This is a new thread for us to discuss loyalty programs from Airlines and Hotel Groups.

Frequent Flyer Programme, eg.: MH Enrich, SQ KrisFlyer, CX MPC/AsiaMiles, BA Avios, AA AAdvantage, etc.
Hotel Loyalty Card, eg.: Le Club Accor Hotels, IHG, Hilton HHonor, SPG, etc.

Abbreviations and acronyms
Airlines:
MH = Malaysia Airlines
CX = Cathay Pacific
AA = American Airlines
BA = British Airways
SQ = Singapore Airlines
AK = AirAsia

Airlines Loyalty Programs:
EM = Enrich Miles
KF = KrisFlyer
AM = Asia Miles

Ticket and Fare Related Short Code:
Y = Economy Class
Y+ = Premium Economy Class
J = Business Class
F = First Class
YQ = Fuel Surcharge

Air Craft Type ICAO short code example:
A330 = Airbus A330
A333 = Airbus A330-300
B772 = Boeing 777-200
B773 = Boeing 777-300
B77W = Boeing 777-300ER

Lounge:
PPL = Plaza Premium Lounge



Useful Link:
1) To search Airline and Airport Code:
http://www.iata.org/publications/Pages/code-search.aspx

2) To check what is the flying distance between airports
http://www.gcmap.com/

3) A master list of Airlines Award Chart:
http://thepointsguy.com/travel-resources/




Hotel Loyalty Programs:
LCAH = Le Club AccorHotels
SPG = Starwood Preferred Guest
IHG = InterContinental Hotel Group
Hilton HHonor = Hilton HHonor



I will update with more information.


Maybe we can start by stating the loyalty programs & status we have, eg.:
MH Enrich *Blue, Le Club Accor Hotels *Silver, Hilton HHonor *Gold.

This post has been edited by JC_jun: Dec 22 2015, 06:55 PM

Checking in...

I have SPG Gold from the World Mastercard promo and Hilton Gold from Visa Infinite. Both are going to expire soon. Does anybody know, once downgraded to silver, can we get gold again using the World Mastercard promo and Visa Infinite promo? Or is this upgrade only allowed once per account?

should be based on your number of nights stayed at their chain per year to qualify and to maintain.

i also just got my hilton upgraded to gold.



i know we can register several different member accounts with accor hotels. If hilton can do the same, then you might have chance to get another upgrade via visa infinite.

You need to go through the standard qualifying nights in order to maintain your HHonors Gold and SPG Gold, it's stated in the T&C.

Welcome to the club...i got my HHonors Gold via VI last year.

I stayed 40 nights this year and able to maintain HHonors Gold until March 2017 too

Checking in.

Anyone with question for CX MPO, Turkish, Etihad, Accor and Accor plus program are welcome to pm. Not an agent but willing to share information.

what is the current rate for accor plus program in malaysia?

580.88 inc gst.

Let me know if u interested and I can refer you to my agent.

I will be accor gold by may next year,, can i choose to sign up Accor plus near the end date of my gold? will it extend the gold status? (I foresee 2017 won't travel much)

Yes you can, join Accor plus will renew your gold for another year.

haha, that's a really good program to help us maintain status..

May I ask
Accor program is by which airlines?

It is worth it only if you stay at ASEAN Accor properties a lot and dine in. Nothing much you get for being Accor gold anyway.

It's a hotel loyalty program. In Singapore it includes Sofitel So, Novotel, Ibis, Sofitel Sentosa, and they just recently bought over new group and that include raffles

Hi all. I'm not a frequent flyer, so I have no elite status with any airlines. I have however travelled on a fair share of airlines in Y, PE, J and F class. Both my wife and I work full time so we treasure whatever time we can get for our vacation (away from the kids). J and F class flights are nearly always redeemed with miles.

My 2015 travel year in review:

New Cities/Towns: Helsinki, Ivalo, Saariselkä village - Finland; Berlin, Prague, Kraków, Budapest, Vienna - Eastern Europe; Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona, Granada, Ronda, Andalucian white villages, Seville - Spain

New Countries: Finland, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Spain

New Airports: HEL, IVL, TXL, VIE, MAD, BCN, SVQ

New Airlines: Iberia, Vueling

New flight experience: BA's backward facing Club World seats - never again

Best flight experience: LHR-KUL MH A380 Business class (excellent service from the crew)

Shortest Flight: AK6461 SBW-KCH - 0h 40m

Longest Flight: BA034 KUL-LHR - 13h 40m

Similarly, I have no elite status as far as hotel chains go (just HHonors Gold from the MBB card). I like to try different types of hotels depending on the destination. Some memorable stays in 2015 include Kakslauttanen glass igloo, Saariselkä, Waldorf Astoria Berlin, Sofitel Vienna and Alfonso XIII, Seville.

Would love to discuss miles accumulation strategies and tactics with everyone, the nature of some may necessitate private messages. Hope to learn and share with everyone here!

you redeemed flights in J and F, purely from the miles you earned by CC?
roughly how much miles you earned per year.

i earned about 140k miles this year, via flight and CC spending (including the bonus miles from enrich promo), but still not enough to redeem 2 seat in J for anyplace above Zone 3.

Lol. We all know your travel glories through the threads... Are you in travel agent business?

Thanks JC_jun for starting this.

I'm not a frequent flyer (anymore), now down to maybe 2-3 medium/long haul flights a year but still enjoy the occasional J and F flights on revenue or miles. My target in general have been long haul J for the whole family, which unfortunately limits me to CX and QR mostly, but can't compain.

I am fortunate enough to have US based credit cards which is where I've earned most of my miles. I am happy to answer questions on AAdvantage and UA Mileageplus programs, and also about US based UR/MR points although there are lot more experienced people on flyertalk

Any good benefits with this Accor Plus? I tried to search through their website but everything seems very vague? Is it something similar to Hilton Premium Club?

So looks like I have to register a new account and try to get the promo again with World Mastercard and Visa Infinite. Only managed 4-5 stays over the year.

I heard that AAdvantage elite members are not granted access to all domestic lounges in the states if you are not flying international. Is it true?

Additionally, AAdvantage redemption chart seems too good to be true. You seriously only need 55,000 miles (business class) or 65,000 miles (first class) one way to the States? Also, if we are based locally, we can't redeem online like CX redemption, right? The only option would be to contact call center?

Yes previously but this going to end soon.. Finally !!!

10% extra discount and discount on dining. Free 1 night voucher, and many more. But only apply to ASEAN, else Le club benefits apply

You get access to the domestic lounges via the following:

1. membership, typically $450 per year
2. pay a day use fee around $50 per day
3. elite status of you fly enough
4. some credit cards grant access, typically those with very high annual fees of $300-450 per year

Flying first class cross country in domestic which might cost you $2-3k will not get you access to the lounge if you don't have any of the above. There are a lot of elites around, so many lounges will be crowded during certain times of the day. I typically go to the domestic lounges to take a shower and grab a drink only.


Yes that is still the case until March 2016 when it goes up in line with the rest of OW. Imagine flying Etihad Residence from SYD to AUH which is 14+ hours for only 60k miles. I've had my fun booking QR, JL, EY and CX J and F, although F on CX only so far. Even had the whole family in CX J last year too. Still, all good things come to an end.

Signing up will give you
# 1 night free stay at any Accor hotels in asia (i read online some other countries get more nights, but their member fee is higher)
# up your status to silver member
# discount for dining

Both my wife and I usually earn around the same as you but that's not including purchases made on behalf of our businesses, friends and relatives (who are supportive of my obsession with miles and points). Although there is a wealth of information on travel hacking online, few are directly relevant to us in Bolehland. That is what compelled me to share more on this forum. With 140k miles you can fly up to 20,000 miles in business class under AM oneworld Multi-Carrier award (AMOMC). If you want two seats, you can fly up to 4,000 miles at 70k miles each. Wait and earn more miles or just take a shorter trip. Either way, you are flying business class for peanuts! Enjoy it! Sometimes when I am short of miles, I will "purchase" miles by charging certain transactions with merchants and paying the 1.x% on their behalf. At our current exchange rate and based on my research on flyertalk, this is the cheapest way to "purchase" miles. Malaysia Boleh!

My aim was not to impress but to distinguish myself from true-blue elite status frequent flyers like yourself based on your recent posts in other threads. Hence the introduction here. A few years ago I was wasting away valuable treatpoints on stupid Parkson vouchers for crying out loud! Just amazed at the stupendous value by converting to business and first class tickets, especially F. Am here to learn and share, but my knowledge is limited to miles & points strategies mainly.

Sifu tishaban, I would be grateful if you can share strategies for J redemption for the whole family (I have four kids, like bro Gen-X but slightly younger lol). Also, any chance of me getting a US based CC while based here?

And finally we have Malaysian style of flyertalk ! Lets share and discuss

Glad that we have so many sifu here to share all the tips and hacks.

-del

This post has been edited by dctravels: Feb 4 2016, 10:24 PM

Hi,

Glad to see this thread. I am SQ elite gold member and in April 16 I have around 8k points to be xpired. Any better suggestions on this?

Thanks.

First, strategies change with time as airlines adapt, so as usual YMMV.

You have to choose the correct airline. For OW I primarily look at CX and to a lesser extent QR or JL. If the schedule fits, MH works too. For *A I used to check primarily TK but it's far harder to get premium seats now.

Next decide on where you want to go. There are 5 daily HKG-NYC CX flights for example, but far fewer flights to EU cities.

Airlines release different numbers of premium seats. CX will release up to 5 J and 2 F up to a year out, JL and QR will release 4 J and 2 F a year out too, but I've booked 5 seats on JL J before. Read up flyertalk and you'll get some details on the other airlines.

Closer to departure date, between 3 weeks to the day of departure, some airlines eg. LH or CX will release most of their unsold seats so you can easily get all 6 seats in J. I've even seen 5 CX F seats open once upon a time. For example, Dec 24th shows CX J wide open on HKG-JFK/EWR and JFK/EWR-HKG is wide open in CX J on Dec 25th.

There are other things that you learn from experience, eg. JL J SAN-NRT used to be wide open, KUL-DOH is really hard to get but SIN-DOH and BKK-DOH are typically much easier. You can technically get BKK-AUH-CDG on the QR A380 with 2 in F and 4 in J.

FWIW I'm planning for another trip to the US east coast probably towards the end of 2016, I'm targeting potentially QR J KUL-AUH-BCN then BCN-NYC-xxx on AA Y returning on CX or JL J NYC-HKG/NRT-KUL.

There are options, but none are easy or quick. To just earn miles through credit card spend, I can easily give you a card as an "employee" but the earning rates on the Maybank Premiere cards are significantly better.

To earn miles via sign up bonuses means you need to have a credit history. You need to have a US Social Security number or Tax ID number to have a credit history, so even though you can get a Tax ID number through various ways, it'll take a year or so of spending and paying your card to build up credit history. A typical sign up bonus is 50k miles after $3k spend in 3 months. Exceptional ones go up to 100k or more. So again you'll have to decide if it makes sense or not.

I should ask you where you're doing this, but offline of course I haven't had the need to do it recently, have done it before but the avenues have closed for me recently.


This post has been edited by tishaban: Dec 22 2015, 10:49 PM

Thank you so much. Had a look and you're right, CX J and even F showing up to 4 seats for Dec 23rd. Being the A380 junkie that I am, was already eyeing BKK-AUH-CDG for the wife and I but if 2F +4J is possible, that would be the coolest way to bring the kids to Disneyland Paris, say 2017.

Thanks also for the info on US credit cards. Only interested to book Etihad Apartments to be honest and you've rightly pointed out the earning rates of MBB Amex Reserve/VI are hard to beat.

Most of the miles purchase transactions are legitimate monthly transactions with a few vendors. Just need to cover the merchant fees for the towkays to allow me to swipe with my credit card. I have a KL-based friend in interior design who racks up RM200-350k per month on behalf of his clients. He only flies in F.

this only offer to sarawak people?

I think MBB just wants money, regardless of whether it's from Sarawakians or otherwise

this has somehow sparked the little travel dream of mine. Now to get the miles......

how this MH multi carrier award works? The zone mileage is the total of multiple trips?

this required much lesser miles than redeem MH own F class..

I just couldnt justify to pledge 1M for the card...

This is the thing that I hate about MH, anything on OW flight redemption need to call in and ask. Few months ago, I tried to call in and ask about trip to North America for few times, always telling me that all OW flight not open for redemption yet. How to redeem?

Did you checked the award availability via other website first?

From where you got to know it required to pledge 1m?

Useless for me, I wanna redeem QR to Europe, AM shows available, call to MH they say not available.

For reference:

KF/SQ:



AMOMC:



I have only redeemed MH using enrich portal online. No experience calling them for OMC redemptions. From the charts I don't see why we should bother.

This post has been edited by dctravels: Dec 23 2015, 04:10 PM

ic, then i better save my mbb point for AM.

how this multi carrier works?

if i want to book a 13k miles route, "KUL-LHR (MH), LHR-KUL (BA)", so in AM consider as zone-08 10k-14k miles?

Yes, for 115k AM. Compare that to your standard 127,500 Enrich Miles redemption. Now just top up a bit to 155k you get to fly in F.

ok, then i will save my points for 2 years and redeem 2x F seats.

Same here, tried to check with AM found got seat availability and this is happening more and more often. Hopefully their collaboration with Emirates with bring us some good news. The only good thing about Enrich is that they are still part of ow and i could have access to other ow lounges.

guys, question. is there a method for me to convert my existing credit card points to air miles of an alternative frequent flyer program (e.g. Delta Skymiles, American Airlines AAdvantage)?

by that, i'm referring to non Citibank PremierMiles Card‎ and all American Express cards (without Maybank logo)

kindly advice?

You are holding credit card from which bank?

Only if the bank allows it. For example Citibank Malaysia allows transfers to Avios but not AAdvantage/Skymiles. This is very country dependent.

As far as I know today, no bank in Malaysia allows transfers to AAdvantage or Skymiles. There websites that can exchange it but it's usually poor value.

that would be maybank 2 cards and a standalone non-travel citibank card

thanks for the explanation, i guess if that's the case, the only way to go to acrue miles for the mentioned is to apply for either Citibank's Premier Miles or the standalone AMEX card

But AMEX and Citibank conversation rate very low, why not maximize your miles earning with other program?

i'm actually looking for some (-frequent) flyer program that offers evergreen miles. the only program that i'm aware of as of now is Delta SkyMiles and JetBlue | TrueBlue program. JetBlue is out of the question as they are a low budget carrier and they don't fly to SEA continent hence the former FFP make much sense

In all honesty I hardly ever keep my miles, earn and burn. They depreciate so if at all possible don't keep them.

Skymiles is also among the least valuable miles around. With Citi and Amex I'd rather dump them to BA Avios.

Seems like Enrich vs AM, the big difference is not in business class but first class. Enrich needs 442,000 enrich miles redemption whereas AM only need 155,000? I have not converted my Maybank points to AM before. For AM redemption , we have to call right? Is there any online redemption like Enrich? Might be worth it to collect 2 or 3 years for a once in a lifetime trip on first class for 2 ( for me lah). Who in the right mind pay RM35,000 for a ticket to London?

Do you have an AM account? You may check the seat availability at http://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/redeem

Premier miles conversion to air miles is getting more expensive. Every RM3 spend can covert to 1 premier miles and every 1 enrich miles need 1.5 premier miles. (Used to be 1 to 1).

For AMOMC redemptions you gotta call up (and make sure you have a cup of coffee and some snacks ready as it will be a loooong call).

This post has been edited by dctravels: Dec 25 2015, 08:32 AM

Anyone can share about award ticket with SQ krisflyer? Like availability, worth or not.

i do agree that SkyMiles are the least valuable miles in the market however for non frequent flyer, the evergreen miles does make a lot of sense. on top of that, conversion of your hard earned credit card points to supermarket vouchers doesn't give much value since most bank have inflated their redemption program by gazillion folds

and i agree with that, the annual fees of RM636 is quite a turn off tbh lol. best bet is The American Express® Gold Credit Card which earns you 5x Membership Rewards (not Maybank's Treatpoints) for spent on groceries, petrol stations, selected cineplexes, participating bookstores, and telecommunication charges. This will enable an individual to fast track their miles if they spend alot where AMEX is accepted

It all depends. What is your intended destination(s)? What are your travel dates? How much flexibility do you have? Are you aiming for Suites, First Class, Business etc?

Redemption is very easy to do online and their call support is excellent, if the need arises. Transfer times for Maybank TPs to KF is fast and efficient, just call the number behind your card.

As far as I remember, Amex Membership Rewards points don't expire. Citibank however does. Maybank TP does as well.

Having said that, I would never transfer my credit card points to any airline, particularly if you don't have a plan to use them anytime soon. It's a gamble IMO. You do it only when the miles are close to expiry at the end of your 3 years.

If you don't spend enough to get a lot of air miles, you could redeem for short haul flights. Some of them eg. KUL-BKI makes a lot of sense since the flights themselves can be expensive.

need to apply thru Maybank?

What is AMOMC ? So far, I have only tried Enrich Miles. The redemption online is straight forward. For AM, have to call up like you say but are seats readily available? If the call is so long and cumbersome, I may just stick back to Enrich and redeem business class only as Enrich business class miles required is just slightly more than AM.

Asia Miles (AM) oneworld (O) multi carrier (MC)

A Chinese billionaire will never have to pay for a plane ticket again, after he accrued a staggering number of air miles using his American Express card to buy a $170m painting.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/...ni-nude-on-amex

now i just realised amex MR will never expire.. so good

I have a AMS-KUL ticket, and MH cancelled this route,
so they booked me AMS-LHR with BA, then LHR-KUL with MH

i am now holding the itinerary issued by MH, which only has MH book ref.

how am i going to do web check-in with BA?

what is the fastest way to get Enrich Gold

Fly

few years ago MH was partnering with MBB, came out enrich fast track thru applying MBB CC. those were
# MBB world master card with Enrich silver,
# MAS-AMEX co-brand charge card gold card (enrich silver), platinum card (enrich gold)

MAS-AMEX with enrich gold or silver
http://www.maybank.com/en/news-support/new...d=1358309585979

MBB world mastercard with enrich silver
http://www.maybank2u.com.my/WebBank/Experience_31%20Mar.pdf

however, those were the days.. all benefits now gone

Ya, those day even can access to private banking hall by credit card, no need to deposit 250k to become premier wealth customer

CC benefit keep diluting year by year, dont know when the 5x tp will be cancel or the exchange rate no more 4770-1k

I thought this is due to MH joined OW and they can't simply give out Enrich Silver and Enrich Gold anymore? Otherwise OW would have plenty of Ruby and Sapphire members. Btw, MH joined OW on 1 February 2013.

oic, i dont know this is because of OW. i thought this is because credit card revise benefit

Just do a research on flight from SIN-ICN
found out that Asia Miles Cathay surcharges is much cheaper compare to MAS

SIN-ICN Business class x2

MAS 187,000 Enrich miles + RM1743

Cathay 160,000 Asia miles + HKD1136(RM631)

Asia miles need less miles for redemption and also cheaper surcharges, but Cathay is one stop at HK while MAS is non stop flight.

Look like asia miles had higher value to price ratio

bro, CX flight not easy to redeem, only limited seats available, most likely you wont be able to book.

try your luck and let us know

MH flies direct SIN-ICN?

Nope, wrong info
Is KUL-ICN direct flight.

Im back! AMOMC 1st section done ...

summary..
CX Lounge in KLIA = so so
CX in-flight meal = great
CX The Wing Biz Lounge in HK = great, but noodle need long Q
PEK MH ground staff service = terrible! Counter only open 3hrs before flight (out-source). 2 counter for Biz, me n mi'lady in different Q see which 1 faster, end up faster 1 took us 45mins to clear. Long Q again at immigration, end up our advance time all gone in Q.
BGS Premier Lounge at PEK = so so (same standard as CX KLIA Lounge)
MH in-fight meal = so so (if u compare to CX menu, its nothing at all)
Flight Club at KLIA = food presentation nice, taste normal, cozy place, we got the most left corner which is a sofa seat, quiet, comfortable and nice view on the tarmac. Oh, can hop back to PPL for shower n whatsover, the 3hr access is shared

This post has been edited by herc: Jan 3 2016, 10:09 PM

PEK MH Biz counter also long queue? why?
you use MH ticket to enter BGS? did you try Air China lounge?

Same question here too, I thought you could have access to AIR CHINA INTERNATIONAL FIRST CLASS LOUNGE with biz class? http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/expe...ge/partner.html

i dont know MH J ticket can enter first class lounge,
my previous flight during feb 2015, i was given a voucher to air china business lounge (nothing much to eat).. so i went to BGS..

This is interesting, someone reported that they could only have access to Air China Business Lounge with MH J ticket. Probably MH just downgraded this but forgot to update their webpage

The above is true.

I know there is the waitlist feature but in my experience they don't clear real-time. Unless you have nothing better to do except call AM/MPC every day to check, chances are (if you're a Mr Nobody like me) your seats will be grabbed by elite status members of MPC /oneworld carriers.

So in terms of valuation of Asia Miles, I agree with sifu tishaban the figure is around USD0.015 but only for elite status members. For those with no status like me, I would value them even lower because like JC_jun said, redemption is very hard, near impossible for some routes. Enrich is different, availability for J class at least is mostly assured.

Inexperience staff I guess, took so long for each counter to clear 1 passenger.

Economy counter move way faster.

Nope, I use PriorityPass.

Didnt try, I chose the nearest lounge, PEK T3 gates is very far between each other, short of time and I just wanna grab some drinks

This post has been edited by herc: Jan 4 2016, 08:17 AM

I will fly PEK again next month, hopefully this long queue thing won't happen.

Last time i use my Citibank premier miles to enter BGS
I read alot of good review about airchina and bgs lounge, maybe that was day time where they prepared more food.

maybe, when I was there, it's midnight already, just few kitten hanging around

Hypothetical question, would you spend 120k miles on an Etihad Residence redemption? Compared to about half for a regular CX or JL first class?

Residence or Apartments? I didn't know Residence was redeemable.

hi guys, when you are booking tickets online, how do you know the ticket you booked is under which class?

This is specifically referring to MH or any airlines?

Sorry Etihad Apartments, not Residence.

Still wondering if it's worth spending all those miles, almost double a typical first class trip when I don't have a lot to burn

So excited to see a local version of FlyerTalk in LYN!


From what I understand from agent, there's a different seat availability released for the airline own FFP vs partner FFP.

E.g. You want to fly with CX and check seat availability with AM. It might shows available but if you want to redeem the CX flight with EM, it might shows different availability.