Looking to get to Asia? This often-overlooked option on Cathay Pacific is a great value!
Note: This deal was previously sent out on October 5, 2025. Dates provided may not be accurate.
Routes: ORD-HKG, LAX-HKG
Airline: Cathay Pacific
Programs to book with: Finnair Avios, Cathay Pacific
Travel timeline: July 2026 to September 2026
Cost: Starting at 85k Avios (66k with 30% Chase transfer bonus, 61k with Citi 40% transfer bonus) to Hong Kong, 88-115k Cathay points back to the US
Transfer partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo
Summary: Fly Cathay Pacific business class for 85k points one way (even fewer points with transfer bonuses!) starting from Chicago or Los Angeles to Hong Kong when booking through Finnair. However, you’ll need to book directly with Cathay at 88k (LAX) or 115k (ORD) for a return flight as partner availability is not showing up on Finnair or other Oneworld partners.
Dates with 2 seats to Hong Kong (book with Finnair if possible but these are available on Cathay Pacific as well)
Credit cards that transfer: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo
Transfer bonuses: 30% with Chase (ends 10/31), 40% with Citi (ends 10/15), and 20% with Rove (ends 12/31)
ORD to HKG (85k one-way)
July: 20, 22, 23
August: 4-6, 10-13, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 31
September: 1, 3, 7, 10, 15, 17, 22, 23
LAX to HKG (85k one-way)
July: 20, 27, 29, 30
August: 10, 11, 16, 17, 19, 26, 27, 31
September: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13
Dates with 2 seats from Hong Kong (book with Cathay)
Credit cards that transfer: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi
Transfer bonuses: None to Cathay
HKG to ORD (115k one-way)
July: 1, 2, 5-23, 25-27, 29-31
August: None
September: 6, 7, 9-13, 15-17, 19-22
HKG to LAX (88k one-way)
July: 14, 15, 21, 23, 24, 29
August: None
September: 20-23
Fly beyond Hong Kong using Cathay’s extensive network
Don’t just limit yourself to Hong Kong, if using Finnair Avios, you can also fly to Taipei with a connection in HKG also for 85k Avios (other cities usually don’t show up on Finnair, though but test it to be sure). You could also fly to/from LAX and most of Asia for 88-115k points one way when booking directly with Cathay and to/from ORD for 115k. This includes Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing, and Shanghai, among many others!
How to search and book with Finnair?
1) On Finnair’s site, log in to your Finnair account or create one if you haven’t already.
2) Once logged in, choose the “Award flight” option, put in destinations, and choose business class and put in a specific date. Then hit search.
3) Find dates that work for your travel plans that have 85k points availability. Also make sure there are enough seats as well (search the same flight with the desired number of seats) before transferring points. Then book!
How to search and book with Cathay?
1) On Cathay Pacific’s site, log in to your Cathay account or create one if you haven’t already.
2) Once logged in, on the home page, choose “Book a trip”, then choose the “Redeem flights” option. Enter your dates, destination, cabin class, choose one-way, then search.
3) Find days with availability that work with your travel plans. There is usually a weekly calendar view that will pop up as well if there is availability within ± 3 days from the day you searched. If there is no availability within that timeframe, you’ll see a pop-up message and no weekly calendar view. In that case, just keep searching manually on Cathay’s site until you can find award availability.
Cost breakdown
Finnair: 85k Avios + ~$106 in tax/fees. €50 change/cancel fee
Cathay: 88k (LAX/HKG) or 115k (ORD/HKG) + ~$100-172 in tax/fees. $120 cancel fee or $50 change fee
Transfer Avios (mostly) freely between 5 major airlines
Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, and Qatar all use Avios as their points currency. This means you can actually transfer points freely between all five of those programs (with some caveats). A more detailed explanation can be found here (The Points Guy) but you can link multiple Avios-based loyalty accounts on the Avios website.
This is important because a credit card transfer bonus may be to one Avios airline but not another (such as the 40% Citi bonus to Qatar but not to British Airways). But because they can be freely moved around from the five major Avios airlines, you’d want to transfer Citi to Qatar to get the bonus and then move the points to British Airways (or to Iberia, Finnair, Aer Lingus etc.)
Every credit card program transfers to at least one of these airlines, which then lets you move them to Finnair to book at the best Avios rate (Finnair wants 85k points, British Airways wants 108k points for the same flight, and Qatar wants 155k for that same flight!)
An important caveat is if your Iberia account is less than 90 days old (you should honestly avoid transferring directly to Iberia given their notoriously bad IT and customer service), you cannot move points from Iberia to another Avios program.
