Many reward packages supply round-the-world redemption candy spots. A number of the extra well-known examples are the British Airways Avios World Multi-Provider Award and the ANA Mileage Membership Spherical-the-World Award.
Whereas they aren’t as frequent as easy round-trip or one-way bookings, they normally are among the finest methods to squeeze outsized worth out of your factors. One other Oneworld-member airline loyalty program that gives such an possibility is the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Multi-Provider Award Chart.
Whereas the principles could seem fairly byzantine at first, when you’ve spent a while figuring it out, there’s some excellent worth that may be discovered with the chart.
The Multi-Provider Award Chart
The Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Oneworld Multi-Provider Award Chart is likely one of the finest methods to get nice worth out of your Asia Miles. If you happen to’re contemplating a multi-stop round-the-world journey, it’s positively price contemplating as an possibility.
The Asia Miles Oneworld Multi-Provider Award Chart solely applies to Asia Miles bookings of the next description:
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The itinerary incorporates no Cathay Pacific flights and two Oneworld associate airways
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The itinerary incorporates at the least one Cathay Pacific flight, in addition to two or extra Oneworld associate airways
Any itinerary with solely one Oneworld associate airline is priced in line with Asia Miles’s Commonplace Award Chart, as an alternative of this chart.
In the meantime, you may’t have three or extra Oneworld companions on the itinerary in case you don’t additionally embrace at the least one Cathay Pacific flight.
On high of that, you additionally can not combine in any of Cathay’s extra non-Oneworld airline companions similar to Air Canada or Aer Lingus.
One of many belongings you’ll quickly discover whenever you begin dabbling with Asia Miles is how unnecessarily advanced all of it appears. On the plus facet, although, that complexity gives shelter to a quite big selection of candy spots for many who are keen to place within the effort and time into figuring issues out.
The award chart itself, as displayed on the Asia Miles web site, is as follows:
As you may see, the chart is cut up into 13 zones, every with a sure distance band for the entire mileage of your journey. To determine which zone your redemption falls into, you add up the distances of all of the flown segments, after which search for that zone in line with your chosen class of service (redemptions in premium financial system usually are not potential beneath this award chart).
With this award chart, you’re allowed to have as much as 5 stopovers of prolonged period, two layovers of as much as 24 hours in period, and two open-jaws.
For sure, this opens up fairly a really big selection of routing potentialities, particularly for these of you planning an prolonged journey or long-term journey, permitting you to probably embrace as much as 9 cities in your itinerary along with your origin.
In contrast to the Avios multi-carrier chart, which could be quite ambiguous as to how the category of service is set, the Cathay Pacific multi-carrier chart explicitly states that mixed-cabin itineraries are priced in line with your highest class of service.
Due to this fact, in case you’re redeeming for, say, a enterprise class round-the-world ticket, it’s in your finest curiosity to get all of the segments in enterprise class in case you can.
Some Examples
5 stopovers, two layovers, and two open-jaws give super flexibility when planning journeys to a number of locations. Listed here are a few examples of what you may accomplish beneath the Asia Miles Multi-Provider Award Chart.
1. A Tour of South East Asia
Cathay Pacific brings us from Vancouver to Taipei through Hong Kong and Seoul (sure, Cathay’s Seoul–Taipei fifth freedom flight is extremely helpful right here).
Then, we’ll fly Malaysia Airways right down to Kuala Lumpur, after which right down to Bali. We’ll do an open-jaw to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, earlier than catching Japan Airways again to Vancouver with one other cease in Tokyo.
On this itinerary, we’ll have 5 cities with stopovers: Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Tokyo. We’re combining two Oneworld airways with Cathay Pacific metallic, so we’re eligible for the multi-carrier award chart.
The whole distance clocks in at 19,206 miles, so we’ll fall into Zone 10 of the chart and pay 105,000 Asia Miles in financial system class or 165,000 Asia Miles for enterprise class.
2. Six Continents Across the World
Beginning in Toronto, we’ll hop right down to São Paulo with American Airways through New York JFK. After a stopover there, we fly over to Madrid on Iberia, after which right down to Algiers once more on Iberia.
From there, we head to Brisbane through Doha and Hong Kong on Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific. Lastly, we fly to Los Angeles on Qantas, earlier than taking a road-trip by means of america and flying residence from Chicago.
Select 5 cities amongst São Paulo, Madrid, Algiers, Doha, Hong Kong, and Melbourne as your stopovers, with the odd one out being a 24-hour layover.
Once more, there are Cathay Pacific flights along with a large number of Oneworld airways, so we’re eligible for the multi-carrier chart. The whole distance is available in at 29,519 miles, which is beneath the Zone 12 threshold of 35,000 miles, so we’ll pay 130,000 Asia Miles in financial system class or 210,000 Asia Miles in enterprise class.
Optimizing the Asia Miles Multi-Provider Chart
The worth proposition of this award chart is evident, however what are some ways in which travellers can optimize this redemption alternative even additional?
Keep Underneath the Threshold
Much like the Avios multi-carrier chart, the truth that the Asia Miles chart is damaged down into separate zones, every with their very own higher thresholds when it comes to distance flown, means which you could get outsized worth by coming very shut beneath the space threshold, however not going over it.
That is seen in Instance #1 above, the place we aimed to get as shut to twenty,000 miles in distance flown as potential, however strove to not overshoot that restrict and cross into the following distance band (which might entail an extra chunk of Asia Miles that we’d have to pay).
Switch Bonuses
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles could be transferred from American Specific Membership Rewards (at a 1:0.75 ratio), RBC Avion (at a 1:1 ratio), and HSBC Rewards (at a 25:8 ratio). We generally see switch bonuses from these packages to Asia Miles, which may basically decrease the general price of an award reserving.
For instance, let’s keep in mind a 20% switch bonus, and suppose you’re wanting on the South East Asia journey listed above. With the conversion bonus considered, you’d have to switch simply 137,500 RBC Avion factors in enterprise class.
For these of you with massive holdings in Avion, this may very well be one of the profitable methods to make use of your Avion factors on an unforgettable journey.
Switch from Amex US
Whereas the switch ratio from American Specific Canada is 1:0.75 (which is alas inferior to the 1:1 switch ratios to Aeroplan and British Airways Avios), Amex US lets you switch US MR factors to Asia Miles at par.
This might subsequently be a superb use of the signup bonuses you earn on Amex US bank cards.
Keep in mind, you may switch Canadian Amex MR factors to US MR factors on the prevailing alternate charge as soon as each 12 months as nicely.
Taxes & Charges
One factor to notice about Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is that it isn’t probably the most environment friendly award program when it comes to taxes and charges. British Airways and Qatar Airways flights specifically appear to come back with excessive surcharges, whereas the opposite airways appear to have extra average surcharges hooked up.
Beginning in North America, be ready to pay at the least $400–500 (CAD) in extra charges for such a redemption, and certain extra.
Methods to Search and Guide
Guide these Cathay Pacific Asia Miles multi-carrier awards in the very same method as some other advanced award: perform a little research on the routes served by Oneworld airways, plan out a route that matches all the principles, after which seek for availability.
Whereas ExpertFlyer is usually an incredible instrument for looking for availability, it lacks the power to search for award house on a number of Oneworld member airways, like Cathay Pacific, Japan Airways, or Qatar Airways.
As an alternative, chances are you’ll wish to use an internet site with a calendar search perform to search for a particular flight. Each the Alaska Mileage Plan and American Airways AAdvantage web sites have such features, and also you’ll save a variety of time this manner.
To hurry issues up, be sure you’re looking for direct flights between your metropolis pairs, as it will remove some other connecting flights that you just won’t wish to have.
Lastly, one draw back to the Oneworld Multi-Provider Award Chart is that you just’ll have to name the Asia Miles name centre to ebook something beneath this award chart, and Asia Miles’s name centre brokers could be notoriously tough to work with. Don’t be afraid to name a number of instances with a purpose to discover an agent who’s accustomed to this system, and ensure to do all of the analysis beforehand so you may information the agent by means of the method if vital.
Conclusion
With the unparalleled capacity to have 5 stopovers and two open-jaws on a single itinerary, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles’s Oneworld Multi-Provider Award Chart could be extraordinarily helpful for these of you planning advanced round-the-world journeys.
Whereas the mileage necessities are increased than what you’d discover on a regular round-trip reserving, the much more beneficiant stopover and routing allowances make the “Asia Miles RTW” a extremely engaging proposition, and one in every of many candy spots price taking a look at inside the wider program.
