Cathay Pacific has announced changes to the expiration of points in its Asia Miles program.
As it stands today, any points earned in the program expire three years after they are earned. So, for example, if you were to earn a point today, it would expire in December 2022.
What’s Changing?
As of 1 January 2020, newly earned Asia Miles will no longer expire three years after being credited to your account. Instead, Asia Miles will move to an activity-based expiration. As a result, you should be able to keep your points longer.
Instead, your miles will remain intact as long as you have some activity in your account every 18 months.
It’s not all good news though. The new rules only kick in for points earned from 1 January 2020. Any points earned prior to 2020 will still expire after three years.
As a result, between 2020 and 2022 you could have points operating under two different activity systems. Cathay Pacific has a graphic to demonstrate this.
As you use your points, you use your oldest points first. So, if you use points during the transition period, you will first use points from the time-based system. Once you have used all these, you will begin using your points from the activity-based system.
What Is “Qualifying Activity?”
Almost all activity that involves earning or redeeming points will be considered as a qualifying activity.
Cathay Pacific has listed a few exclusions though. These include things like getting miles refunded to your account from canceling an award, a waitlist redemption application, or mileage expiration.
Outside that, pretty much anything else will count.
Final Thoughts
I was never a fan of the hard expiration policy. For historic reasons, its the one in place at Asia Miles, Krisflyer and Enrich. Fortunately, Asia Miles has decided to move on from that system.
I guess if you need an expiry system, an activity bases system is as good as it gets. As long as you keep activity in your account, you can continue to amass points over a longer period.
For more details on the change, head over to Asia Miles.