[YMMV] American Express Transfer Bonus: Up To 20% To Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (1:1.2)

The Offer

  • You can currently receive a transfer bonus of up to 20% when you  transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Normally you can transfer 1,000 MR points and receive 1,000 Asia Miles, during this promotion you’ll receive up to 1,200(1:1.2).

Our Verdict

American Express has only ever offered one transfer bonus to Asia Miles and that was up to 30%. It’s possible this bonus is 30% for some people and lower for others, but I’ve only seen a report of 20% so far. This is a good deal if you need Asia miles as the transfer bonuses are rare. You can view a full history of American Express transfer bonuses by clicking here.

Hat tip to geauxcali
    William Charles
  • On October 19, 2021, 18:49
Tags: american expressamerican express transfer bonusescathay pacific

View Comments (19)

  • Make sure you guys check again if you didn't see the bonus. I looked and saw no bonus and an error message popped up.

    I waited a couple weeks and the 20% bonus showed up on my account today. Transfer went through in seconds.

  • Anyone used/booked their round the world award ? That seems to be the best bang for your miles but I am not sure how availability is.

    • 20% bonus for me. My ASIA miles account was not linked to Membership rewards. Was yours linked? Did you ever transfer to them? Just wondering if that is a data point.

  • Does anyone know when the 20% transfer bonus offer is set to expire? My Membership Rewards interface has been quite glitchy today and I can't seem to find this info. I know the last big round of transfer bonuses all expired on 9/30/21.

  • I think when posting about Amex transfer bonuses, it's worth mentioning the receiving program's expiration policy. Even in non-pandemic years, but especially now.

    The last time I checked, Cathay Pacific miles expire after 18 months (unless you earn or redeem some). That may have changed, I don't know.

    Worth considering: Hong Kong has been, and continues to be, essentially closed to non-residents because of COVID, and the government in Beijing (which has increasingly imposed its heavy hand on HK in recent months) appears to be in no hurry to relax travel restrictions any time in the foreseeable future. Since virtually every Cathay Pacific flight goes through Hong Kong, transferring Amex points to Asia Miles in hopes of using them before they expire is a bet I would not make. It's impossible to know what Beijing will do, they could open up Hong Kong tomorrow. Or they could keep it closed for another two years. No way to know, but from what I see, they are not in any hurry.

    • I use award wallet and its pretty easy to push 1000 miles or some minor amount once a year or so. Award wallet alerts you for any expirations.

      • I think these days everything is still speculative. You could book something in a few weeks or months and there could be COVID restrictions or some issue. Especially overseas

      • If you don’t do these transfers speculatively they are rarely available when you need them. I frequently do them especially with Amex. I know I’ll use the miles and with a 20% bonus I have some protection against devaluation. Besides I have a ton of these MR points and I fear an AMEX closure might wipe them all out. After all, I do play on the fringes.
        There is no greater devaluation than going to zero in a day.

      • Tbh I don't really disagree in general. Maybe it's not a completely terrible idea if you can find a program that has both a good, long expiration policy, and it's a program that you are confident you will want to AND BE ABLE TO use reasonably soon. An example: Korean Air has (or at least had) a 10-year expiration policy, a solid premium product, and they fly from my home city to many destinations on my list. I was comfortable stashing some miles there (because I'm sitting on mountains of points in multiple programs).

        But Cathay -- with a short expiration window -- AND with a political situation that's bad and untenable going forward....this seems like a particularly bad idea to me. Just my 2 cents....and a caution to anyone tempted by this. LOTS of downside risk there.

  • got target for P2,
    but "Point Transfers to Asia Miles are currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience."

  • Is there any good uses on using Cathay miles to asia in business/first class? Planning a trip to Thaliand

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