Malaysia Airlines Enrich is revamping their program structure and will go revenue based (for MH flights) as of April 1, 2021 which will come to the detriment of low cost flyers.
Enrich will also move away from the system of Elite Miles based on distance flown and instead move to a chart that awards Elite Points based on zones just like British Airways Executive Club does it.
With this move Malaysia Airlines Enrich (which wasn’t either generous or a good value in the first place) is becoming considerably more unattractive for those seeking to accumulate miles and at some point redeem them for award flights, given that the sweet spot for MH is their low priced tickets.
Those seeking to primarily accumulate elite status might also be disappointed.
Here is what Malaysia Airlines writes in their email this morning:
Dear Valued Member,
At Enrich, our goal remains to make your travel experiences truly rewarding. With that in mind, Enrich is introducing a fare-based earning scheme which makes your every travel experience even more worthwhile, giving you the ease and transparency in earning your frequent flyer points and more value in how you are being rewarded that you deserve.
To complement this new fare-based earning scheme, a new tier qualification structure will simplify your progress towards the next tier status, giving you access to more privileges.
This progressive milestone elevates Enrich as one of the fore runners of Frequent Flyer Programmes around the world, on par with fellow global airline leaders.
Here are some key highlights that will take effect with the fare-based earning scheme on 1st April 2021.
The notion that this revamp is going to catapult Enrich into a fore runner of FFP’s is simply laughable but lets have a look at their changes (also referenced on their Enrich website)
Earning Enrich Points for Rewards Redemptions:
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- Earn Enrich Points – Enrich Miles will be known as Enrich Points. Rest assured, your existing Enrich Miles will be converted to Enrich Points on a one-to-one basis.
- Enrich Points for Fare Paid – You will be rewarded with Enrich Points for every Malaysian Ringgit spent on flights on base fare and carrier-related surcharges. This applies for travels on Malaysia Airlines and MASwings and soon, Firefly which will commence in 2022.
- Enrich Points for Partial Redemption – You can now earn Enrich Points on the Cash portion when you redeem a flight using Points + Cash.
- Enrich Points for Lifestyle Partners – Whenever you spend with any of our Lifestyle Partners such as shopping, dining and accommodation, you will continue to earn Enrich Points.
- Enrich Points for Global Partners – Earn Enrich Points based on distance when you travel on oneworld member airlines and partner airlines including with MH connecting flights, as well as codeshare flights.
Earning Elite Tier for Travel Benefits and Lifestyle Privileges:
- Earn Elite Points – We’re simplifying the ways you can upgrade to your next tier status. Instead of Elite Miles and Elite Sectors, it will be based on Elite Points. Your Elite Miles and Elite Sectors earned until 31 March 2021 will be recalibrated to Enrich Points based on the new structure.
- Earn Elite Points for Distance Travelled – Elite Points is earned according to the distance you fly and your class of travel on Malaysia Airlines and oneworld member airlines.
- Keep your Elite Status – If you have already been upgraded to a higher tier before 1 April 2021, not to worry, you will continue to enjoy the privileges of that tier for the year until 31 March 2022.
- Elite Status and Benefits – Enrich will continue to offer four membership tiers: Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum and you can be certain that all Elite Status benefits will remain.
The new earning mechanism for Enrich Points (Bonus Miles) on MH Group flights is as follows:
100 Malaysian Ringgit equal US$25 at the moment so if you scale that up to the average cost of Malaysia Airlines tickets that’s not necessarily a good thing, especially in Business Class.
Blue members earn 480 miles for each US$100 in ticket spend. That is very little!
Elite tiers will be earned based on points under the new system:
Basis for the points is the chart that classifies distance based zones:
This chart is plain awful and definitely a far cry from making Enrich “a fore runner of FFP’s” as they put it.
First of all there is absolutely ZERO differential between Zone 1 (less than 500 miles, which includes domestic flights) and Zone 2 which is for flights between 501 and 1200 miles. The earning is exactly the same – what’s the point of even having two zones?
It takes 6.5 round trips from KL to London in Business Class to get Platinum and Business Class gets just 2 points more than (any) Economy Class.
Twenty flights in Business Class from Bangkok to KL to reach Gold – 60 in Economy Class! A complete joke.
Comparison for a flight from Bangkok to Taipei in MH Business Class:
- Malaysia Airlines Enrich: 2+3+3+2 = 10 Tier Credits
- British Airways Executive Club: 40+140+140+40 = 360 Tier Credits
Under British Airways Executive Club you obtain Silver/OW Sapphire with 600 credits and Gold/OWEmerald with 1500 credits (for 2021 there will be reduced levels) plus the 4 required segments under BA flight number/codeshare.
Only two round trips for Gold with BAEC! With Enrich you would need SIX for their Gold/Sapphire level.
From what I see there won’t be any changes on the redemption side as of now.
Conclusion
Malaysia Airlines Enrich will go revenue based for the collection of bonus miles (on MH Group flights) and for status qualification shift to a distance based chart.
I found it hard to believe that they can make Enrich even less attractive than it’s already the case but the revamped “New Enrich” appears even less attractive than under the current system, especially in comparison to other oneWorld programs. I’d urge anyone who can manage to swing the required segments on other oneWorld airlines to seek out a different program and start collecting there.
