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Wells Fargo Adds Cathay Pacific Asia Miles as Transfer Partner
Another new travel transfer partner has joined the Wells Fargo Rewards program.
About Wells Fargo’s Cathay Pacific Partnership:
This week, Wells Fargo announced that it had forged a new partnership with Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific. As a result, Wells Fargo Rewards customers can now convert their points into Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
Notably, Wells Fargo Rewards Points will transfer to Cathay Pacific at a rate of 1:1. This means that 1,000 Wells Fargo points can be turned into 1,000 Asia Miles. That said, there is no minimum balance required to transfer. Additionally, there’s no waiting period for redemptions upon transferring.
Currently, Asia Miles also partners with such programs as Bilt, Capital One, Citi, and American Express. However, while most programs offer a 1:1 transfer, Amex recently reduced the transfer rate to 5:4 (meaning 5,000 Membership Rewards points are worth 4,000 Asia Miles).
This news comes on the heels of Wells Fargo also recruiting Wyndham Rewards to its transfer roster. In that case, points transfer at a rate of 1:2, which bests most other programs. With these additions, the current line-up is as follows (rates are 1:1 unless otherwise noted):
- Aer Lingus Aerclub Avios
- Avianva LifeMiles
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Choice Hotels (1:2)
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Iberia Club Avios
- British Airways Avios
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Virgin Red/Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Wyndham Rewards (1:2)
The ability to transfer points to transfer partners is available to Wells Fargo customers with rewards points-earning cards. These include the Autograph and Autograph Journey cards. With the Autograph card, customers can earn 3x at restaurants, 3x at gas stations, 3x on transit, 3x on streaming services & phone plans, and 3x on travel (airfare, hotels, car rentals, and cruises). This card also has for no annual fee. As for the Autograph Journey, it offers 5x on hotels, 4x on airfare, 3x at restaurants, and 3x on other travel — but does charge a $95 annual fee.
What They’re Saying:
Discussing the new addition, Wells Fargo Head of Loyalty and Rewards Lisa Giordanella said, “Our mission is to give customers greater flexibility in how they earn, redeem, and travel with their rewards. Adding Cathay Pacific as our newest transfer partner expands our global travel reach and gives cardholders more ways to turn their points into meaningful experiences across Asia and beyond.”
My Thoughts:
Once again, Wells Fargo comes through with a bit of an upset. At a time when the much-ballyhooed American Express is cutting its transfer rate for Cathay Pacific to 5:4, here comes Wells Fargo with a 1:1 rate (although, as noted, several other programs do still maintain this ratio). It’s also notable just how quickly these announcements are coming, with this addition arriving just two weeks after the last. Of course, I don’t see Wells Fargo keeping up this pace, but I do hope that they continue to be aggressive in building out their transfer partner roster and putting up some real competition to the more established players.
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