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Asia Miles will now expire after 18 months without qualifying account activity. The recent change will be an improvement over the old program, where the miles expired after 36 months, regardless of activity.
Starting January 1, 2020, Asia Miles will no longer expire as long as there has been qualifying activity. On December 10, 2019, they updated the website, stating:
We’ve listened to your needs when it comes to making the most of living a Life Rewarded. That’s why, starting from 1 January 2020, we’ll be making our Miles as timeless as the experiences and memories you create with us. They’ll no longer expire as long as you earn or use your Miles regularly. Get ready to discover all the rewarding possibilities with our new arrangement.
Asia Miles Expiration Policy Change
Asia Miles' new expiration policy puts it on even footing with the majority of loyalty programs. At one extreme, we’ve seen several programs align themselves with Delta’s policy. That policy states that miles never expire—regardless of account activity. At the other end of the spectrum, some programs still expire miles a certain number of months after they were earned—even if you have account activity.
Asia Miles was a part of the latter group until recently, with miles expiring after three years regardless of activity. That meant that whether or not you traveled on Cathay Pacific (or another airline partner,) stayed at a partner hotel, earned miles through a credit card, or even transferred points in, you would lose your miles 36 months later.
After January 1, 2020, Asia Miles won't expire as long as you have some qualifying activity at least once every 18 months. Qualifying activity includes transferring points into your account, buying or spending miles, and booking travel with a qualifying partner. It's important to note that any miles transferred in or earned previous to 1/1/2020 will still expire as per the previous Terms & Conditions.
Reset Expiration with Points Earned from Credit Cards
Asia Miles offers a co-branded Cathay Pacific Visa Signature® card by Synchrony in the U.S. The card earns 2X when purchasing eligible airfare on Cathay. Dining purchases (in the U.S. or abroad) earn 1.5X. All other eligible purchases earn at a rate of 1 point per dollar.
Several of the well-established transferable points currencies can be transferred to Asia Miles. These include American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy. Using AwardWallet's handy tracking tool, you can determine approximately how long you'll have to wait for your points to transfer.
American Express Membership Rewards (Immediate transfer – 1:1 Ratio)
I've said it before, but here it is again: these are my favorite because there are so many different ways to earn them. There are 18 Membership Rewards airline partners to redeem with, too. Amex is a great way to reset your Asia Miles balance because transfers post instantly, unlike Citi ThankYou and Marriott.
Furthermore, Premium cards such as the The Platinum Card® from American Express or The Business Platinum Card® from American Express provide access to over 1,400 lounges through Priority Pass. (Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.) Additionally, American Express has 19 current lounges that can help ease the typical airport stress with food and beverage offerings. Nine of those are Premium Amex Centurion Lounges, with six more coming soon.
- Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Apply and select your preferred metal Card design: classic Platinum Card®, Platinum x Kehinde Wiley, or Platinum x Julie Mehretu.
- Earn 5X Membership Rewards® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and earn 5X Membership Rewards® Points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel.
- $200 Hotel Credit: Get up to $200 back in statement credits each year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings with American Express Travel when you pay with your Platinum Card®. The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay.
- $240 Digital Entertainment Credit: Get up to $20 back in statement credits each month on eligible purchases made with your Platinum Card® on one or more of the following: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, SiriusXM, and The Wall Street Journal. Enrollment required.
- $155 Walmart+ Credit: Cover the cost of a $12.95 monthly Walmart+ membership (subject to auto-renewal) with a statement credit after you pay for Walmart+ each month with your Platinum Card®. Cost includes $12.95 plus applicable local sales tax. Plus Up Benefits are excluded.
- $200 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline and then receive up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to your Platinum Card®.
- $200 Uber Cash: Enjoy Uber VIP status and up to $200 in Uber savings on rides or eats orders in the US annually. Uber Cash and Uber VIP status is available to Basic Card Member only.
- $300 Equinox Credit: Get up to $300 back in statement credits per calendar year on an Equinox membership, or an Equinox club membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you pay with your Platinum Card®. Enrollment required. Visit https://platinum.equinox.com/ to enroll.
- $189 CLEAR® Plus Credit: Breeze through security with CLEAR Plus at 100+ airports, stadiums, and entertainment venues nationwide and get up to $189 back per calendar year on your Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use your Platinum Card®. Learn more.
- $100 Global Entry Credit: Receive either a $100 statement credit every 4 years for a Global Entry application fee or a statement credit up to $85 every 4.5 years for a TSA PreCheck® (through a TSA official enrollment provider) application fee, when charged to your Platinum Card®. Card Members approved for Global Entry will also receive access to TSA PreCheck at no additional cost.
- Shop Saks with Platinum: Get up to $100 in statement credits annually for purchases in Saks Fifth Avenue stores or at saks.com on your Platinum Card®. That's up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually. Enrollment required.
- $300 SoulCycle At-Home Bike Credit: Get a $300 statement credit for the purchase of a SoulCycle at-home bike with your Platinum Card®. An Equinox+ subscription is required to purchase a SoulCycle at-home bike and access SoulCycle content. Must charge full price of bike in one transaction. Shipping available in the contiguous U.S. only. Enrollment Required.
- Unlock access to exclusive reservations and special dining experiences with Global Dining Access by Resy when you add your Platinum Card® to your Resy profile.
- $695 annual fee.
- Terms Apply.
- Rates & Fees
- Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year).
- Earn 5X points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel.
Capital One (4-5 days transfer – 2:1.5 Ratio)
Capital One is newer to the partner transfer game, as it has typically been known for its cashback cards. Like Amex, Capital One Rewards transfer to Asia Miles, but the transfer times appear to be lengthy. Four to five days seems excessive, but representatives can place an award on hold for you.
The transfer ratio results in fewer points than Amex or Citi. On the other hand, heavy spenders will earn rewards faster since many of the Capital One miles-earning cards earn 2x miles on purchases. If your goal is simply to reset your mileage expiration, Capital One is a great first choice.
- Earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening; worth $750 in travel if redeemed for a fixed-value, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 2 Miles on every purchase
- Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® (up to $100)
- No foreign transaction fees
- $95 annual fee
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
Citi ThankYou (12-48 hours transfer – 1:1 Ratio)
While not as lengthy as Capital One, Citi is another option to reset your Asia Miles balance. Transfers times range from 12-48 hours to post. You can find more detail on the other Citi Transfer partners in our dedicated post. On the earning side, there are several good options for accumulating points. However, not all cards have access to Asia Miles as a transfer partner. So, be sure to review the post linked above.
- 60,000 point signup bonus worth $800 towards airfare through the ThankYou Travel Center, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 3X points per $1 on airfare and hotels and at gas stations, restaurants, and supermarkets
- Annual Hotel Benefit: Save $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when you book through ThankYou.com
- No foreign transaction fees
- $95 annual fee
- 3X points per $1 spent on airfare, hotels, and at gas stations
- 3X points per $1 spent on dining at restaurants, including cafes, bars and lounges
- 3X points per $1 spent at supermarkets
- 1X points per $1 spent on all other purchases
Marriott Bonvoy (24-48 hours transfer 3:1.25)
As is the case with all of the partners except Amex, Marriott Bonvoy points won't transfer immediately. Marriott has by far the largest list of transfer partners. Plus, for many programs, it is the only option to transfer points. In addition to being slower than Amex and Capital One, Marriott transfers get a bonus when you transfer in increments of 60,000 points. So, this isn't the first choice if you need to reset your Etihad balance. Here's our roundup of the credit cards that earn Marriott Bonvoy points.
- Earn 6X Bonvoy points per $1 spent at over 7,000 participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels
- Earn 3 Marriott Bonvoy® points for every $1 on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on gas stations, grocery stores, and dining
- Earn 2X Bonvoy points for every $1 spent on all other purchases
Earning Asia Miles with Partners
Although Cathay's own flights can be a great way to spend your miles, they have 20+ partner airlines that cross alliances. To keep your miles active, just enter your Asia Miles member number into one of the above partners. Then, you'll see how you can earn more miles according to their terms/charts.
Hotels, restaurants, and online shopping merchants can help you keep your miles active too. Some recognizable hotel names familiar to U.S. residents include:
- IHG
- Marriott
- Radisson
- Hilton
- Best Western
While shopping merchants may be accessible, many of the restaurant partners will be focused more so on residents of Hong Kong.
Bottom Line
None of us like losing rewards we've worked hard to earn, and this change allows members (loyal or not) to maintain their miles with activity. The new 18-month window is technically 18 months less than the old expiration policy. Still, this is a positive change for anyone willing to spend a few minutes to reset their expiration date with one of the strategies described above.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I actually got plenty points which before Jan 2020 Is it possible to extend my expires date because looking at COVID 19 at this moment
We cannot travel within this 2 years Appreciate Asia Miles extension on my miles
I’m being loyalty to Cathay Pacific Airline would want to continue collect more point for Asia Miles and will let all my Business Partners friends and relatives in the world continue support Asia Miles .
Thanking you in advance
Stay safe and take care
I would recommend you contact Asia Miles representatives directly to resolve this. As far as we know, they have not announced a pause on the expiration of miles due to COVID-19: https://awardwallet.com/blog/airlines-hotels-suspended-point-expiration/
Can AwardWallet provide the expiration date (and reminder) of points that will expire that were earned prior to Jan 1st 2020?
Please contact our support team with such questions:
https://awardwallet.com/contact
Good that it is moving towards the right direction but I am not impressed that miles awarded before Jan 1, 2020 still expire. Nice try but I don’t live in HKG so I will pass.
It certainly is an improvement, yet at this day and age when more and more loyalty programs are switching to non-expiry policy this seems a bit archaic to me.
A much needed update to bring Asiamiles in line with other major FF programs such as Aadvantage, where all miles are extended provided that there is some qualifying activity every 18 months minimum.
Activity based system is more reasonable and achievable. Good for every one!
A positive change, but I wonder how CX will track which miles were earnt before and after 1/1/2020; could get messy in the case of refunds or changes.
I’m glad they’re hopping on the bandwagon about the expiration of mileage. Helps a great deal especially when you have travel CC like Capital One and want to transfer. Although it’s a bit of a con for how long it takes to transfer.
Nice update, now it’s easier to keep the miles alive with an activity!
It is so easy for Hong Kong residents to keep their Asia Miles accounts active, such as making restaurant reservations and earning miles through Openrice.
So nice to hear of a positive change for once!
Migrating to current AA miles policy. In this case it’s really an improvement.
This is a positive change. But I have to question why the miles earned before 2020 still expire and do not have the same expiry policy as those earned starting 2020.
The only I reason I can think of is an easier database transfer for the IT department.
This change both makes sense and seems reasonable to me.
I think the new activity based emphasis is to encourage customer engagement and hence loyalty. Cathay needs to attract more international / western customers, obviously.
Wish all miles and points would be required by law, like gift cards, to not expire. Guess I’ll just have to dream. Maybe someday.
Great way to keep those who are loyal to the programs of one’s choice. More important is that shifting from time based to activity based expiration system intuitively drives the customer base to take ownership of the reward programs as each person has his/her own shopping, dinning, and traveling preferences.
Positive change!
Because of the the very welcoming changes, Asia Miles have become the Asian avios points. Both programs are distance-based.
A good change. At least you don’t have to worry about getting enough miles for a ticket within 36 months . I’d be panicked every time to make a redemption. How did people do it before? ugh.
I don’t think I’d ever be able to make a redemption if I couldn’t hold on to my miles more than 36 mons. Especially for a biz ticket for more than one person.
Vast improvement of the scheme.
Are Amex transfers always instant? I’ve also heard they can take a few days.
Perhaps this article will be helpful:
https://awardwallet.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-buy-and-transfer-points/
This is a step in the right direction. Hard expiry is a major negative in any program.
Glad to see an actual “enhancement” from a loyalty program.
The update is exactly in line with the policies of the the American Airlines AAdvantage and Qantas Frequent Flyer programs. It is BIG NEWS in Hong Kong.
This is an improvement
Is this a repost? I feel like this story ran a short time ago. I recognize that the policy change date is right around the corner, but that seems a little quick.
No, similar story last week when Etihad updated its miles expiration policy
Glad to see so many programs start being more friendly to the average consumer. Most people can’t build up enough miles to use them in a 3 year period.
Good news! Its time to reset asia miles account again.
This is great news. A really good use of Asia Miles is USA to LHR on BA. The taxes are much lower than using Avios.
I think Avios / BA can get away with the high taxes or defacto fees because the majority of is corporate clients are based in the London area.
This seems to be a trend, and I wholeheartedly approve. This is another program I might think about using because of this change.
Definitely. Multiple programs have improved or outright eliminated their expiration policies recently. And, I’m not sure if any have gone the opposite direction recently. There does seem to be some competition in our favor on this front.
This is a very nice change indeed.
Now I hope SQ will follow and change their expiration policy to something better.
Looking at the shopping mall, it looks like iTunes might be a relatively inexpensive option for keeping an Asia miles account active.
It would be more honest to say that miles WILL expire UNLESS there is qualifying activity at least once every 18 months.
Miles expiration is something that should be abolished. If the miles are yours to use that should be it Nice to see that Southwest miles do not expire, despite this Asia miles setback.
I hope Singapore airlines will follow.