Best CC for Cathay Pacific
 

Hi,

I hope I posted this in the correct subforum.

I'm going to have to purchase a semi expensive ticket on Cathay Pacific either today or tomorrow. I'm looking to maximize points or miles on the purchase, but aside from joining the AA club, I haven't been able to find much. Are there any bonuses I'm missing out on? I'm most likely going to book it to a 1.5% CB reward card, but I am open to better suggestions. If it matters, I have a good amount of Delta Skymiles already along with AMEX points, TY points and will receive points from USBank.

Thank you,
GreyRabbit.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

I think the first decision is where you will credit the miles earned by flying. Cathay Pacific is a member of OneWorld alliance. You could credit the flight to Cathay Pacific's own frequent flyer program or to any OneWorld carrier's program such as American Airlines, British Airways or to Alaska Airlines which has a separate partnership with Cathay.

To make this decision you need to know the fare code of the ticket you intend to purchase, because some programs award reduced miles, or no miles, on discounted cares.

Once you know where you intend to accumulate the flying miles it may be easier to decide how to pay.

I believe it is a business class ticket, aside from that, I don't know the fare code. Since most of my travel would be out of the US, but not to any particular place, I'm leaning toward crediting the miles to AA. I do not have any AA credit cards at the moment, and I wouldn't have sufficient time to get a new card. Would anything be better then a 1.5% card then? Or is there a better option then AA?

What cards do you have?

Boa Priv 1.5% cash back.

Aside from those, I have:

Discover - plain.
Citi Premier
Amex Gold Skymiles
Amex Gold Business
Chase Freedom
USBank FlexPerks
Citi Thank you

Doesn't Chase Freedom have 5% CB this quarter on travel?

I was really happy for a moment, but, since it is technically through an agent, I don't think that works.

Per Chase:
Q. What do I need to know about earning bonus cash back in the airline category?
A. Airline category
Airline ticket purchases made directly with the airline will qualify for bonus cash back. Please note that other air travel-related purchases will not qualify; for example, in-flight purchases, non-ticket purchases made within the airport, and airline tickets purchased through travel agencies, discount travel sites (such as Expedia® and Yahoo® travelto footnote 1), vacation clubs, tour operators tickets booked as part of a travel package offered by non-airline merchants.

Grrr

Boo... it's capped at $1500 spend anyways... not sure how much your ticket will be.