While poking around the Cathay Pacific website searching for flights for the fun of it (yes I have no social life), I chanced upon this promotion which Cathay is running in conjunction UOB cards. You can access the page for yourself here.
The promotion supposedly started on the 28 December 2017, but was rather low key. It (along with the UOB promotional fares) runs until 19 January 2018, but is limited to the first 800 transactions and may or may not already be fully redeemed. So don’t go into this expecting to get the bonus miles for sure, but if you’re already booking tickets it might be a nice surprise bonus.
Up to 6,000 extra bonus Asia Miles
Under this promotion, if you were to take advantage of the promotional fares Cathay is offering when booking with UOB cards, you would be eligible to earn a bonus ofย 3,000 Asia Milesย per ticket booked, capped at a bonus of 6,000 Asia Miles. Meaning if you were to book 2 tickets, you would be eligible for an additional 6,000 Asia Miles. However, if you were to book tickets for a family of four, you would only be entitled to a maximum of 6,000 bonus Asia Miles in this promotion in your booking.
Note that this bonus will only apply for the first two tickets per Asia Mile member account. Meaning that if your first booking was for 2 persons, you would have already maxed out the bonus. If you were to book for yourself however (yay to solo travelling), you can still enjoy the bonus 3,000 Asia Miles on another booking made during the promotional period.
Also, if you’re not an existing Asia Miles member, you would get a joining bonus of 250 miles (yay). The fares must be booked on Cathay’s website under their UOB special fares landing pageย for the bonus miles to be triggered.
Worth it?
UOB cards generally don’t earn in bonus categories for airline tickets purchased online via the airline’s websites. I’ve compiled a chart below showing how much miles you’d earn in the case of a ticket to Hong Kong if you were to use your UOB cards vs using a 4mpd/3mpd card.
| Fare Price : | $321.4 | ||
| UOB Prvi Miles (1.4mpd) | DBS WWMC (4mpd) | DBS ALT (3mpd) | |
| Miles from Card (estimate) | 448 | 1285 | 964 |
| Miles from accrual | 796 | 796 | 796 |
| Bonus Miles | 3000 | 0 | 0 |
| Total Miles Earned | 4244 | 2081 | 1760 |
Even though you have forgone the 4mpd on the DBS WWMC and the 3mpd on the DBS Altitude, you’d still come out ahead by using your Privi Miles card to book as the bonus miles will offset the loss in 4mpd/3mpd. (if you’re within the first 800 that is)
Conclusion
If you have a holiday planned to a regional destination but don’t want to burn your miles, Cathay’s promotion seems quite decent given the bonus miles earned.
