Cathay Pacific launches Dublin – a new low-tax Avios route to Hong Kong

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Cathay Pacific announced three new European routes to Hong Kong yesterday, including Dublin.

As Cathay Pacific is a member of the oneworld alliance, you can earn and spend Avios points on its flights. This means that you now have far more opportunities to get to Asia. These new routes will also save you substantial amounts in taxes and charges.

The new routes are:

Brussels – launching 25th March, 4 x weekly

Dublin – launching 2nd June, 4 x weekly

Copenhagen – launching 2nd May, Summer only, 3 x weekly

All of these routes will be served by new Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The airline currently has 18 of these aircraft with another four on the way this year. Next year, 26 of the larger A350-1000 planes will begin to arrive.

In Business Class, you will get an updated version of the current Cathay Pacific seat. It is a 1-2-1 layout with additional storage, additional knee room, a concealed water bottle holder and a second video screen (a 4 inch screen is built into the remote control). The planes also have wi-fi.

In terms of Avios redemption, this is how it prices up in Business Class return:

Brussels – 180,000 Avios + £95.80

Dublin – 180,000 Avios + £81.80

Copenhagen – 150,000 Avios + £91.40

Note that Copenhagen is 30,000 Avios cheaper because it falls into a different pricing band, being nearer to Hong Kong than Brussels and Dublin.

Cathay Pacific appears to be releasing three Business Class seats per flight for Avios. Availability is currently wide open.

Remember that Cathay Pacific also flies to Hong Kong from Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester if you don’t want to start outside the UK, although taxes are higher and you may not get the new A350 seat.

It is about time we did a Cathay Pacific business class review on Head for Points …. let’s see what can be arranged.

You can find out more about timings etc on the Cathay Pacific website. There is a special section discussing the new A350 aircraft which is here.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

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

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

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel 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:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company 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

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

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Cate says:

1 Sep1 September 09:38

What’s the wisdom of dropping the last leg of a journey? Can see availability HKG-CPH but it stops at LGW where we live. Given we’re only on hand luggage can we just get off the plane and go home?
- Polly says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 09:42
  
  Yes Cate you can. Should be ok. It’s only those chasing TPs that usually complete the last leg.
  - Cate says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 09:51
    
    Thank you Polly. Happily that’s just made our BA companion voucher redundant again 🙂
  - zsalya says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 09:57
    
    Whoa,
    This has been much discussed.
    I found https://headforpoints.com/2015/08/17/british-airways-dublin-dropping-last-leg/ but I think Rob wrote something more recently too?
    - Polly says:
      
      1 Sep1 September 10:09
      
      Plenty discussed here. Always advised that you book such flights via BA direct, as a travel agent OTA could get stung for the ticket balance. This has happened last year. You are usually ok if you fly into e.g. LHR then book final leg out of LGW or LCY. Your luggage is then tagged to LHR ONLY.
      People then get stuck in transit and fail to make their last leg. It’s happened to us a few times.. awful queues on the M25, as for London Underground, you can never make it to LCY on time!
      Please please read between the lines here and don’t get a huge discussion going…the solution is clearly stated here….
      - Cate says:
        
        1 Sep1 September 11:46
        
        Thanks Polly. Fortunately for me I will only be taking hand luggage so I should make my connecting flight…..
    - Cate says:
      
      1 Sep1 September 11:47
      
      It was good read – thanks for bringing it to my attention.
- pauldb says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 10:11
  
  Think you might be getting confused here. You’d book HKG-LGW-CPH and skip the last leg on a cash fare because the CPH cash fare is lower than HKG-LGW. But on an avios redemption HKG-LGW-CPH costs more than HKG-LGW so why wouldn’t you just book the flight you want. (The outbound is different as you are avoiding APD/fuel-surcharges.)
  - Cate says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 13:10
    
    Thanks pauldb – confused on the inbound one I was 🙂
Kip says:

1 Sep1 September 09:38

Flew HKG-MAN yesterday in J and it’s more QR than BA. The service and soft product is generally good although some of the J seats were already looking a bit tired. Afaik all the MAN flights use the A350-900.
- Will says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 09:42
  
  There are known issues with cabin quality on the Cathay A350’s which Cathay and Airbus are in discussions over “fixing”
CV3V says:

1 Sep1 September 09:57

Flew HKG to LHR in F and it was best flight i have had. Great service at the airport, great lounges, and the service on board was very good (2 cabin crew, and the cabin crew director looking after 6 pax in First!). I even had an apology that my champagne hadnt been topped up for the caviar, and would i like more caviar!
- Polly says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 10:36
  
  At DPS one time, they had a plane change. I happened to express concern about it, as the J cabin was worse. They immediately upgraded us to F and it really was a great experience. Shame it was only a 4.5 hr sector into HKG but got into their arrivals lounge for dinner, superb.all on avios, which made it even better fun..
  - CV3V says:
    
    1 Sep1 September 11:39
    
    On the same flight they also apologised that the ice cream (Haagen Daaz) was frozen solid, so gave me a small wicker basket of snacks to keep me going whilst i waited on the ice cream defrosting! Contrasts to the frozen ball of ice cream (size and hardness of a golf ball) that BA gave me in F, where the crew apologised with a take it or leave it approach.
Gavin says:

1 Sep1 September 13:41

The 2 Cathay flights I took last year in J, from HKG to ICN and back, were by far the best redemptions I’ve ever made, both in terms of cost and experience. Just wish the flights has been longer.
Cat says:

1 Sep1 September 15:52

I flew HKG to LHR in F on Wednesday. Incredible lounges, fabulous flight, wonderful crew, amazingly spacious and comfy seat (with a massage button), amazing food and a 2008 Pauillac that kept me hiccuping all the way home! And they gave me the guided tour of the cockpit and the tree house! It was beyond awesome!

For those that wanted more details, and gave up when they weren’t forthcoming within 24 hours, I did eventually reply. It’s on Wednesday’s mattress run article.
Pangolin says:

1 Sep1 September 16:00

Great stuff. I’m based on the continent so the routing from CPH or BRU is a cinch to me, and vastly preferable to LHR as the taxes are lower too.

Even though OW isn’t my main program, I have started to build up a stock of Avios thanks to sites like HFP and J class in CX is starting to look seriously tempting as an aspirational target to aim for. Normally I’m stuck with the LH (Lufthansa) group airlines and they’re the worst for everything – earnings, redemptions, status recognition and benefits, discounted fares. Travel hacking basically gets you nowhere with LH.
- YL says:
  
  1 Sep1 September 22:19
  
  If you have many * or miles and more miles, check out EVA Airways J class for redemptions. CDG, AMS and VIE will have lower tax than LHR.
  Their lounges are not as good CX. However, the seat are very similar to CX J (reverse herringbone), and the soft product are usually very good.