Why Asia Miles companion tickets makes more sense.

Having grown up in Sydney and having family in Hong Kong, most of the flights I’ve taken as a child has always been on OneWorld airlines (either Qantas or Cathay). As a result, when I first started my pilgrimage towards earning more miles, it was Marco Polo that I started my analysis with, and so far it has been great!

Generally speaking, I love Cathay’s products and spending Asia Miles via Marco Polo hasn’t been too difficult when trying to redeem business companion tickets for my partner when we go on Holidays. Companion tickets via Cathay in my opinion works great because:

1. The cheapest business tickets are actually reasonable prices and using companion tickets allows you to effectively get 50% off if companion tickets are available (just need to ring Marco Polo)
2. Redeeming companion tickets cost less Asia Miles compared with flight awards, and unlike upgrade awards, you don’t have to by the more expensive tickets.
3. For the flight you bought, you actually earn miles for your account again (reducing the miles spend even more)

In terms of the pricing, because Business tickets normally gets you most flights selections (even on saver); you’re pretty much paying a little more than premium economy to get Business Class (sometimes even cheaper).

If you do have a travel companion, it does make sense because for a net 60k miles (75k – 15k you earn back); you’re effectively getting a 45k HKD product – giving you 0.75HKD per miles worth.

While if you were to redeem a premium award (which cost 72k miles on it’s own) – you end up getting 0.3HKD per miles worth.

Obviously, this is even worst when you compare this with Economy award redemption where the equivalent ticket cost 12k HKD by points wise will set you back 60k miles – getting you 0.2HKD per mile.

Obviously, when you move up to First class, the value for your miles is even greater (almost 0.87HKD per mile) – but Cathay also has quite an expensive first class pricing (80k HKD a ticket) and you can get First Class alternatives with other OneWorld airlines for cheaper (stay tuned).