Cathay Pacific revamps loyalty programme with focus on customer spending

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways has made the biggest overhaul to its loyalty programme in a decade, with airfares paid now playing a larger part in determining customer rewards, the head of the business said Thursday. The move comes as Cathay is looking to increase revenue and cut costs as part of a three-year transformation programme designed to make it more efficient against aggressive competition. CEO Stephen Wong of Asia Miles, Cathay's loyalty programme, said the new award chart was a hybrid involving the airfare type, travel class and distance rather than being solely dependent on revenue and was based on customer feedback and studying other airline, hotel and retail loyalty programmes. "This is a balanced approach," he said, adding that 80% of tickets would earn more miles, with the remainder to destinations including Manila and San Francisco earning fewer. Asia Miles has 10m members, with most based in Hong Kong, mainland China, North America and Taiwan, a figure that has doubled over the last five years and is expected to continue to grow, Wong said.<br/>