I’ve written often about Malaysia Airlines Enrich program offering excellent value for their frequent flyers and credit card program partners with excellent redemption rates on Malaysia Airlines operated flights. Unfortunately, as of Feb 16th, this value is gone.
Malaysia Airlines today reworked their award chart for both earn and redemption – my attention is on redeeming Enrich miles which can easily be transferred from a range of credit card partners, and they have effectively gutted the value overnight – although if you get in quick, you can still transfer and redeem Enrich miles at the current, cheaper rate.
I really hate to say I told you so.
Key changes for Australian travellers
- There’s an addition of a new zone 7 for travel over 10,000 miles – pretty much all Australia to Europe flights fall in this new, higher, band
- Zone 4 flights (Australia to Kuala Lumpur) change from 40,000 (without the 15% online booking discount) to 55,000 miles, one way, in Business Class
- All Australia to Europe (Paris, London and Frankfurt) flights that are now in Zone 7 go up from 60,000 miles (no online booking discount, 52,000 with) to 115,000 (97,750 with discount) miles, one way, Business Class – with a couple of exceptions…
Thee exceptions to routes that fall into Zone 7, and are in Zone 6 are:
- Adelaide to Frankfurt (9752 miles via Kuala Lumpur)
- Perth routes to London, Frankfurt and Paris (via Kuala Lumpur)
These all fall into Zone 6, at 90,000 Enrich Miles one way (without the 15% online booking discount).
There’s also an FAQ document on the changes here.
Where does this leave those who used Enrich for cheap Business Class redemptions?
The new pricing flat out sucks. There’s now little appeal in looking at Enrich-booked travel on Malaysia Airlines for long-haul Business Class redemptions, as the new pricing is comparable to their competitors in KrisFlyer, Asia Miles and Qantas Frequent Flyer, but with a worse in-flight product.
In short, if you were planning on making an Enrich redemption, you should transfer your credit card points over ASAP and book before February 16th.
I’ll try and dig into the changes in more detail in the next couple of days and see if there is any extraordinary value left in the Enrich program for me – but at this point, it doesn’t seem so. I haven’t yet looked at any planned changes to redemption on oneworld partners (which were historically poor value anyway), for redemption in Zones 1 or 2 (which are now cheaper, but probably not much use to us) or for Enrich points earn.
Old vs New Award Charts
This is the current award chart, which is still online on the Malaysia Airlines website (along with no messages I can see about the changes):
So what’s the next best option now that Malaysia Enrich is out. Krisflyer?
From Amex to Malaysia… first transfer on the 11th, 2 days later i see a message saying it’s been rejected. Call amex… sorry there was a system error on the receiving end. They give me 2k bonus points for the inconvenience and transfer again. I’m pretty sure they are now holding them back on purpose…maybe i’ll get a toaster lol
Manny, I am not sure its MH faults. I have experienced many delays with transfer from Amex to MH. The longest delay was 6 weeks with the points finally appearing in my MH account long after I had my apology from AMEX (and some bonus points). With AMEX, they tend not to take the responsibility but instead, blame the delay on MH. MH, on the other hand, had indicated to me that there was no record of transfer from AMEX….and so, the blame game continued on and on. It appears that AMEX transfer to MH is still problematic. I have however, had very positive experience transferring from Westpac Altitude to MH. Transfers were all completed in less than 48 hours. This last transfer to meet the 16 Feb deadline was completed in less than 24 hours. Very impressive.
My nightmare has become reality… Malaysia has managed to screw up my point transfer just before the 16th FML
Urgh – transfer from where?
I d like to put it out there to the more experienced traveller and hopefully I can get some answers.
I am planning to travel to Italy in July with wife and 2 kids (8 and 5). Considering that Malaysia isn’t an option wit the high miles charge I was wondering ifyou have suggestions for me. I have approx 900,000 points with Amex. I have tried to look at Singapore however every date in July i have checked I need to be on a waitlist. I am looking at business class return. I dicussed my options with a company who will find me the seats and book them for me for $500 however if they can find and book seats why can’t I?
Any recomendation or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Hey Sandro – you should post this question over in the Questions section, you’ll find more people over there willing to get stuck in and answer. Thanks!
Brett wow that’s fast i transfered on the 10th and i’m still waiting for the points to show! I’m gonna be fuming if they get into the account on the 16th! What’s the bet they are holding to process untill then.
Also still worth considering Point + Pay. Wonder if that will go up as well?
ie. 4000 points + 3656 AUD for 2 business return
Transferred points from Amex last night (10/02). They arrived today (11/02) into Enrich and was able to book 2 business MEL CDG return today.
A silly question but one whose answer I have been searching for: what is the best value flyer program now when flying from Melbourne to Europe (economy)? I recently got a Westpac Altitude Black card and my partner is looking for a new credit card also. We are unsure what the best option would be for us at the moment. thanks in advance.
Just a couple of other points to add to this.
The earning rates on Malaysia Airlines flights have changed as well – anyone buy the cheap discounted business class tickets will earn less as well as those on heavily discounted economy. Group bookings now seem eligable for Enrich Miles interestingly.
If anyone uses travel companion awards they are pretty much useless now.
The one silver lining is that upgrades awards have only had a small increase and are going to be the best bet for using Enrich Miles. Note though that I expect the fare classes for the eligability to change as a result of the earning changes – but nothing has been released yet.
It looks as though at least for now it’s going to be cheaper redeeming with Oneworld airlines using enrich than on Malaysia Airlines itself: http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/sg/en/enrich/enrich-oneworld/redeem-with-oneworld-and-partner-airlines.html
Hey Keith how long does it take for Amex points transfered to Enrich to show up?
Do you think I still have time to transfer Altitude points to Enrich? Website says to allow 3 business days. New points chart takes effect 00:00 (GMT +0800hrs), 16 February 2015
Not sure – never tried Altitude to Enrich personally. Anyone else have experience?
Hi Dwayne
I transferred my Altitude points on Monday after receiving the email. Transferred at 9 am snd when I checked my Enrich account the same evening, the points were already in my Enrich account. Westpac transfer is speedy from my experience. Usually within 48 hours. However if you transfer from AMEX, that is a different story…..
I suppose the new government owners want to make the business more lean and mean to extract $$$.
Although I would suggest they start by looking at how they pay their catering firm RM125 (approximately $AUD45) for each nasi lemak meal, when nasi lemak costs less than $1 to $4 for a chicken or beef or if you really want to go deluxe, you can pay $6 with prawns.
Pfft… I wouldn’t transfer valuable points into enrich to redeem 195.5k for trips to EU for an inferior business product.
I don’t care if they have delicious satays and nasi lemak, there are better airlines to get to EU.
I can’t see much Amex money coming MH’s way after from Australia after the 16th unless there are a series of very aggressive discount offers.
I also think there will be a knock-on with revenue fares-I’m sure I’m not the only one who was prepared to fly MH J over the competition to pick up the points
Peter, I don’t think the Oneworld redemption is from the D fare bucket so would have much lower availability. This was the beauty of Enrich-low points and great availability-it’s the only way my 4 boys will see J before they can pay their own way
For that few points there is always points+pay. It works out about 2.7c per point
In saying that, they probably won’t credit onto my amex account in time to transfer to MH and book. Does MH allow family transfers? If so i might try find someone to trade some points with 🙂
MH allows transfers yes – but you pay RM40 (14AUD) + 0.04RM per Mile (0.014 AUD). Can do it online via your Enrich account.
Nice, sounds like a workable plan 😀
Wow crazy, i saw the email last night…
Better get my booking on as i was relying on MH to get me back from europe in August.
I’m 7k enrich miles short of making my booking for 2 people. What do you suggest in terms of getting the miles needed? Does amex still do the 15% bonus on transfers?
No bonus on transfers from Amex, no.
Depends on what card you have as to tactics. The best quick win if you have a Platinum Edge would be to pre-buy credit for Coles, Myer, iTunes, Skype, where-ever you can spend in future, at a supermarket – getting triple points. $2,350 spent would tip you over the edge of 7,000 points with immediate crediting of points which you can transfer.
you can do points plus pay to make up for shortfall On points. That way you can redeem now before the changes take effect
You can use “Enrich Express” to purchase the remaining miles needed:
Enrich Miles may also be purchased in blocks of 500 Enrich Miles, at RM50 (18AUD) per block, plus an administrative fee of RM40 (14 AUD)
I’d appreciate peoples thoughts on this scenario. I will need to fly BNE-KUL-LHR sometime within the next 330 days I simply don’t know when. Let’s say I book this one way J class redemption before the 16th February for 51k points but look to change the date (no rerouting or change of travel class) sometime post 16 February. Does anyone know the penalty for making such a change?
Bullet point no: 8 of the MH FAQ’s provides as follows: –
Any change to the route or change to higher class on or after 00:00 (GMT +0800hrs), 16 February 2015 will be subject to the new redemption miles. A penalty fee of USD20 will apply to the changes made within the ticket validity.
As I would merely be looking to change the date would I just be up for the USD20 penlaty fee and legitimately escape being subject to the new redemption miles which presumably means the gap between the old and new redemption regimes?
It’s a great question – you would imagine the wording would allow for date changes without additional cost, but hard to say for sure as they don’t state explicitly. Maybe give them a call?
James, did you get an answer on this question? From my understanding you can change dates providing there is available award seat in the same class of travel on the dates you want in the same booking class. As far as I know if all the above criteria are met, then you won’t be charged the increase in points (based on a conversation I had with them yesterday). My other question is, say you booked the award flight today for Dec this year (which is pretty much the last dates you are allowed) and you want to change the date later – can you change it to a date next year – ie what is the latest they will allow? Basically I have enough for a bus return to Europe in my Enrich account but don’t need it until next year……..
It is a devastating news. Even though I am not planning to fly MH in the near future, the excellent availability makes it a good back up in the event that there is nothing else available. Well, at this new redemption rate, my back up will be Etihad using VA points, which is much easier to earn, with as much availability, and no fuel surcharges.
However, I noticed the upgrades redemption remain quite cheap (unlike SQ, upgrades is almost as much as outright redemption). So perhaps MH want you to buy the ticket and upgrade? After all, they need cash now.
Note that they are also changing the earning rates which I would expect will mean a change to the fares classes available for upgrades (for economy).
So a business class redemption on Malaysian from Aus to Europe has gone up from 102,000 to 195,500 miles, almost double, making it a) very poor value, and b) cheaper to redeem Enrich miles on Oneworld for the same flight – 190,000 miles!
Yep, it’s bizarre.
At a time when Malaysia should be doing everything possible to get people on their aircraft’s they seem to be making it hard for people!
We can only hope they do a Thai U Turn and revert back to the old redemption rates in a couple of months when their premium cabins remain empty.
Hi Keith, I presume DRW is the same as PER under the new redemption rules?
I imagine so – I check distance using gcmap.com or mileage monkey.