In December I wrote about the new partnership between Malaysia Airlines and Emirates, which seemed like a great opportunity for Malaysia Airlines. Due to their financial situation Malaysia Airlines has greatly shrunk (including retiring all of their 777s), meaning they have limited ability to carry passengers on longhaul flights.
Under this partnership, Malaysia is codesharing on many Emirates flights to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. At this point Malaysia is more of a regional carrier, so the idea is that they’d carry passengers to Kuala Lumpur from smaller cities within Asian, and then Emirates would carry the passengers from there.
At the time Malaysia hadn’t yet released the mileage earning and redemption rates for travel on Emirates. That has finally changed.
Malaysia Airlines Enrich members can now earn and redeem miles for travel on Emirates.
The bad news is that Malaysia Airlines miles can’t be redeemed for Emirates first class, but rather only for economy and business class.
Still, there are some potentially compelling value propositions. Malaysia’s award chart for travel on Emirates is distance based, with the option of redeeming for one-way or roundtrip travel, as follows:
Keep in mind that Malaysia Enrich is a Citi ThankYou transfer partner, so you can transfer points from Citi for redemptions on Emirates business class, which represent a good value in many cases.
For example;
- A one-way New York to Milan Emirates business class redemption will cost you 48,000 miles
- A one-way New York to Dubai Emirates business class redemption will cost you 66,000 miles
- A one-way Los Angeles to Dubai to Sydney Emirates business class redemption will cost you 87,000 miles
Emirates A380 business class cabin
For what it’s worth, you can also accrue Malaysia Enrich miles for travel on Emirates, though personally it’s not the program I’d credit to, since the earnings rates aren’t that compelling. The mileage earning rates are as follows:
I’d much rather credit to Alaska Mileage Plan, for example, as I consider those miles to be more valuable.
Emirates 777 business class cabin
Bottom line
While I don’t consider these redemption values to be earth-shatteringly good, I do see potential value here, even for those who wouldn’t ordinarily accrue Malaysia Enrich miles. The distance based award chart can be lucrative, especially for those who accrue Citi ThankYou points, which can be transferred to Malaysia Airlines.
It’s great to see reciprocal mileage earning and redemption as part of this partnership.
Are there any “sweet spot” redemptions you see yourself making through Malaysia’s Emirates redemption chart?
I just tried to book a codeshare operated by Emirates and upgrades using Enrich are a no-no.
Hi, can I buy economy ticket and upgrade using enrich points?
I have 90k of enrich points. From the point schedule, is it true that I can get 1 return economy tix to paris by redeem my point?
Pls advise.
Just called and tried to price JFK - DXB - AKL one way. Found availability on Alaska and Qantas websites. Fed MAS Enrich CSR flight # but she said she saw nothing available. Then continue to ask for any date with availability. She came back with nothing. I confirmed with her that MAS does collect YQ for Emirates. 3k in ringgit approximately 700 USD and 87K Enrich miles per one way.
The catch is really about their YQ , I think MH still hv fairly rediculos fuel surcharge. I tried to redeem a ticket to HK via enrich and the fuel surcharge alone is about what CX would charge for their promo tickets. My take is forget about enrich!
@Paul. How do you search for availability? Did you have to call? I'd like to use this for Cape Town to Dubai. Thanks!
Good luck finding seats. Tried out if Seattle and where Alaska has seats, Malaysia does not.
This actually looks doable for local Malaysians. I know of several credit cards which accrue about RM1 spend for 1 enrich mile (roughly about $0.25 spend per mile)
This is great news for Aussies in NYC. Given the lack of saver level business class availability from LAX/SFO to Australia -- along with the lack of availability on transcons to feed us to the west coast -- AA and DL miles have become pretty useless to get to Oz. We can use United miles to route via Asia, but the only Star Alliance carrier with good availability between Asia to Oz is TG, which...
This is great news for Aussies in NYC. Given the lack of saver level business class availability from LAX/SFO to Australia -- along with the lack of availability on transcons to feed us to the west coast -- AA and DL miles have become pretty useless to get to Oz. We can use United miles to route via Asia, but the only Star Alliance carrier with good availability between Asia to Oz is TG, which often necessitates long routings involving intra-Asia flights with regional business class, like JFK-ICN/NRT-BKK-SYD.
Going the "long way" around the world via the Middle East is actually quicker, but has required two awards. (I recently flew SYD-AUH-JFK in Etihad Business, which nowadays would cost 150k AA miles each way!) Being able to get to Sydney in just 2 flights with decent availability in a great business class product for 87k miles is a good deal.
But just to clarify -- are we sure that the distance is determined by the mileage of the total trip, not the sum of each leg? If it's the latter, like Avios, then JFK-DXB-SYD would cost 138k, not 87k.
This is interesting. Obviously, the value is for longer flights. What are the routing rules? If we can we do LAX-DXB-SYD as one award, it sounds like the rules are VERY loose.
I have an upcoming Emirates first class paid flight from Europe to Saudi (via DXB) I don't really collect Emirates miles, out of all the Emirates partners would you still recommend Alaska? I have about 25K Alaska miles (thanks to BOA CC), so not sitting on a pile either, also lots of KLM and AA miles. Not sure if Korean would make sense as never really travelled with them. *(I have chase and citi points...
I have an upcoming Emirates first class paid flight from Europe to Saudi (via DXB) I don't really collect Emirates miles, out of all the Emirates partners would you still recommend Alaska? I have about 25K Alaska miles (thanks to BOA CC), so not sitting on a pile either, also lots of KLM and AA miles. Not sure if Korean would make sense as never really travelled with them. *(I have chase and citi points about 50K each for example). Either way would love your strategy for this as I'm flying tomorrow. :)
What do you think?
@Joey Their agreement might not include redeeming for EK F. Considering AS is saying that EK pressured them to raise rates, it could very well be that EK didnt want people using MH to redeem for EK F
MH still flies the A380 with 3 cabins (first/business/economy) right? I'm just surprised redemption for EK F is not allowed whereas it is for Alaska Airlines.
Would you still credit to Alaska now? given the poor redemption rates?
How does mileage based charts work for connecting flights. If I travel A to B to C, will it consider the actual distance via B or will it consider distance between A and C
+1. Do they pass along YQ?
But what are the taxes and fees like? That was the main reason mileageplan was so attractive