How to Fly Business Class to India through Cathay Pacific Partner Awards for Less Using American Express Membership Rewards Points

Booking My First Flight in Business Class

Our first ever business class flight will be our flight from Boston to New Delhi on July 12. I have learned a lot through my points and miles journey so far, and booking this award flight was a big part of that process.

I started by a lot of podcast binging (Geobreeze Travel Podcast is where my obsession with Points and Miles grew as I listened to people tell their amazing travel hacking stories! Frequent Miler is my current obsession and it's pretty much always playing when I have a moment to listen!) The podcasts were so inspiring and I knew if other people could do this, then I could too! I quickly started down the rabbit hole. I had already opened an American Platinum Express Card, but I really didn't know what I was doing yet. Through all of this intense research, I figured out that points are so much more powerful when you transfer them to airline partners to book flights.

The Process--Initial Step

I started researching flights and routes from Boston to Mumbai, Boston to Delhi, Boston to Dubai, etc to find out the best options and best carriers. Granted we've flown to India many times and already had a good idea of routes and carriers, but I still wanted to know my options. I started googling "best way to fly to India from the US in business class on points and miles." It didn't seem like there was a great option, but I found some options and started searching. I searched Aeroplan (because we had Aeroplan points from a credit card bonus we earned last year before we even knew what that really meant) but they didn't have any good awards available as I was specifically looking for business class only. I've flown to India 5 times and every time there is a point in the flight where I literally have a mini panic attack and feel like I will not make it through the misery. I wanted to avoid that moment this time! Next I searched United because I heard they have some sweet spot saver awards, but again, nothing good was available. I searched Virgin Atlantic, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, KLM, and several others with no luck. I finally read an article about Cathay Pacific Asia Mile partner awards to India and so I went to their site to search. You had to make an account in order to search for flight awards so I signed up and made an account. I was then able to search and after manipulating days, I found award availability in business class for 4 people via a British Airways Flight on July 12 for 75,000 points each. I was so excited!

Step 1: Click on Redeem Flights and then enter your search criteria

Be sure to follow us on Instagram to see if the lie flat seats turn out to be everything

we've hoped and dreamed for on our next long haul flight in a few days!

Step 3: Select an award that works-you might have to change the date and play around with it

Unfortunately, Cathay Pacific's award search doesn't have a broad calendar view so you do have to search day by day and it was a little tedious. However, I only had about a 7 day window in which we were willing to book our flights, so on each search for every site, I was only searching those 7 days

Step 4: Transfer Miles and Book!

Once you've found an award that works for you and you've confirmed availability, it's time to transfer your points and book! I was using American Express Membership Reward points and I had google searched how long it takes for them to transfer. Most sources said Amex points would transfer to Cathay Pacific almost instantaneously so I went over to my Amex account and transferred the points.

First, navigate to the Rewards and Benefits Tab on your account page. Then, scroll down to the Ready to Redeem section and click on Transfer Points, then View All. Next, select your transfer partner. If it's your first time transferring miles with that partner, you will have to enter your account number. Once you've linked your account, you can enter the amount of points you want to transfer, click review transfer, and then after double checking, hit submit transfer!

The good news was, they did transfer within about 15 minutes. I'll admit I was feeling nervous while my points were in limbo! What if the award availability was gone? What if the points got lost in space?! I may or may not have been logging in and out repeatedly hoping they'd appear faster! But alas, they landed in my Cathay Pacific account and I was ready to go. Or was I?

BUT---it wasn't actually that easy!

From what I've learned so far, a lot of airlines have quirks. One quirk of Cathay Pacific is that you must have each individual you are booking on the award flight designated in your profile on your redemption group. For Cathay Pacific you can add up to 5 friends or family members for free and after that, you have to pay a fee. There is also a fee of $75 to change these members if you want to later. But, as I hadn't designated anyone yet, I was able to add my kids and husband for free. Of course, I didn't know this and couldn't figure out why it still wouldn't let me book the flight even though I had enough miles. I called Cathay Pacific and after about 20 minutes on hold, talked with a customer service agent who explained the whole process to me. As it was my first award booking ever, I was feeling very nervous about the award space disappearing before I was able to book it, so every extra step I had to take and every extra second it took was nerve-wracking! The agent told me that I couldn't add them over the phone, but instead I'd first have to create an account for all of them with Cathay Pacific and then add them to my account to book. Of course, this wasn't a quick task as I ended up having to create an email address for my kids as well! But, 30 minutes or so later, I had them in the account and was ready to book again! I hit the next button to book, completed the payment, and we were booked on our first business class flight!

The Math

In total, we paid a total of 300,000 points and $2,558 in taxes and fees total for all 4 of us! The cash cost for this flight would have been $18,936 on the day I booked it! That’s a savings of $16,378 and a 5.5 cent per mile redemption rate on our points!

Final Thoughts

If you are planning to book a Cathay Pacific Award flight, be sure to have everyone in your travel party designated in your redemption group before transferring your points! Customer care with Cathay Pacific was a little clunky to navigate, but the agent I spoke to was helpful once I got them on the phone. I've called a couple of times since then with a few additional questions and have had the same experience.

If you have any questions, send me a message below and I'll get back to you!