tmac100

Thank you and carry on with agreeing or disagreeing....
Thank you sxc for giving me the info I need (in contribution #56 ). No problem with waiting to see what will happen.

wantan

with all the talk of ditching Enrich ... any OW or *A alternative for mostly Malaysia domestic flights ? I qualify for Gold/OWS base on sectors. Average about 70 sectors/year.

d00t

Enrich will be your best option for Malaysia domestic travel.

Unless you like living on the edge, 29" pitch seats, no IFE, no lounge, no status, no priority check in, no priority boarding, sub-par airport facilities, and a loyalty program that is still worse than Enrich... then perhaps Air Asia is for you

asheby

There's always Malindo Miles too

d00t

Enrich is a dream compared to Malindo miles. MM are DOUBLE the redemption cost of Enrich, and you have to try and navigate their website. I can't use it. Closed it down.

rooivalk

I do mainly short-haul economy (mostly in higher fare classes), and based on my research so far, BAEC is probably the best and easiest program for me to earn status (you get up to 20 TPs for Y, B, H classes). CX is a lot harder. Did I miss anything else?

zsc

Let me know if you need any help. There will be some interesting things to learn if you're hopping onto QR, such as their yearly (we'll see if it continues next year) Globetrotter promotion and the myriad of sales accompanying it. Even without it there are various promotions year-round, it just takes a little due diligence in fare tracking (which I do in my free time almost every day) to find good fares. If you've got time, take a read around QRPC on the topic of ex-EU, some EU-Asia J fares can go as low as <EUR1000 (<RM5000).

There's SQ for *A, decent if you live down south. They're less competitive on price but their product is definitely decent. I would go out on a limb and say that if you do not live within 2 hours of KLIA, home airports such as PEN can be a link to BKK/SIN.

Also previously mentioned, QR/EY/EK (in that order). QR is part of OW while EY/EK are not officially part of an alliance. Also, to achieve status on either of these three, you'd need to be travelling at least once or twice on longhaul to meet the minimum sector requirement.

There's also BA which I am not too familiar about (also OW) and IINM they too have a minimum sector requirement on BA ticketing & metal.

Honestly it really depends where within Malaysia you're flying to and from - certain airlines only serve certain airports such as JHB/PEN and this can also affect your choice.

ANstar

Are they cutting the earn rates as well? Presumably if they are, then it might not bode well for other OW programs as MH will likely cut the earn rate with them too.

Globalist

Just be aware that BAEC has a requirement of 4 BA metal flights a year for status. It is a fairly easy requirement and 1 trip to Europe will give you the opportunity do earn it (KUL-AMS via LHR) and those connections are generally cheaper than a simple return to LHR.

You can also do SIN-SYD-MEL vv, the QF flight to MEL will have a BA flight number and will count even though it is not a BA metal flight. Maybe there is even a KUL-SIN-SYD vv on a BA flight nr.

As I mentioned before, for *A I recommend using AEGEAN. Fairly easy to earn status, no expiry of miles and no minimum sector requirement. (They have an option with and without AEGEAN sectors).

Globalist

d00t

MH increased earn rates last year. The rate at which other airlines award MH flight credit has nothing to do with the MH program, and has everything to do with how many miles BA or anyone else wants to award you.

tmac100

[QUOTE=Globalist;28376503......
As I mentioned before, for *A I recommend using AEGEAN. Fairly easy to earn status, no expiry of miles and no minimum sector requirement. (They have an option with and without AEGEAN sectors).

Globalist[/QUOTE]

It seems there are some minimum sector requirements to maintain status with A3 in Silver and Gold Tiers.

Here is a cut and paste from their M&B web page:

"To reach the Silver Tier, all you need to do is fly Aegean or Olympic Air at least twice and earn 12,000 Tier Miles within 12 months or collect a total 24,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with. Whichever you do first will get you there.

To retain your Silver Tier, you have a fixed 12-month period from the date of your upgrade or renewal of your tier to collect 8,000 Tier Miles, including 2 flights with Aegean and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 16,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with."

As I maintain my Gold Tier I pay attention to the following requirements:

"To upgrade from Silver to the Gold Tier, all you need to do is fly Aegean or Olympic Air at least four times and earn 24,000 Tier Miles within 12 months or collect a total 48,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with. Whichever you do first will get you there.

To retain your Gold Tier, you have a fixed 12-month period from the date of your upgrade or renewal of your tier to collect 12,000 Tier Miles, including 4 flights with Aegean and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 24,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with."

talfred

Nice tip!

Which other OW FFP doesn't require segments?

Globalist

Yes, to get to gold you need:

24,000 miles plus 4 Aegean sectors or
48,000 miles. (Compared to 50,000 miles on SQKF)

To maintain gold you need:
12,000 miles and 4 sectors on Aegean or
24,000 miles. (That's a steal!!)

A return on Thai in F KUL-BKK-FRA gets you about 30,000 miles.
And Aegean miles do not expire like SQKF.

Globalist

wantan

thanks for the great tip!

not familiar with *A program, but from some quick reading I gathered :

1. Highest tier is gold ?
2. Are there any paid fares which are exempt from earning points on *A flights ?
3. Lounge restrictions ? ie: For OW it's Qatar Lounges which don't recognize status.

kaffir76

Most curious incident this evening ..
I had some Enrich miles expiring so I decided to redeem BKK-KUL in Y for travel in Jun 2018.
This was the total cost of the redemption -
Total amount: MYR 140.10 + 11,000 MILES
Quite the opposite of "massive devaluation", ain't it?