After cutting the 15% online booking discount in July 2016 (with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer following suit in March of this year) and making redemptions on Malaysia Airlines flights more expensive in February 2015, Enrich is putting another nail in the coffin by increasing the cost of redemptions across the board from next month.
The changes in a nutshell
You can find information on the full changes and new award charts on this FAQ page but here’s a summary:
- Both Malaysia Airlines and partner redemptions on oneworld airlines and Emirates are affected
- Changes come into effect on 10 June 2017
- Redemptions on Malaysia Airlines flights are switching from fixed-price to revenue-based, meaning they will be determined by the cash price of the ticket – this will disproportionately affect travel in Business and First Class as those tickets are more expensive
- Upgrade pricing on Malaysia Airlines flights is also going up
- Distance-based zones changing and redemptions on all partner flights is going up
- Like Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles, redemptions pricing for return flights will now be less than that of two one-ways – this is the only piece of good news amongst these changes
- If you book a ticket before the changes, you cannot cancel it after they come into effect but you can change the date
Enrich redemptions on Emirates Business Class flights are becoming much more expensive
Following the past two devaluations, the only good-value redemptions using Enrich miles became for Malaysia Airlines flights during discount offers, and Business Class travel on Emirates flights, which was priced more cheaply than if you used Qantas Points on the same route (First Class redemptions on Emirates are not permitted through Enrich.)
However, flying on Emirates (as well as Enrich’s oneworld partners) is becoming much more expensive. Here’s what’s happening to one-way Business Class redemptions:
| Route | Old pricing | New pricing | Price increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane - Auckland | 33,000 | 55,000 | +67% |
| Melbourne - Singapore | 48,000 | 82,000 | +71% |
| Adelaide - Dubai | 66,000 | 131,000 | +99% |
| Sydney - London (via Dubai) | 87,000 | 165,000 | +90% |
| Perth - New York (via Dubai) | 87,000 | 165,000 | +90% |
Credit cards with Enrich as a transfer partner
The following bank rewards programs and credit cards have Enrich as a transfer partner:
Transfers to Enrich can take 48 hours or so, so if considering this promotion you’ll want to make the transfer as soon as possible to have the points in your Enrich account in time to make your redemption.
How to search and book
We have full details in our guide to using Enrich miles on Emirates flights.
Summing up
Struggling Malaysia Airlines has devalued their loyalty program repeatedly over the last five years.
Whilst there are few travellers in Australia use Enrich miles, if you do have any in your account, I would strongly suggest using them before the changes come into effect next month.
I don’t so much care about the Malaysian airlines devaluation but rather the platform it will offer to SA to rapidly devalue KFs.
Time for pointhackers of the world to unite against the barbaric acts of these frequent flyer tyrants.
It has been bad news after bad news.
The only award program to make QFF look reasonable
Hi Matt
Trying to get my head around this but from all the articles I’ve read it looks we should be using any Enrich points sitting in our account ASAP. Currently I believe a Sydney – Kuala Lumpur Business Class one way is 55000 Enrich Points / return is 110000 Enrich Points. What is your best guess on what this is going to be after 10/6. Can you provide some kind of example so I can get my head around it! Thanks!
Hey Owen, yep, you’ve got the current pricing correct but no one actually knows how it will change post-devaluation as it will be based on ticket price and Enrich hasn’t provided details on how they will calculate award pricing based on cash price.
The general consensus in the blogging community is that redemptions are certainly not going to get cheaper, so I would suggest making a redemption on a Malaysia Airlines or partner flight before the devaluation.
Hi Matt
Thanks for the reply. It is pretty ridiculous that they don’t provide an indication on how they will calculate the award pricing based on cash price. But just to get an understanding of how it could work…. if we were to use a different loyalty program “formula” on how they calculate the award pricing based on cash price (I’m not sure which loyalty programs do) and if we say a return Sydney-Kuala Lumpur return flight was AUD $4,000 – what would a best guess be in converting this to points? Obviously no one knows for sure but given that every blog is saying the devaluation is going to be big – it must be based on some sort of understanding…
Completely understand that any calculation you give is purely based on a guess / using experience from another loyalty program – but just want to get an idea on how huge this devaluation could be. Like are we talking instead of 110000 points return its going to be 150000? or 200000 or something even more ridiculous.
The reason I am asking is we don’t have any plans to travel to KL (or anywhere) as it stands. So if we were to book, it would be a complete guess simply to make the redemption before the devaluation. I just need to weigh this up against what the devaluation may be. Hope that makes sense?
Thanks so much for any thoughts on this.
The devaluation terminology that you’re reading about here and on other blogs refers to both Malaysia Airlines and partner flights.
We know that the latter are going to go up significantly in price. For the former, I (and many others) expect pricing to be at a level that it is a waste of points but I can’t put a number figure on that.
As I said, I think it’s best to book a redemption before the changes come into effect, whether that’s on a MH or partner flight.
It’s a shame that they’re not exploring the wonders of loyalty programs and using the successes of Qantas or AAdvantage or others in supporting their business.