Malaysia Airlines previously announced its first Covid-19 miles and voucher extension policies that we have covered (read more here and here) and has now decided to extend expiring miles yet again.
The airline has also decided to extend member tiers that are earned based in 2019 activity through March 31, 2022 (by one year).
Enrich sent out en email to their members last night informing them that miles are now extended through December 31, 2021.
This salami slicing tactic of programs such as Malaysia Airlines Enrich is leading to a continuous policy of kicking the can down the road rather than taking care of it once with a generous extension.
You can access Malaysia Airlines here.
The previous mileage extension policies didn’t go far enough and instead of putting a long term policy in place Malaysia Airlines Enrich is taking another half hearted approach and extending miles by six months post their original expiry date (Enrich Miles expire on a monthly rotation).
This is what the email reads:
We understand the current situation and gravity of travel restrictions in place may have limited your options. So we’re making it easier for you to enjoy your redemptions and rewards throughout the year.
Our latest policy gives you more flexibility and peace of mind by further extending your expiring Enrich Miles and Golden Lounge Access Vouchers until 31 December 2021. This means you have extra time to decide on your rewards and how you want to use them.
We’ve recently added a variety of exciting offers to our repertoire of Lifestyle Partners, giving you more reason to make full use of your Enrich Miles if you haven’t already. …
The extension policy on the website is detailed as follows:
With the current situation and gravity of travel restrictions in place, we’re making it easier for you to enjoy your redemptions and rewards throughout the year.
Our new loyalty policy gives you more flexibility and peace of mind by further extending Enrich Miles and Golden Lounge Access Vouchers which are expiring between 30 April 2021 and 30 November 2021.
Your Miles & Lounge Access Vouchers are safe.
The extension applies to:
1. Enrich Miles
2. Golden Lounge Access Voucher
3. CIMB Enrich MasterCard cobrand Golden Lounge Access Voucher
4. Malaysia Airlines American Express Business cobrand Golden Lounge Access Voucher
As far as miles and vouchers for lounges are concerned fine, these are secure for at least another six months measured on previous levels.
Malaysia Airlines is however applying another nonsense policy to cash vouchers, namely the 50 MYR voucher types that customers can buy/redeem.
Your RM50 Vouchers remain valid.
All previous extensions still stand for Enrich RM50 Vouchers extended prior to April 2021.
*RM50 Vouchers expiring from 1 April 2021 are excluded from further extension.
So all vouchers that expire until Wednesday are automatically extended until September 30th while those with an expiration of April 30th and beyond don’t receive any extension. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Not!
Just as I said in my last piece from December 2, this doesn’t seem to be a rather well thought through approach for extending members miles because nothing was ever going to happen in the first half of 2021 as far as mileage redemption options are concerned.
From the looks of it (since we’re nearing April) not much is going to happen in Q3/Q4 either that would allow the large scale redemption of miles. I already speculated that thinking people will start traveling again like on previous levels before 2022/2023 is a stretch. Why not just extend all miles by at least a year instead of going in 6 month increments?
Conclusion
Malaysia Airlines was about the last airline to announce its elite status extension due to the current global pandemic. Now this rather ridiculous mileage and voucher extension policy that’s already going into it’s third round.
I guess one could still use the points and vouchers for domestic travel within Malaysia but still that isn’t what most would use their miles for. The best is to absolutely avoid collecting miles with Enrich in any way, shape or form including credit card points. If you’re in Malaysia and carry one of the credit cards that collect Enrich miles I’d look for an alternative for the time being.
