Asia Miles

Asia Miles

Type	Loyalty program Frequent-flyer program
Owner	Cathay Pacific
Introduced	February 1999
Tagline	Life Rewarded[1]
Website	asiamiles.com

Asia Miles is a loyalty and frequent-flyer program launched by Cathay Pacific. Launched in February 1999, it allows members to earn miles by making different purchases with co-branded credit cards or on partnered flights, hotels, dining, financial services, retail, and technology products and services.^[2] Membership is free and open to individuals aged two or above.

Other than Asia Miles, Cathay Pacific also owns the Marco Polo Club, a four-tiered paid frequent-flyer program for Cathay Pacific and Oneworld member airlines flights. Marco Polo Club members are automatically enrolled as members of Asia Miles.^[3] As of 2020, the program has over 11 million members and over 800 programme partners worldwide.^[4]

Asia Miles and its managing company, Cathay Pacific Loyalty Programmes Limited, was launched and founded in February 1999 in Hong Kong. The company was then renamed to Asia Miles Limited.^[5]

In January 2015, 4.7 million miles and gifts worth HK$100,000 were stolen from 121 accounts, four persons were arrested. Stronger online security measures were introduced and affected accounts were reimbursed.^[6]

In July 2019, Cathay Pacific took over low-cost carrier HK Express as a wholly owned subsidiary.^[7] The airline joined Asia Miles while closing down their own frequent-flyer program reward-U. All reward-U points are converted to Asia Miles, with a one-off conversion rate of 8 reward-U points to 1 Asia Miles.^[8]

In January 2020, Asia Miles changed their miles expiration rule from a time-based expiry system to activity-based system, where users can keep their miles by using the miles every 18 months.^[9]

Although Cathay Pacific is one of the founding members of the Oneworld alliance, Asia Miles has partnered with multiple airlines outside the alliance.

As of August 2022^[update], other than Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary airline HK Express, partnered airlines include:

Asia Miles has partnered with over 800 partners in dining, hotel, telecom, and retail sectors for earning and redeeming miles.

Co-branded credit cards are also launched since 2016 for earning miles. Asia Miles partnered with Standard Chartered for their first co-branded credit card in 2016 and American Express for the Hong Kong market.^[10] Further partnerships with banks such as China CITIC Bank, Cathay United Bank, and BNU were made for co-branded credit cards in outside markets such as mainland China, Taiwan, and Macau.

Originally, Asia Miles were earned under a time-limited system, set to expire after three years. This was changed in January 2020 to an activity-based system where miles will remain valid as long they are either earned or redeemed at least once every 18 months.^[9][11]