Cathay Pacific is offering a 10% bonus transferring credit card points to Asia Miles in January (registration required). This is a bonus offered by Cathay itself, rather than by the bank, so you won’t see it on the Membership Rewards or Citi Thank You Rewards websites.

Eligible bank programs include American Express, Citi, and Diners Club as well as a variety of international programs. Bonus miles post 8 – 10 weeks after the end of the promotion, so late March or early April. That’s unfortunate because it means that,

• The bonus won’t help you book an award now
  
• If you make a transfer to Asia Miles to book an award now, and use all the miles, you’ll wind up with a much smaller balance later

Fortunately a new policy this year is that activity in an Asia Miles account will keep your points active for 18 months, instead of points expiring after 36 months.

Here’s the Cathay Pacific (one way) saver award chart:

Here’s the award chart for redeeming on partner airlines:

Asia Miles offers more availability on Cathay Pacific to its own members than is offered to partner airlines. That’s useful. Their surcharges are sometimes lower than what British Airways charges, and I’ve found that ticketing infant fares can be less than what American AAdvantage wants for the same flights.

Note that while Capital One Venture and Spark Miles points transfer to Asia Miles, Capital One isn’t listed as an eligible financial partner for this offer. I’d speculate that’s because Capital One isn’t working directly with Cathay Pacific but going through Kaligo for their transfers. Update 1/6/20: Capital One tells me that even though they aren’t mentioned in the offer terms their “customers are eligible for this promo as well!”

I wouldn’t proactively transfer American Express or Citi (add: or Capital One) points to Cathay Pacific just to take advantage of this offer, but I’d definitely register because if you do wind up making a transfer getting 10% more points later is better than not getting points later.

(HT: Mainly Miles)