Put this one in the offers that are ‘just plain insane’ basket – Malaysia Airlines are running a promotion until December 8th where redemptions on Malaysia Airlines operated flights through their Enrich frequent flyer program are 50% of the usual level. The full offer terms are here, and you’ll need to book in the next week for travel from 1st January to 30th June next year.

Enrich have traditionally run this promotion in the past, once every 6 months a discount comes along – last year at this time it was 50% off also, but it actually ran for a month or more. This time the window of opportunity is much tighter.

Malaysia Airlines Enrich is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, with Membership Rewards points transferring at 1 MR to 1 Enrich mile. Promotions like these are why I love Membership Rewards – while unrelated to Amex, the ability to transfer points out to the major programs in the region at a whim is just so valuable.

Only flights (both one way and return) that end or begin in Kuala Lumpur are eligible – so (for example) no one-stop London to Sydney or vice versa bookings, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t combine two bookings at only a slightly higher price.

A 50% discount on points required is of course outstanding, but Malaysia Airlines Enrich redemptions are already cheap, meaning if you have ANY plans to travel anywhere that Malaysia Airlines or Firefly service in the first 1/2 of next year, start researching that award booking now. A one way ticket in Business Class to KL from Sydney in Business Class comes in at just 20,000 Enrich miles during the promotion (at the cheapest level). A comparable length flight to Singapore on Qantas using Qantas points would cost 60,000 Qantas points.

Researching Enrich award availability used to be more straightforward, but now you need a minimum balance of 1,000 miles in your Enrich account to research online. You can open an Enrich account and they’ll give you 1,000 miles as one option, but for those with less than 1,000 miles in their account, British Airways now show Malaysia Airlines availability, and you can also use awardnexus.com (excellent paid service) to do the same.

I’m now thinking how on earth this could be useful for my travel plans next year, definitely trying to find a way…

Don’t miss: Malaysia Airlines offering 50% (!) discount on Enrich redemptions until 8th December was last modified: December 2nd, 2013 by Keith