5 Things to Know About the Cathay Pacific Credit Card

The $99-annual-fee Cathay World Elite Mastercard, issued by Synchrony, is the only co-branded card offered by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways that’s available in the U.S. But it may not be the best option even for frequent Cathay flyers.

Cardholders can earn Asia Miles at decent rates, but overall, the travel benefits are subpar for an airline card at this price point.

Travelers who are after Asia Miles would be better off with an American Express Membership Rewards-earning card, whose points are transferrable to Cathay Pacific. And if you’re not a frequent Cathay flyer, a general rewards card would be more useful and valuable.

Here’s what to know about the Cathay Mastercard.

The Cathay Mastercard earns the following:

Those aren’t bad rates and are in line with what you might find on similarly priced airline credit cards. But as with most co-branded cards, unless you do a lot of business with Cathay, it’ll take you a while to amass a lot of miles.

That’s especially true given the card’s relatively weak sign-up bonus: As of this writing, new applicants are eligible for 38,000 bonus miles when they spend $3,000 in the first 90 days of account opening. That’s underwhelming compared with other airline cards at this price point, which tend to offer welcome bonuses of at least 50,000 miles — and sometimes much more — for the same required spending amount (or less).

You can redeem Asia Miles toward flights with Cathay Pacific, partner airlines, hotel stays, car rentals, experiences and gift cards, among other options. The value of those miles varies depending on what you redeem them for. For example, as of this writing, the lowest number of miles (base miles) required for a one-way business seat on an international flight between a major North American city like New York and Hong Kong is 115,000 miles.

You can also earn and redeem miles without having the card, via the free-to-join Cathay Membership program. It allows you to earn miles through Cathay flights, partner airlines, hotel stays, car rentals and shopping with Cathay retail and online partners, among other opportunities. Cathay is also a member of the Oneworld alliance airlines, which means you can book Cathay flights using miles earned from frequent flyer programs of any of the Oneworld member airlines.

Plus, you can transfer miles between Cathay and its additional partners, one of which is Marriott Bonvoy. This means Bonvoy members can transfer Marriott points to Cathay at a 3-points-to-1-mile ratio, and convert Asia Miles to Marriott Bonvoy points at a 2-miles-to-1-point ratio. You also get 5,000 Asia Miles for every 60,000 Marriott points you transfer to miles.

The card comes with the following travel perks, in addition to ongoing rewards:

Cardholders earn 10 Cathay status points for every $5,000 they spend with the card per month, up to 100 status points per year. This can certainly help you on your journey to Cathay Membership status.

However, that’s a high spending bar to hit every month, and with the 100-point yearly cap, you’ll still fall short of reaching even Silver status.

Members need 300 points per year to reach Silver status, 600 for Gold, and 1,200 for Diamond status.

Cathay is a 1:1 transfer partner with American Express Membership Rewards, which means that if Asia Miles are particularly valuable to you, you can rake in a lot more of them — and probably in quicker fashion — with an eligible American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points.

With an eligible American Express card, you can also transfer points you earn to other AmEx transfer partners as well, which can offer more flexibility. Terms apply.