Best Ways to Book Cathay Pacific Premium Economy Class with Points and Miles

Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong and a founding member of Oneworld Alliance. The airline has garnered a reputation for excellent customer service and providing a luxurious experience in its premium cabins. While Cathay Pacific’s business-class product is most often talked about, its premium-economy cabin is also impressive. In fact, Cathay Pacific was ranked the sixth-best premium-economy airline in the world, according to a 2025 Skytrax ranking.

When flying in Cathay Pacific’s premium-economy cabin, you’ll enjoy spacious and comfortable seats, large HD personal entertainment monitors, gourmet meals inspired by classic Cantonese flavors, complimentary alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages and more. Of course, cash fares for Cathay Pacific premium-economy tickets are considerably higher than those for economy fares.

So, if you want to experience Cathay Pacific’s premium-economy product without paying a high out-of-pocket cost, the best way to do so is by booking these flights with points and miles. In this article, we’ll explain the best ways to book Cathay Pacific premium-economy award flights with points and miles. Plus, we’ll briefly look at what you can expect when flying in Cathay Pacific’s premium-economy class.

What to Expect in Cathay Pacific Premium-Economy Class

Cathay Pacific offers a premium-economy service on most of its long-haul international flights, as well as on select medium-haul and regional flights. These flights operate using several different aircraft types. The following table includes all of the aircraft types in the Cathay Pacific fleet that offer premium-economy service and some specifications about the premium-economy cabin on each aircraft:

To clarify, there are several Airbus A330-300 aircraft in the Cathay Pacific fleet. However, only the 33K version offers premium-economy service. All Boeing 777-300 aircraft in the Cathay Pacific fleet (including 77A, 77J and 77K versions) offer premium-economy service except for the 77P version.

Every premium-economy seat on Cathay Pacific has USB charging ports and an AC power outlet, so your devices remain charged throughout the flight. All premium-economy seats also feature personal entertainment monitors, and some Boeing 777-300 aircraft have screens up to 15.6 inches (the largest in-flight entertainment system in any premium-economy cabin in the airline industry).

It’s also worth noting that Cathay Pacific was rated as having the best in-flight entertainment system in the global airline industry, according to the 2025 Skytrax Awards. This system gives you access to a curated lineup of Asian films, Hollywood cinema, TV shows (including Disney+ Originals) and music. You can watch live sports events on Airbus A350 aircraft, and this capability is being introduced across the entire fleet. You can even check if the lavatory is occupied right on your screen.

If you’re a Cathay Pacific Asia Miles member, you can also access complimentary in-flight Wi-Fi by inputting your Cathay Asia Miles account number.

Premium-economy passengers on Cathay Pacific long-haul flights receive an environmentally friendly amenity kit upon boarding, which includes socks, a sleep mask, earplugs, a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Of course, Cathay Pacific premium-economy passengers also receive a complimentary meal on long-haul flights. The premium-economy menu was crafted in collaboration with Michelin-starred dining partners and includes inspiration from Hong Kong flavors as well as favorite dishes from Asia and beyond. Here’s an example of a dinner that you might receive in premium-economy class on a long-haul Cathay Pacific flight:

• Seasonal fresh fruit
• Bread and butter
• Hong Kong beef curry, broccoli and steamed rice or roasted ling fish with anchovy, black olive and tomato sauce, mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes
• Cherry crumble cake
• Coffee or tea

On certain flight routes, premium-economy passengers will also receive lunch service. You’ll also be served a Hong Kong egg tart paired with a selection of drinks. Other snacks are available upon request, including cup noodles.

Special meals for a wide range of dietary restrictions are also available upon request but must be booked at least 24 hours before departure.

Of course, premium-economy passengers are also entitled to complimentary alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, including an extensive wine list and Betsy beer—a pale ale with flavors of mandarin orange that’s specially brewed for Cathay Pacific passengers to enjoy at 35,000 feet.

Your premium-economy experience begins before you even board your flight with priority treatment at the airport, including dedicated check-in counters at selected airports and priority boarding at the gate.

Premium-economy passengers on long-haul flights are also entitled to two pieces of checked luggage (up to 50 pounds each), one piece of carry-on luggage (up to 15 pounds) and one small personal item. By comparison, economy passengers may only take one piece of checked baggage, depending on the fare class.

Best Programs Through Which You Can Book Cathay Pacific Premium-Economy Class

Because Cathay Pacific is a member of Oneworld Alliance, Cathay Pacific award flights can often be booked through Oneworld partner frequent flyer programs. However, while Cathay Pacific economy- and business-class awards are relatively easy to find through partner programs, premium-economy awards are much more scarce.

The partner frequent flyer program through which you can most often find award availability for Cathay Pacific premium-economy awards is Qantas Frequent Flyer. You can also, of course, book Cathay Pacific premium-economy awards through Cathay Pacific’s own Asia Miles frequent flyer program.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

In general, the best frequent flyer program for booking Cathay Pacific premium-economy award flights is Cathay Pacific’s own Asia Miles program. This program offers plenty of Cathay Pacific premium-economy award availability on direct flights between Hong Kong and North America. Plus, since the Asia Miles program uses fixed award charts to price Cathay Pacific-operated flights, these awards tend to offer high value per mile.

For example, we found a round-trip Cathay Pacific premium-economy award itinerary between Los Angeles (LAX) and Hong Kong (HKG) for 100,000 Asia Miles and 2,143 Hong Kong dollars (about $275USD) in taxes and fees.

If you were to book the same flight itinerary with cash instead of miles through the Cathay Pacific website, it would cost you about $3,328.

So, factoring in the taxes and fees you’ll have to pay for the award flight, this redemption would yield about 3.1 cents per mile in value, which is excellent.

Another major advantage of the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program is that it’s a 1:1 transfer partner of several of the major credit card rewards programs in the United States, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards. This means it’s relatively easy to earn Cathay Pacific miles if you have a rewards credit card from any of these issuers.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Aside from Cathay Pacific’s own Asia Miles program, the most common frequent flyer program through which you can book Cathay Pacific premium-economy award flights is Qantas Frequent Flyer. Unfortunately, in most cases, the Qantas Frequent Flyer program offers less favorable pricing than Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

Nonetheless, if you’re unable to earn Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, then using Qantas Frequent Flyer might be a decent option.

For example, we found a round-trip Cathay Pacific premium-economy award itinerary between San Francisco (SFO) and Hong Kong (HKG) for a total of 196,400 Qantas Points and 1,418 Australian dollars (about $943USD) in taxes and fees.

If you were to book the same flights on the same dates with cash through the Cathay Pacific website, they would cost you about $3,328.

So, despite the relatively high taxes and fees for this award flight, this redemption would still give you a value of about 1.2 cents per point. While this value isn’t very impressive, it’s still better than the value you’d get by redeeming credit card points through credit card travel portals.

The Qantas Frequent Flyer program is also a 1:1 transfer partner of several major U.S. credit card rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards. So, if you have a rewards credit card from any of these three issuers, you can accumulate Qantas Points through transfers.

Credit Cards Travel Portals

If you’re unable to accumulate rewards with either Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or Qantas Frequent Flyer, then your only option for booking Cathay Pacific premium-economy award flights will likely be through credit card travel booking portals.

Unfortunately, when booking through these credit card travel portals, you’ll nearly always get a value of exactly 1 cent per point. This is very poor compared to the value that you can get through transfer partners. For this reason, we recommend saving your points for future redemptions through transfer partners rather than redeeming them for flights through credit card travel portals.

Nonetheless, if you really need to book a Cathay Pacific premium-economy flight with points, you can do so through these travel portals. For example, we found a round-trip Cathay Pacific premium-economy itinerary between Dallas-Forth Worth (DFW) and Hong Kong (HKG) through Capital One’s travel booking site for 228,963 Capital One miles.

As you can see, you can also book this flight for $2,290. So, once again, this redemption would give you a value of 1 cent per mile.

However, since you can transfer Capital One miles to the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program at a 1:1 ratio, you should check whether this flight is available through Asia Miles before booking it through Capital One’s travel booking site. If this flight were available, you would almost certainly get considerably more value out of your miles just by taking the extra step of transferring them to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

The Bottom Line

Cathay Pacific has a global reputation for providing an excellent in-flight experience, and its premium-economy product is no exception. When flying Cathay Pacific’s premium-economy class, you can expect priority treatment in the airport, extra baggage allowance, an amenity kit containing self-care products, complimentary meals designed by Michelin-starred chefs and the airline industry’s top-rated in-flight entertainment system.

Of course, premium-economy seats on long-haul flights with Cathay Pacific have considerably higher cash prices than economy fares on the same flight. So, if you want to experience Cathay Pacific’s premium-economy class without paying a high out-of-pocket cost, your best bet is to book these flights with points and miles.

As Cathay Pacific is a member of Oneworld Alliance, you can book Cathay Pacific premium-economy award flights through the Qantas Frequent Flyer program (since Qantas is also a Oneworld member), as well as Cathay Pacific’s own Asia Miles program. Luckily, both programs are transfer partners of several major U.S. credit card rewards programs.

However, if you’re unable to use either the Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or Qantas Frequent Flyer, you can also book Cathay Pacific premium-economy awards through credit card travel booking portals. Unfortunately, doing so always yields a value of exactly 1 cent per point, which is poor compared to the value you can get through transfer partners.