In October it was announced that Malaysia Airlines would be joining the OneWorld alliance as of February 1, 2013, and for once in the airline industry it seems as if that estimate was actually accurate — shocking, I know!
Today Malaysia Airlines became the newest OneWorld member airline, and to celebrate all OneWorld carriers are offering double miles for travel on Malaysia Airlines between February 15 and April 15, 2013 (for tickets bought today or later). Now it’s kind of funny this promotion has been announced given that many airlines (including American) haven’t actually published accrual charts for travel on Malaysia, so when they get around to publishing them at least you know you can earn double as many for the next couple of months. For example, here’s American’s version of the promotion, for which registration is required.
Award tickets for travel on Malaysia should be bookable using OneWorld miles now, and British Airways even shows Malaysia award space on their online tool.
As a reminder, Malaysia’s only service to the US is to Los Angeles four times weekly via Tokyo Narita. For what it’s worth award availability is excellent on the route, and I see two business class award seats available almost every date. That being said, their business class product is angled flat, so probably not as desirable as Cathay Pacific.
They also have a first class product on their Airbus 380s, which serve London, and as of March 1, Paris. However, I’ve searched a wide variety of dates and don’t see any award space in first class on those flights. I’m not sure whether they just haven’t been loaded to OneWorld, if Malaysia has no intentions of making them available, or what, but if anyone has any context on the situation I’m sure many of us would be interested in hearing it!
Anyway, this is an exciting development. OneWorld was pretty weak in Asia with just Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific, so it’s always nice to have another partner airline.
Explains all the ads right now - landed in KUL on Saturday, and the malls are flooded with ads for Malaysia Airlines and it's new OneWorld status.
"using the KVS tool on the BA mode it sure looks like there’s some sort of an error with the BA-MH fare class mapping."
What other search engine could one use to find availability? I dont think AA does, Qantas?
Hey Ben. I'm not an expert in MH mileage tickets, but using the KVS tool on the BA mode it sure looks like there's some sort of an error with the BA-MH fare class mapping. Search for KUL-LHR or KUL-CDG and you'll find something like this: "YS1 CS2 YS9" (note there are two Y groupings, one in the position where you'd expect to see first class.)
If you search BA's website for F tickets on...
Hey Ben. I'm not an expert in MH mileage tickets, but using the KVS tool on the BA mode it sure looks like there's some sort of an error with the BA-MH fare class mapping. Search for KUL-LHR or KUL-CDG and you'll find something like this: "YS1 CS2 YS9" (note there are two Y groupings, one in the position where you'd expect to see first class.)
If you search BA's website for F tickets on those same routes, you'll see that it returns "Economy", but with only one seat remaining, so it's clearly pulling the initial coach bucket that you see on KVS. Go to the next step and sure enough, you're only charged the coach mileage price.
To me, that suggests that BA is incorrectly mapping the first class bucket to an economy class display and cost. I haven't gone through with a booking, but this might be an opportunity to get first for the price of coach. YMMV and who knows whether BA would honor the ticket if this even works.
@Grady -- Ace is correct, happy about them joining OW and not the double miles for that route. 9k Avios is pretty easy to replenish, so nice to use C and the lounge, even though my new shiny Priority Pass card would provide that.
Besides F class on the A380, I think MH also offers F on their 747's (which they used to fly on the LHR route). I wonder which other routes besides LHR and CDG do they offer F class? Maybe there is better availability because it is considered an 'older f class' ?
SIN-KUL There is a bus from downtown to downtown that is not bad. Shorter duration than flying.
What about flights KUL - Langkawi, Bali, Borneo, Bangkok, Vietnam, etc and fuel surcharges ?
I would just stick to economy on those short flights if using AVIOS, unless you are dying for the lounge...
@Grady, think @Brady (are you brothers?!) is referring to MH joining oneworld...so he can burn Avios to fly MH now -- not the AA double mile promo...
@ jeremy -- Only on a distance based award and not on an all partner award unless it was booked as multiple one-way awards.
I was able to add my AAdvantage # to my LGK-KUL trip in a few weeks. The double mile bonus won't amount to much but it's still nice. The extra bag allowance for One World emerald's is super! Makes them very competitive with LCC if you have more than one bag.
Any chance of routing to the maldives from Europe with AA miles on Malaysian - or does this violate the transiting regions rules?
Brady, you realize that is a 185 mile flight. Not worth double miles for business class, IMO.
Great timing--easy 9k avios for SIN-KUL In C and $86 in YQ booked. Beats booking a low cost carrier or waiting in SIN 11hrs after an SQ LAX-NRT/HND-SIN arrival.
@ Mike S. -- Agreed, don't see why there would be fuel surcharges using American miles, unless I'm missing something.
David,
I thought BA was the only carrier that levies fuel surcharge on award bookings using AA miles?
No reason to take this flight if CX is available.
YQ kills the deal