Malaysia Airlines has had promotions where they would incentivize people to fly with them by offering 2X miles on all flights booked and flown on them. They are back with a new promotion and this trumps what they had previously.
Malaysia Airlines is offering a staggering 3X miles on all flights booked with Malaysia Airlines between now and 15 October 2018. All flights booked must also have a travel period which falls between now to 31 March 2019.
Triple Elite Miles, Elite Sectors, Enrich Miles
In this promotion, Malaysia Airlines will award you 3X the number of miles you would normally have earned if you book and fly with them. To receive the 3X miles on your Malaysia Airlines flights, simply add your Enrich frequent flyer number when making your booking.
The 3X miles promotion is only valid for flights operated and marketed by Malaysia Airlines and your tickets have to be booked with Malaysia Airlines as well. Flights booked prior to 9 October 2018 will not be eligible for this promotion.
Here’s the accrual chart for the number of Enrich Miles and Elite Miles you will earn for your flight on Malaysia Airlines under this promotion (in blue):
Malaysia Airlines has also provided an example of the number of miles you can earn on a round-trip ticket from Kuala Lumpur to London in this promotion:
Accelerate your way to oneworld elite status
What excites me about this 3X miles promotion isn’t the number of redeemable Enrich Miles I can earn. But rather, it’s the potential to be able to get oneworld elite status with just one flight, if your pockets are deep enough.
Under Enrich, there are 4 tiers:
- Enrich Blue – upon enrollment
- Enrich Silver (oneworld Ruby) – after earning 25,000 Elite Miles or 30 Elite Sectors
- Enrich Gold (oneworld Sapphire) – after earning 50,000 Elite Miles or 50 Elite Sectors
- Enrich Platinum (oneworld Emerald) – after earning 100,000 Elite Miles or 100 Elite Sectors
Here are the benefits you will receive by virtue of your status:
This triple elite miles promotion is a great opportunity to pick up oneworld elite status relatively cheaply. Using the example of a return Business Class flight from Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur – New Delhi, this itinerary will cost you approximately S$1,000 and the ticket books into fare class “D” which will earn 525% of the actual distance flown under the 3X miles promotion. This was the cheapest itinerary I could find which has one of the lowest miles to cost ratio.
According to GCMap, the total flight distance you will cover on a return flight will be 6,316 miles. Since this books into “D”, after factoring in the triple miles promotion, you will earn a grand total of 33,519 Elite Miles from this one flight. This will already earn you Enrich Silver which will confer you oneworld Ruby benefits. Flying this exact same itinerary again will thus give you sufficient Elite Miles for Enrich Gold status and oneworld Sapphire status.
So for a grand total of approximately S$2,000, you can get yourself oneworld Sapphire status, which will grant you Business Class lounge access for yourself and a companion even when traveling in Economy Class. Malaysia Airlines flies their A330 between Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi which has its lie-flat Business Class product, so you wouldn’t even be suffering that much as you work your way to oneworld Sapphire status.
However, for those of you who are considering doing this to get oneworld elite status, Enrich Miles are pretty worthless ever since they got devalued last year. It now follows a revenue-based redemption style where the cost of the award ticket fluctuates based on the current price of a revenue ticket. So just be prepared that you will not be able to utilize your Enrich Miles for a decent award flight.
Concluding Thoughts
This is a great promotion that is being held by Malaysia Airlines and it is the fastest way to attain oneworld elite status at the moment. Just bear in mind that your Enrich Miles earned in this promotion might not get you an aspirational redemption with Malaysia Airlines by virtue of how they price their award tickets.
Anyone planning to do a status run with Malaysia Airlines?
Thanks Matthew for the great write up
Seems like he perfect time to go for Emerald. So 3x BKK-DEL return should do the trick.
Any advice on status validity?
From my understanding, you’ll keep your status in the year you got it and the following year. I’m clarifying this with the Malaysia Airlines social media team as well. Will report back with a confirmation
Hello. Have confirmed that if you earn it this year, you’ll keep it until Dec 2019. And if you fail to requalify in 2019 you’ll drop to Enrich Silver.
Better to slowly earn it next year then
Timing is everything. Spread out your 3x flights. 1 in dec, 1 in jan, 1 in feb/mar. So that by time you get your status, it will be valid till 2020. Don’t forget, you need to book all the 3x flights by 15 Oct 2018. Have until 31 March 2019 to complete your flights. Good Luck!
The accruals of enrich miles are based on calendar year. So if you accrue miles in 2018, it will all reset by 31 Dec 2018.
We’re talking about the status tier. not the miles accrual.
Why do you need to spread them out when the elite miles earned for the flight in Dec won’t count anymore once 2019 is here.
Thanks again Matthew!
Hi Matthew. I found it more informative compared to the marketing page of Malaysia Airlines. 🙂 Just to further add that the concept of “Elite Sectors” are unique to Malaysia Airlines. By clocking in enough Elite Sectors, you can also gain Silver or Gold status, regardless of whether you have accrued enough elite miles. One use case is a return trip of SIN – KUL – PEN, where you would have accrued 24 elite sectors (6sectors x 4 legs) on a J/D revenue ticket of ~SGD600. If you were to repeat this 2times, between Jan 1 to Mar 31, you… Read more »
Doesn’t J/D fare earn 2 elite sectors per leg? How do you manage to get 6 elite sectors per leg?
Also Gold=OW Sapphire. Platinum=OW Emerald
2 elite sectors per leg for J multiplied by 3 during the promo…
Got it. Thanks for clearing up the blurriness
Ah yes, OW sapphire.
I am confused by the sector thing just want to clarify my understanding. This is what I found from MH website. “An Elite Sector is a flight from origin to destination which carries a single flight number.”
So the example SIN-KUL-PEN on J will count as 4 sectors per one way (before 3x)?
Yes SIN-KUL-PEN one way in J will net you 4 Elite Sectors, before the 3x bonus.
Shouldn’t it be 6, 12 and 18 elite sectors for KUL-LHR *return*?
[…] Yesterday, I wrote about the great promotion that Malaysia Airlines was having where you will receive 3X Elite… on all flights booked and flown with Malaysia Airlines. […]
I earned 13,000+ Enrich miles w MH in 2018. If I accumulate another 37,000 miles by 31 Mar 2019 via this 3X miles promo, does that mean I can qualify for OW Sapphire?