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Taiwan’s China Airlines is pushing airline loyalty into new territory with the launch of StayMiles, a new hotel rewards platform that lets travelers earn and redeem miles on more than 600,000 properties worldwide, signaling an aggressive expansion of its Dynasty Flyer program beyond the confines of air travel.
A Strategic Leap in Loyalty for Taiwan’s Flag Carrier
The unveiling of StayMiles marks one of the most significant upgrades to China Airlines’ loyalty ecosystem in recent years, positioning the Taipei-based carrier at the forefront of a fast-changing travel rewards landscape. Developed in partnership with digital travel platform Agoda through its Rocket Travel by Agoda unit, the new service allows customers to earn and redeem Dynasty miles on hotel bookings across key global markets, from Taiwan and wider Asia to North America and Europe.
The launch underscores how airline loyalty programs are evolving from flight-centric schemes into broader lifestyle platforms. Rather than limiting mileage earning to air tickets and a narrow set of partners, China Airlines is betting that travelers want to accumulate and spend rewards across every stage of a journey, particularly on accommodation, one of the largest components of trip spending.
Industry analysts say the move also helps China Airlines sharpen its competitive edge within SkyTeam, the global alliance it belongs to, by offering a richer suite of non-flight earning opportunities that can keep frequent flyers engaged even when they are not in the air. As international travel demand continues to normalize after the pandemic, carriers are racing to lock in customer loyalty with more flexible, digital-first propositions.
How StayMiles Works for Dynasty Flyer Members
At the heart of StayMiles is a relatively simple proposition: “from stays to miles, quick and easy.” China Airlines’ Dynasty Flyer members can now log in and book hotels via the dedicated StayMiles platform, earning up to 10,000 miles per night depending on the property, rate, and promotional offers. Those miles are typically credited within several weeks of checkout, adding a substantial boost to members’ mileage balance without requiring an additional flight.
The platform also supports redemptions, allowing members to use miles, or a combination of miles and cash, to pay for hotel stays. An intuitive slider interface lets users decide how many miles they want to apply to a booking, starting from as low as 1,000 miles, giving travelers granular control over how they deploy their rewards. The system automatically deducts miles that are closest to expiry first, a design intended to minimize the risk of losing hard-earned rewards.
StayMiles integrates with China Airlines’ broader payment and co-brand card strategy as well. Holders of designated co-branded credit cards can earn additional mileage when they pay for stays, effectively “stacking” rewards. This double-earning structure, where travelers collect miles from the hotel booking itself and again from the payment card, is becoming a hallmark of more sophisticated loyalty ecosystems.
A Global Hotel Footprint to Match a Global Network
One of the most striking elements of the StayMiles launch is its sheer scope. By tapping into Rocket Travel by Agoda’s global inventory, China Airlines is offering access to more than 600,000 hotels worldwide, ranging from budget-friendly city stays to upscale resorts. Coverage spans Taiwan and greater China, North and Southeast Asia, North America, Canada, and major destinations across Europe, aligning closely with China Airlines’ intercontinental route network.
This global footprint ensures that the hotel proposition is not confined to a handful of hub cities or holiday hotspots. A business traveler flying from Taipei to Los Angeles, a family connecting through Tokyo for a long-haul trip, or a student heading to Europe for the summer can all use StayMiles to earn or redeem rewards at their destination. For the airline, every one of those hotel bookings becomes another touchpoint to reinforce brand loyalty and gather valuable data on customer preferences.
The infrastructure behind the platform is designed to be relatively frictionless for the end user. While customers begin on the China Airlines website, they are seamlessly redirected to the Rocket Travel-operated booking environment, which handles search, pricing, reservations, and customer support. This white-label approach lets China Airlines rapidly scale a competitive hotel marketplace under its own branding while relying on a specialist travel technology partner for the heavy lifting.
New Flexibility: Earning, Buying, Gifting and Redeeming Miles
The introduction of StayMiles comes just as China Airlines has been broadening the overall functionality of its Dynasty Flyer currency. In early February, the carrier rolled out new features that allow members to buy, gift, and reinstate miles, powered by loyalty technology provider Plusgrade. Together with hotel earning and redemption, these capabilities significantly increase the ways in which customers can manage and grow their mileage balance.
For many travelers, the ability to top up an account by purchasing miles directly can make the difference between leaving a balance idle and reaching the threshold needed for a high-value redemption, such as a long-haul business-class seat. Gifting adds a social dimension to loyalty, enabling family members or close friends to share miles, while reinstatement provides a safety net when miles have lapsed.
Layered on top of these features, StayMiles extends the earning engine into everyday travel needs. A member who has just purchased extra miles to close the gap on a flight award might continue to grow their account quickly by booking a series of hotel stays that each earn several thousand additional miles. This interplay between core airline redemptions and ancillary hotel rewards is central to China Airlines’ strategy of making its loyalty program feel more dynamic and responsive.
Raising the Bar in Asia’s Competitive Rewards Market
Asia-Pacific is one of the most dynamic regions in the world for travel loyalty, with airlines and travel-tech firms racing to create more integrated, partner-rich ecosystems. Regional rivals have been expanding their own hotel and lifestyle offerings, and new entrants such as open loyalty platforms are surfacing to connect points and miles across airlines, hotels, credit cards, and retail brands.
Within this context, China Airlines’ StayMiles initiative signals that Taiwan’s flag carrier intends to be a front-runner rather than a follower. By offering hotel mileage earning at levels that can reach up to 10,000 miles per night, the carrier is setting an aggressive benchmark that could entice both leisure and business travelers to route more of their accommodation spend through its channels.
Industry observers say such high-earning opportunities are particularly appealing for frequent travelers in markets like Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, where short regional trips and weekend city breaks are common. A traveler who regularly books hotels in these markets can now accumulate a meaningful amount of Dynasty miles in a relatively short period of time, even without taking long-haul flights.
What StayMiles Means for Travelers Planning Their Next Trip
For ordinary travelers, the real test of any new loyalty feature is whether it makes trip planning easier and more rewarding. On that front, StayMiles is designed to slot naturally into existing booking behavior. Members can search for hotels by destination and date, compare rates and amenities, and then see clearly how many miles they could earn or redeem on each option.
This visibility helps travelers decide whether to maximize earnings, minimize cash outlay, or strike a balance between the two. Someone planning a long weekend in Tokyo might choose a property that offers a particularly high mileage return, while a family booking a longer holiday in Europe may prefer to use miles to bring down the total cost of accommodation. Over time, this kind of flexibility can make Dynasty miles feel less abstract and more like a tangible currency that directly impacts the affordability of travel.
The platform’s focus on seamless digital experience is also important. With Rocket Travel handling the end-to-end booking flow and customer service, StayMiles aims to provide the kind of smooth, mobile-friendly interface that frequent travelers increasingly expect, reducing the friction that has sometimes dogged older-generation airline-hotel partnerships.
Strengthening China Airlines’ Position Within SkyTeam
China Airlines’ membership in the SkyTeam alliance means that its loyalty moves can ripple beyond its own network. As travelers weigh which alliance to align with for their long-term flying patterns, the breadth and usefulness of non-flight rewards have become an increasingly important consideration alongside route maps and on-board products.
By leaning into a comprehensive hotel rewards proposition, China Airlines adds weight to SkyTeam’s collective offering, particularly for travelers in and out of Northeast Asia. A customer who prefers SkyTeam for its transpacific connectivity or European partners may now see additional value in concentrating their spend with China Airlines because of the more versatile ways to earn and redeem miles on the ground.
It also illustrates how alliance carriers are differentiating themselves within the same coalition. While core benefits such as lounge access and reciprocal elite recognition remain standardized, each airline is building its own ecosystem of co-branded cards, lifestyle partners, and digital tools. StayMiles becomes one of China Airlines’ signature contributions to that mosaic.
A Glimpse of the Future of Travel Rewards
Beyond its immediate impact on China Airlines customers, the StayMiles launch offers a glimpse into where travel rewards may be heading. The boundaries between airline miles, hotel points, and bank-issued rewards are becoming increasingly porous, with digital platforms stitching together inventory from multiple sectors into unified, customer-facing experiences.
For travelers, this convergence could mean fewer isolated pockets of points that are hard to use and more interoperable currencies that can be deployed flexibly across flights, hotels, and ancillary services. For airlines, it creates new revenue streams through partnerships and a deeper, data-rich engagement with customers across the entire travel journey, not just in the air.
China Airlines’ decision to pair a powerful global hotel marketplace with newly upgraded mileage tools suggests that the carrier sees loyalty as a central strategic asset, not an afterthought. As travelers resume crossing borders in greater numbers, the ability to earn and spend miles “like never before” on hotel stays may increasingly shape which airlines they choose, and how often they return.