Cathay Pacific broke five years of Asia Miles stability with three hikes in three years

For about five years, Cathay Pacific kept the Asia Miles award chart stable — the quiet promise that makes a frequent-flyer programme worth joining. Then, on 1 October 2023, it broke. Premium-cabin awards rose 20 to 30 percent; a business-class seat from Hong Kong to the west coast of North America went from 70,000 miles to 84,000. A few economy awards actually got cheaper, which made the premium rise easier to swallow — for a moment.

The hikes did not stop. Another adjustment came in April 2025 and a third on 1 May 2026, lifting long and ultra-long-haul business-class awards by a further 2,000 to 4,000 miles. Taken together, the three changes made a long-haul business-class award about 40 percent more expensive than it had been less than three years earlier. On the longest routes the price climbed from 85,000 miles to 119,000.

Then Cathay stopped publishing the charts at all. The airline withdrew the award tables for both its own flights and its partners, which the frequent-flyer press read as a step toward dynamic pricing — devaluations with no warning and no number to hold the airline to. "It feels like we are edging ever closer to dynamic award pricing," wrote MileLion, the programme's most closely read chronicler, adding that the opacity "leaves the door open to unannounced devaluations."

The reaction came from exactly the people the programme exists to reward. In the comments and specialist blogs that high-value frequent flyers read, the tone turned from disappointment to distrust — readers calculating that a second premium seat now cost twice as much, others flagging partner awards creeping up. A loyalty currency is a promise of stable value; Cathay had spent five years building it and three years spending it down.