American Express Devalues Transfers to Cathay Pacific

Just a few days ago we saw Citi join most other credit card providers and devalue their transfers to Emirates Skywards. Now, American Express is devaluing another one of their transfer partners, this time with Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific Transfers Devalued as of March 1st, 2026

Starting on March 1st, 2026, American Express transfers to Cathay Pacific will go from 1:1 to 5:4. This means that for every 1,000 points transferred, you will only get 800 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is a tricky but useful program. In years past, it was a great way to find 2+ business class seats to Asia. They also released a fair amount of first class seats as well. That has completely changed and it is very rare to see even one first class seat or two business class seats on more than a handful of dates throughout the year. They will occasionally dump a lot of award space sporadically so you need to be quick if you want to book something.

Cathay being in the OneWorld alliance can also be a good way to book American Airlines or other partner flights. However, with this devaluation, it will no longer be a great option.

My Take on This

This is obviously not great. We never like to see devaluations on our points transfers and I’m really hoping this isn’t the start of a trend. Each airline charges the credit card provider different rates when you transfer points. Historically, transfers evened out in the end. I really don’t like seeing different transfer ratios for each airline. I’m hoping this is not going to be a trend.

On the flip side, it has become easier and easier to earn tons of credit card points through sign up bonuses as well as great spending bonuses for various categories.