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Excellent Cathay Pacific reward availability and minimal tax – Dusseldorf to Hong Kong

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I was originally going to discuss this as part of my Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf review yesterday, but I thought it deserved a wider audience.

Few people know that Cathay Pacific flies from Dusseldorf to Hong Kong.

You may wonder why you need to know this!  The answer is:

availability is amazing

taxes are minimal

Cathay business class

I picked a random set of dates in January.  For the outbound, I can see EIGHT business class seats and TWO first class seats available for Avios redemption.

For the return, I can see SEVEN business class seats and TWO first class seats.

Looking at other dates in early 2015, 8 business class seats and 2 first class seats appears to be the standard release.

With a 12.35 departure time from Dusseldorf, you do not even need to stay over the night before as long as you get a very early flight from the UK.

When it comes to tax, you are only paying £92 return in business class.  This compares to well over £500 for a British Airways redemption in Club World – and Cathay Pacific has a substantially better reputation.

The snag ….

The only downside is that you cannot use a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher on Cathay Pacific.

ALL partner rewards are now treated as peak dates with BA.

This means that Dusseldorf to Hong Kong prices at 180,000 Avios + £92 return in Business Class.  Cathay also flies from Amsterdam and Manchester, for completeness.

On British Airways, it would be either 150,000 Avios or 180,000 Avios + £503 depending on whether it was a peak or off-peak day.   Cathay is still a better deal on this basis if you do not have a 2-4-1 voucher.

With a 2-4-1, you would be paying between 150,000 and 180,000 Avios + £1,006 on British Airways compared to 360,000 Avios + £184 with Cathay Pacific, for two people.

Of course, if you can’t get BA availability then it is a mute comparison – although you can usually get something into Chengdu or Kuala Lumpur and pay or redeem on Cathay for a connection to Hong Kong.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles

Comments (31)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alex says:
    14 Aug14 August 04:36

    Actually, CX doesn’t fly (yet) to Dusseldorf! The service launches 1 September.

    • Rob says:
      14 Aug14 August 11:35

      Thanks Alex, forgot that bit (not that it has much impact unless someone wants to go next week!)

  • Alex says:
    14 Aug14 August 04:37

    Also, just be careful booking too far in advance if you want F seats. DUS is widely rumoured to become one of the first existing routes to go three-class no-First A350 once the A350s are route proven and start being deployed on long haul routes. Rumour is that will happen from about mid-2015 onwards.

  • JQ says:
    14 Aug14 August 05:59

    CX flies from AMS/CDG/FCO/FRA/MXP and is launching DUS/ZRH.

    When you say “On British Airways, it would be either 150,000 Avios or 180,000 Avios + £503” is that a DUS-HKG-LHR with the outbound on CX and returning on BA? If it’s off-peak both ways then a BA return would still be 120000, and obviously award flights can be booked as one-ways if you can’t find availability – in which case many *A airlines do reasonably priced one-ways in J from UK-HK

  • Idrive says:
    14 Aug14 August 06:27

    And what about cancellation policy? I may be interested,though i may burn some AA for that

    • JoshBosh says:
      15 Aug15 August 02:18

      I’ve changed CX avios bookings before with the standard phone fee. Waved after i explained that i could not cancel the booking online in the first place.
      Be very cautious using the non-UK call centres though, although Malaysia was extremely helpful, they could only queue ticket issuing with BA. I had to call BA England 26 hours before take off to force the ticket to be issued….

  • PGW says:
    14 Aug14 August 07:33

    I’ve redeemed on CX ex MXP several times. Good availability and the charges are cheaper than they will be from DUS. I’ll probably stick with that.

    • Irons1980 says:
      14 Aug14 August 08:21

      Pedant alert – I think it’s a moot comparison rather than a mute one!!

      • Percy Pig says:
        14 Aug14 August 08:35

        Dammit! Someone beat me to the pedantry!

      • Percy Pig says:
        14 Aug14 August 08:36

        Although it does remind me of Joey from friends:

        “It’s a moo point. Like a cow’s opinion: It means nothing.”

      • RICO says:
        14 Aug14 August 13:06

        Do you mean pedant alert or pedant alarm.

        Pedant alarm means you have detected a pedant whereas pedant alert means that you are on the lookout for pedants.

  • Henry says:
    14 Aug14 August 09:40

    Not exactly on topic, but as a London based regular BAEC Silver card holder, with maybe 7-8 BA business (CE) trips and a similar amount of holidays (mostly short haul economy), is BAEC still the best OW FFP to belong to for status and miles collection? Assume qualifying flights might become a problem with the others.

    Thanks

    • Danksy says:
      14 Aug14 August 10:34

      The BA silver makes a difference, without this the earning rate is pretty on some economy fares when compared to (say) crediting flights to AA.

      It also depends if you travel alone or with a group since the HH account with BA allows pooling of miles whereas others don’t; and of course not forgetting the BA2f1 vouchers via BAPP.

    • Rob says:
      14 Aug14 August 11:24

      There is no simple answer. There is no stand-out scheme in oneworld for easy status and there are good reasons to have your miles in BA – those 9,000 Avios + £35 tax European redemptions and the ability to top-up with a BA Amex and Tesco.

    • RIccati says:
      14 Aug14 August 13:16

      BAEC does not serve you for long haul anymore because of the humongous amount of Avios required.

      Silver bonus of 50% is not the same as Gold bonus of 100% (of base miles) to catch up with devaluation. (If you already primarily taking CE flights, then Silver status not useful. Long-haul seat selection is a plus).

      In terms of FFP, there are better things to have with AA and Alaska (also people mention LAN/TAM) — if you can achieve OW Sapphire status there, THEN SWITCH.

      Yes, AA devaluation is coming but now maybe next year (why disrupt holiday travel patterns for Nov-Dec seasons?). Could it be as bad as 50% price increase across all zones, I doubt it very much. It is more likely to be selective.

      Get those Avios for European redemptions from Tesco vouchers/credit card. Does not make sense to get AMEX BA Plat for 25K bonus to start accumulating 180K for a return flight to Hong Kong… only for some European redemption.

    • RIccati says:
      14 Aug14 August 13:42

      Cathay’s Asia Miles deals inside East Asia region are reportedly as good as Avios here in Europe if that’s is the area where you travel.

      Short-notice prices between SE Asian cities, like SIN-HKG or HKG-DPS can be expensive on cash, while redemption taxes are minimal.

  • Ronster says:
    14 Aug14 August 11:14

    Wish amex would launch a credit card, with a 2-4-1 oneworld flight voucher.

    Now that would be interesting?!

    Ronster

  • Londonbus says:
    14 Aug14 August 17:03

    The other snag is that being a partner airline you don’t get access to off-peak pricing.

    • Rob says:
      14 Aug14 August 21:51

      Exactly. Although …

      a) BA availability to HK is rubbish anyway
      b) the gap is only 30,000 Avios which is more than made up for with the tax saving, even after factoring in the connection

      The bigger issue is that you can’t use an Amex 241.

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