Malaysia Airlines to join Oneworld alliance

[JohnK]

Hi, I want to book an economy flight to Amsterdam in September. I'm a Gold Qantas FF and I'm wondering if I need to wait till 1 February 2012 to book and get the points. The price right now is excellent.

Book flights right now and if Malaysia Airlines is a member of Oneworld when you fly then you will earn SCs and QFF points on eligible airfares.

 

[kelvedon]

So the start date looks to be 1 February. I'm flying business class with them on 27 January - guess that will entitle me to no QFF points

If the OP were to join Enrich before he flies, wouldn't he be able to use those points on One World flights after Feb 1st. To not offer this would disappoint their current members.

imagine they would be isolated in the Enrich account though.

 

[samh004]

If the OP were to join Enrich before he flies, wouldn't he be able to use those points on One World flights after Feb 1st. To not offer this would disappoint their current members.

Yes... but it's unlikely they'd earn enough from one flights to actually use them

 

[wafliron]

Qantas usually does it on the day that a new partner joins... from previous recollection.

I'm more interested to see the reverse - especially what burn rates will apply when using Enrich miles for OW partner awards (and whether the Enrich online booking engine will support this, for convenience's sake).

If they don't change the rates compared to current MH-metal rates, Enrich may well become the bargain OW program for Australians (with easy CC earning options / good CC earn rates for Australians, I mean) going forward. For example and IIRC, Australia to Europe in J is around 55k Enrich points, compared to 128k QFF points, and Enrich points can be earned at $1 = 1 to 1.5 points via Amex and $1 = 1.5 points via Westpac Altitude.

 

[kelvedon]

A J return from the eastern seaboard should earn the OP about 12000 points. Enough for one way Syd-Adl, and who'd want to ever leave that beautiful city?

 

[PineappleSkip]

Try and see if you can open the booking in QF's manage my booking using your MH pnr and see if it allows you to add your QFF #

Nope. I entered my 5 digit MH booking reference no. for upcoming February booing in QF website and it returned this error

Enter the six-digit Booking or Voucher Reference.

When I booked the flight there was no place to enter a FF No. other than Enrich. Will need to plug it in at check in in DEL.

Cheers skip

 

[mannej]

Different reservations systems will mean you can't use the QF system to view your MH booking

 

[anat0l]

I'm more interested to see the reverse - especially what burn rates will apply when using Enrich miles for OW partner awards (and whether the Enrich online booking engine will support this, for convenience's sake).

If they don't change the rates compared to current MH-metal rates, Enrich may well become the bargain OW program for Australians (with easy CC earning options / good CC earn rates for Australians, I mean) going forward. For example and IIRC, Australia to Europe in J is around 55k Enrich points, compared to 128k QFF points, and Enrich points can be earned at $1 = 1 to 1.5 points via Amex and $1 = 1.5 points via Westpac Altitude.

Does anyone know systematically how many Enrich miles are needed for redemptions on MH? Only way so far is just trial and error on the booking engine. SYD-LHR one-way J for 55k Enrich miles from what I could see, which is certainly a bargain. On the other hand, I checked KUL-LHR one-way in F and they wanted 136k.

The main thing to be careful of, too, is that, like KrisFlyer, Enrich miles are only valid for a maximum 3 years. You can extend the validity of Enrich miles, but it will cost you a fee and you can only extend miles once. Most of us tend to just hoard the CC points then sweep as necessary, so this note is more for those who are thinking of switching to Enrich for their main programme (which, admittedly, is not an entirely foreign (pun intended) nor unwise consideration).

Their partner burn rates are published as a chart online. The rates though seem off the planet. I hope they do not stay that way.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Do you think MH will increase their prices ex-AUS on feb 1 to be more aligned with 'oneworld pricing' ?

Currently in business:
3K to asia
5K to Europe

 

[KLN]

i think come 1/2/2013 when the partnership with OW is official, we will see their website start to function properly again. thus enter QF booking no.s, at this stage i'd like to be able to manage my booking, which hasn't worked on their website since November.

 

[PLC]

A J return from the eastern seaboard should earn the OP about 12000 points. Enough for one way Syd-Adl, and who'd want to ever leave that beautiful city?

You mean who'd want to leave ADL on the return? I agree....

 

[PineappleSkip]

5K to Europe

Less than the outrageous price QF is asking for Y+ at the moment!

Cheers skip

 

[wafliron]

Does anyone know systematically how many Enrich miles are needed for redemptions on MH? Only way so far is just trial and error on the booking engine. SYD-LHR one-way J for 55k Enrich miles from what I could see, which is certainly a bargain. On the other hand, I checked KUL-LHR one-way in F and they wanted 136k.

They don't have a published award chart - well not for their own metal anyway. If you dig around on their website they talk about using a "dynamic pricing" system, which one would assume means the price changes depending upon load, route, time of year, etc.

That said, there do seem to be some "standard" prices that sit behind their "dynamic pricing" engine. 55k for MEL/SYD-Europe in J appears to be the "standard" price for this award - only very rarely have I seen it available, but at a higher price. Pretty sure I've seen a variety of different prices for Y, though. And it is a bargain, as you say: I cashed in 55k MR points last year to fly CDG-xKUL-MEL in J on MH, and while not the best J product around, it's perfectly acceptable - and amazing "value".

Not 100% sure about the KUL-LHR one, but I think that might also be the "standard" price - much, much higher, and for a shorter route, but probably because of demand for the A380 (or the very-scarse F product in general). Before they retired their 747s you could get MEL/SYD-Europe in F for sub 100k - but I've only ever seen >100k prices for KUL-LHR on the new A380 product.

Their partner burn rates are published as a chart online. The rates though seem off the planet. I hope they do not stay that way.

Damn, I missed that - I thought they priced partner awards the same as on their own metal. You're right, the burn rates are atrocious. Hopefully that changes post 1 Feb... but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Joshua]

Malaysia Airlines experiences pre-Oneworld

A few observations having taken several short and mid-haul flights with MH in the last month – so annoying, probably a good 100SC missed out on!

All the flying has been on 737-800’s except a couple flights on 737-400. The classics are just that, old well padded seats with an interesting colour scheme. All the 800’s I have been on have BSI, so large bins and LED lighting. They are very similar to the QF setup, all seatback IFE, USB charging. Their oldest 73H is 30 months old so there may be some without the new swag. On thing their IFE has books to read and other interactive things, not sure how much you really wanting to be reading books like that but I did see one person giving the interactive Qur'an a go.

Catering on short-haul is limited but mid-haul it is more like the long haul food, with decent sized meals – think TT flights for QF. Compared to some other recent new members, looking at AB here, they definitely fit the profile that OW presents of itself.

A couple differing experiences departing KCH. Once all the computers crashed so lines going everywhere and everybody has hand written boarding passes and bag tags. Staff actually coped quite well. Another time departing KCH, I had booked two bookings because it worked out to be significantly cheaper to book KCH-SIN and SIN-xKUL-CMB separately. Pretty simple I thought, once they join OW people will be doing far more complex things. Unfortunately not so simple it seemed on the computer front. At check-in it took over 20 minutes, eventually with 5 staff members trying to tag a bag through. At the end I hear cut-and-paste said repeatedly by the supervisor. No, not on the computer, they literally cut and stuck two tags together. I just got the bag receipt for the second booking. All’s well that ends well I suppose. KUL there seems to be a lot less trouble, always smooth experiences with in town check-in or at the airport.

I’m certainly looking forward to their joining and maybe trying out their smallish F cabin on the A380 to LHR as an alternate option. I noticed particularly around KLCC and the Pavilion they are advertising their joining, but rather discreetly I thought. Meanwhile UL has a giant sign saying they’re invited into OW on the road leading to CMB!

Will be interesting to see how well they recognise status come end of next week.

 

[MH_fan]

They don't have a published award chart - well not for their own metal anyway. If you dig around on their website they talk about using a "dynamic pricing" system, which one would assume means the price changes depending upon load, route, time of year, etc.

That said, there do seem to be some "standard" prices that sit behind their "dynamic pricing" engine. 55k for MEL/SYD-Europe in J appears to be the "standard" price for this award - only very rarely have I seen it available, but at a higher price. Pretty sure I've seen a variety of different prices for Y, though. And it is a bargain, as you say: I cashed in 55k MR points last year to fly CDG-xKUL-MEL in J on MH, and while not the best J product around, it's perfectly acceptable - and amazing "value".

I think their burn rates areamazing value (except for F on the A380 now). I was looking at J from SYD to LHR in October and the quote was only 102k return! I don't think anyone could beat that! Mind you, the taxes were about $1000 though.

 

[drron]

I think their burn rates areamazing value (except for F on the A380 now). I was looking at J from SYD to LHR in October and the quote was only 102k return! I don't think anyone could beat that! Mind you, the taxes were about $1000 though.

Except AA at 80K and $US85 taxes for a F award.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Re: Malaysia Airlines experiences pre-Oneworld

A few observations ...

Thanks joshua some useful stuff there

Cheers skip

 

[toofastdriving]

Try and see if you can open the booking in QF's manage my booking using your MH pnr and see if it allows you to add your QFF #

Just tried that - could not find my booking.
Malaysia Airlines website is also unable to currently manage my booking to try and add any FF details in there.
I guess as suggested I'll be left with a useless number of Enrich points...ahh well.

 

[wafliron]

I guess as suggested I'll be left with a useless number of Enrich points...ahh well.

Or credit your QF (or other OW) flights to Enrich post-1-Feb, at least until you have enough points for one of these bargain J long-haul flights we've been discussing?

Except AA at 80K and $US85 taxes for a F award.

True - but much easier for us Aussies to earn MH points than AA points (buying options aside, perhaps)!

 

[drron]

I would think it is easier to accumulate AA miles-flying OW with more of them qualifying for elite bonus than QF and I would think the same with MH.Hotel loyalty programs-eg you can transfer SPG points to AA but not MH.And you can transfer DC and Amex points to AA though better to go via SPG.Are there any CCs at present in australia that can transfer points to MH?