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- ✈️ Best way to book Cathay business class
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Booking Cathay Pacific business class has never been this easy.
Photo by Edwin Leong via Wikimedia Commons
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is considered one of the world’s best airlines, offering an unmatched product in economy, business and first class.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’d know how much I prefer booking award flights (flights booked with points) over flights booked with cash. After all, wouldn’t you prefer a way to book long-haul business class that doesn’t require thousands of dollars?
Cathay Pacific award flights can be booked through their own loyalty program - Asia Miles, or through the loyalty program of any of their partner airlines.
Cathay’s Asia Miles program usually has more award flight availability than other programs. However, it’s generally not very easy or accessible for most travellers to earn Asia Miles.
Best way to book
Surprisingly, the best way to book Cathay Pacific award flights in 2024 is through Finnair’s loyalty program - Finnair Plus.
Finnair recently joined the Avios points system, which is also used by British Airways, Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling, making Avios points incredibly easy to earn.
Finnair’s entry into the Avios network makes it possible to transfer points from any of the other Avios airlines, such as British Airways, directly to your Finnair Plus account. Essentially, I can now transfer any number of points from my British Airways account to my Finnair Plus account, and vice-versa.
Compared to the other airlines using Avios, Finnair currently has the lowest points redemption rates, which you can see in the chart below⤵
Based on this chart, a flight from New York to Hong Kong would cost 75,000 points in business class if you booked with Finnair.
But if you tried booking with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, this same flight would cost you 110,000 points. Even more surprisingly, if you booked this flight with British Airways, it would cost you 154,500 points!
As I mentioned earlier, you can transfer Avios points between British Airways and Finnair. If you were to transfer your points from British Airways to Finnair, you’d be able to book the exact same flight for half the amount of points required.
Therefore, with Finnair’s current award flight redemption rates, it’s a no-brainer to book Cathay Pacific award flights through the Finnair Plus loyalty program, if you have the opportunity to.
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