Malaysia Airlines has today announced changes to its Enrich frequent flier programs effective June 10, 2017.
Malaysia Airlines awards are priced dynamically entirely based on the ticket price. Partner and Oneworld award charts have been changed too making those much more expensive.
You can access Malaysia Airlines here.
Here’s examples that MH used on the email:
Just checked and you can get KUL-LGK business class ticket on Malaysia Airlines for $116. The base fare is $104 (no fuel surcharges). Would you pay this or 34K+ miles?
KUL-HKG business class return for the same dates in July was just $397 (seems to be rather low price) of which the base fare is $336.92. Would you rather pay 107K miles for this?
KUL-LHR for the same dates is $3,321.40 of which the base fare is $3055.39. The example price using miles is 240K+.
These prices were from ITA Matrix. At least if the first two examples are any indication, the Enrich to $ value could be around one third of a cent.
Partner Awards:
Partner Award Current
Partner Award New
Oneworld Award Current
Oneworld Award New
Here’s the small print:
Note that it says that you cannot dynamically price awards on fare classes Q, O, G and Z. The Z is the lowest business class fare class and the others are economy ones. I believe that all my Malaysia Airlines issued have been on these.
Conclusion
Malaysia Airlines Enrich members should really evaluate if this essentially “cashback” program is right for them. The partner and Oneworld award charts have been decimated too.
Malaysia Airlines tries to have it here both ways. Claiming that all its own awards are priced dynamically while at the same time excluding the fare classes where likely most tickets are issued. Just ridiculous. Previously, economy class awards were complete waste of time with this program due to the fuel surcharges charged.
The partner and Oneworld award charts have been “enhanced” too making these awards very expensive using Enrich miles. Many routes now required anywhere from 50% to 100% more miles.
Anyone should take their Enrich miles and redeem before the June 20, 2017, devaluation date and then evaluate which program is right to credit Malaysia Airlines flights to (I credit them to BA).
