Do your homework and only book for business class. Miles games is like a hobby / interest. It allows people like me a chance to indulge on finer things in life with just spending a small amount of money. As Limeuu has said, it's worth it if you redeem business class. Also, u need to have a way to earn points easily & efficiently. If you are only able to earn small amount from credit card spend then I suggest you look for cash rebate cards.

For eg,
A business class ticket on CX from KUL to AKL via HK would cost easily RM 25k+ for 2pax. Using miles, I get to fly for just RM1500+ for 2 which is even cheaper than an air Asia economy class tic.

Not all OW airline charge YQ. JAL & CX does not have YQ. MH also does not have YQ flying to NRT & KIX.

I redeemed mine using enrich via one world redemption. I redeemed for 2 pax hence it's much more easier.

On your 2nd question, it depends on the popularity of the route. Popular route usually have fewer available award seats. More seats get released the closer it gets to the flight date if it's not sold out. I'm not surprised if MH told you that there's only 2 seats as each carrier gets limited allocation of the available award seats.

If you're booking for several people in one go, i suggest go for MH. Anyway, i believe MAS has upgraded the KUL - NRT to the new business class right? The hard product looks rather competitive and there's no YQ surcharge for flights to and from Japan (weird)..

redeem it direct from SBW - KUL - NRT under one MH ticket. You'll save quite abit more miles if you redeem it before 1st Aug. Multi carrier award is more expensive.

Alternatively, buy a ticket from SBW - KUL then redeem OW JAL ticket from KUL to NRT return. JAL KUL-NRT is in zone 4 which is only 96,000miles per pax for J class.

i'm doing KUL - HKG - AKL and back... best part, get to try out new J Pier and A350 to AKL.. beats MH A330 / Golden Lounge any day..

Best part of it all, i'm saving almost RM 1.5k on taxes for 2 pax. Just treat it as visiting 2 countries for the price of 1.

With CX i get to maximise my time also due to more favorable time slot.

This post has been edited by raist86: Aug 1 2016, 06:04 PM

Unfortunately MH OW redemption does not allow for stopovers unless you travel on 2 OW airlines (eg, MH & CX) in one direction. A stopover is defined by a flight out to your next destination >24 hrs after landing. Downside of multicarrier award is the higher points requirements (if i'm reading the award chart correctly).

You can only do a transit which means you need to depart within 24 hours of landing at HKG. If you want to do stopover, you'll need to do separate segment booking.

All these info is from my conversation and understanding from MH customer service dept. Their website has very little info on OW redemption. Try calling their customer service to enquire & confirm.

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/camp...ption_wiki.html

all the promos are to stupid locations.... short haul, on the 737 business... crap stuff

the only one i can see is worth redeeming is tokyo and seoul... tokyo especially when there's no YQ..

Credit miles to Asia miles or krisflyer. Stay away from MH. Marketing team needs to be fired and overhaul. From a top class carrier now become like a low cost carrier.

if you're already in enrich, all is still not lost... redemption on OW carrier still is ok.

a point to note, if you're planning to book KUL - HKG segment to fly after 1st May 2017, there's no award seat yet as flight has been transferred from CX to KA (Cathay Dragon) which is their subsidiary. I'm trying to change my ticket and have been stuck because of this. If you chk in Dragonair website, redemption for KUL - HKG or HKG - KUL is under travel restriction.

A side note, Enrich CS even have the balls to argue with me that KA is Korean Air... when i called up to request to change the itinerary, she says i need to rebook on Korean Air flight because the initial booking is on Korean Air. My previous booking was on Cathay Pacific (flight code CX).

well, on flyertalk, most people prefer KA on short haul (Sub 4 hours) due to better food and service. Also getting the reverse herringbone seat on regional flight is like playing russian roulette... Only get that seat if CX is flying their long haul plan on regional. Otherwise the seats are the same as KA.

I hope they solve the transition issue soon cos need to amend my return date...

no idea yet.. trying to contact CX customer service to enquire is like worse than calling air asia... on hold forever.

Anyone here receive the offer for Saujana hotel 3D2N stay? Managed to do booking with the code provided?

i tried and it says invalid code... whats up with MH nowadays man ... send promo email which is not valid.

for booking after 1st March 2017 from KUL to HKG, you may have problem on the redemption as CX has transferred the flight to KA. MAS CS agents will give u all kinds of funny reply (from saying KA is Korean Air hence cannot redeem to KA is not a OW airline). If they say cannot redeem, just hang up and call back again in 1 hr time.

It took me 8 tries over a period of 2 weeks to change my flight on KA (initially booked CX, then they transferred to KA) as MAS told me it's booked on another non OW carrier. I hope they've sorted out the issue on the back end. Honestly it's not fully MAS fault but more towards the inexperience of the CS agent. I found that they staff the platinum line number with more experience senior staff. It helps if you have someone who is Platinum to call their dedicated line and pass the phone to you.

To find OW flights (eg Cathay Pacific), use booking engine such as BA avios or CX to search for flights with available award seats. If the seat is shown as waitlist on CX, 99% chance MAS would not be able to book a seat on that flight. One caveat, even if the award seat is shown to be available on CX, it does not mean MAS will be able to book it under Enrich redemption. Alternatively, use search engines such as Experflyer (paid subscription) to get a more accurate picture of award availability.

just a note to be aware.. once they start to be generous on the miles earning, chances are they'll devalue it again next year on the redemption side.

Depends on what class of ticket MH booked you on. For eg, originally my ticket from KUL - HKG - AKL was booked under (U) Business Class redemption with Cathay Pacific. it shows there as redemption ticket hence not eligible for miles.

After that, i did a change of schedule on the flights and long story short, after MH managed to change my CX flight dates, my ticket became (D) Business Class ticket and now eligible for miles award. I use Asiamiles to collect on the enrich redemption.

FYI, my schedule change cost USD 20 per ticket.. so it's not really free.. Have to pay about RM 170 for two pax to change my schedule. However i didn't do it just to get the miles, more like to extend my stay in NZ.

as per one world rules, if you're travelling on OW J class, you can use any One World partner lounge.

enrich now having 50% promo on the conversion charges until 31st Dec IIRC.

Previously was RM0.04 per mile to convert, promo rate is RM 0.02 / mile +RM 40 processing fee. This is on top of the payment you have to make to the seller of the miles though.

another stupid "promotion"...

i'd highly suggest those with MH miles use it to redeem CX on one world redemption.. at least the surcharge is manageable.