Oneworld) as you credit your flights to Asia Miles. The Marco Polo club tracks your Asia Miles flights and grants elite status. Their top tier provides some of the richest benefits of any program (they will regularily open up premium revenue seats for miles redemtion, outstanding customer service, etc) - but it is also one of the hardest status' to attain.
Last edited by wanaflyforless; Dec 30, 2004 at 11:08 pm