HeyMax adds direct points transfers to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

HeyMax is in the midst of a major overhaul of its Max Miles loyalty programme, a revamp which began in April 2025.

The long-term goal is ambitious— 50 airline and hotel partners by 2027— but the transition comes with short-term pain. Instant points transfers are temporarily suspended, and the minimum conversion requirement has been raised to 10,000 Max Miles for most partners.

However, progress is starting to show. Direct points conversions to Qatar Privilege Club were restored in July 2025, followed by Accor Live Limitless and a handful of minor frequent flyer programmes. Now, we’re seeing another heavyweight brought back on board with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. 

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HeyMax adds direct points transfers to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

HeyMax has added direct points transfers between Max Miles and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, effective immediately.

• Transfers are at a 1:1 ratio
• A minimum conversion of 1,000 Max Miles is required, but subsequent conversions can be as little as 1 Max Mile
• All conversions are free of charge

Conversions can be made via the HeyMax app. You will first be required to link your Asia Miles and HeyMax accounts, which cannot be subsequently unlinked (a security measure to prevent one HeyMax user from transferring miles to multiple accounts).

Do note that transfers to Asia Miles are not instant. Instead, you’ll need to wait up to five business days, and unlike the rest of HeyMax’s direct points transfer partners (which quote one business day but are really completed instantly), this isn’t just a case of underpromising and overdelivering.

In my personal experience, I made a transfer on 30 October, and at the time of publishing I’m still waiting for the miles to credit.

What can you redeem with Asia Miles?

Cathay Pacific revised its award chart in April 2025, increasing the cost of selected long-haul Business Class flights, but also making a marginal reduction to selected short-haul Economy awards.

Asia Miles no longer publishes an award chart for partner redemptions, but Australian Frequent Flyer has put together the following, which I believe to be accurate:

If you need to know the distance between two (or more) airports, you can use the GCMap to plot it.

Some potential sweet spots are shown below. I think that Hong Kong (in Economy) and Europe (in Business, for any destination that stays under the 7,500 miles band) are particularly attractive.

What about HeyMax’s other airline and hotel partners?

HeyMax is still a long way from restoring the pre-April 2025 setup, when converting miles was as simple as visiting an online portal, entering the desired amount, and seeing them instantly appear in your account. 

That’s basically the Direct Transfer model which Asia Miles, Accor, Qatar Privilege Club and three other programmes are now on, which is far superior with its instant conversions and 1,000 Max Mile minimums. 

Unfortunately, the rest of HeyMax’s airline and hotel partners remain under the Cash For Miles model, which is cumbersome to say the least.

1. Fill out a manual redemption form
2. Wait for a virtual Visa debit card to be issued (up to five business days)
3. Visit the airline/hotel’s official portal to purchase miles/points
4. Wait for the miles/points to be credited (may be instant, but could take a few days)

The lack of instant conversions hampers your ability to act quickly should the award seats you want suddenly become available. Moreover, there is a hefty minimum conversion of 10,000 Max Miles, and not every airline and hotel programme has a seamless process for members to purchase miles or points.

With some, like Air Canada Aeroplan, it’s a very straightforward task that can be done completely online. With others, like Royal Orchid Plus, the process is more clunky, requiring members to call up customer service or submit a manual form. Fortunately, most of the partners you’d want to redeem miles for — like Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Flying Blue — do make miles purchases very simple.

What can you do with Max Miles?

HeyMax partners with 24 airline and 8 hotel loyalty programmes, almost all of which offer 1:1 conversions without any fees.

Max Miles can also be used to pay for air tickets at a rate of 1.8 cents each via FlyAnywhere, with a minimum redemption of 1,000 Max Miles. All you need to do is submit a recent air ticket on any airline, to anywhere in the world.

Do note that after several months of allowing partial redemptions, FlyAnywhere now requires full redemptions once more (i.e. you must redeem sufficient Max Miles to cover the entire value of the ticket). On the bright side, it now allows you to redeem the cash portion of your award flight booking as well, instead of being restricted to commercial bookings only.

This effectively sets a baseline value for Max Miles, and should rule out some airline and hotel transfer partners.

Conclusion

HeyMax has added direct points transfers to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, with a 1:1 transfer ratio and a minimum conversion of 1,000 miles. Unfortunately, conversions are not instant, and you’ll need to wait up to five business days to receive your miles.

Don’t forget that you can also convert Max Miles into Accor Live Limitless points, which might be the better deal if you’re already invested in the Accor ecosystem. Alternatively, you can consider Qatar Airways Privilege Club, which offers some lucrative sweet spots.

(Cover photo: Plane’s Portrait Aviation Media)