A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us an email about issues they were facing with Malaysia’s flag carrier Malaysia Airlines, and their “suspension” of saver awards.
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You can access Malaysia Airlines here.
Reader’s Email:
This case probably impacted a small amount of the customer base from Malaysia Airlines.
Apparently, the airline has recently launched a conversion bonus for bank conversion with at least 10% bonus and also gain 1 Elite Point for every 30,000 points conversion and also concurrently run a campaign where customers may convert their Enrich Points to Enrich Money for instant status elevation to Enrich Silver / Gold.
At the same time, Malaysia Airlines has immediately disabled the Enrich Saver program indefinitely with generic response from their Social Media informing us that it is currently disabled due to “backend enhancements”.
During this period, they have removed the official Enrich Saver page on their website as well.
This has been ongoing from early July 2023 and for more than a month now with no official news or updates from Malaysia Airlines.
Some of the members have converted more than a million points but have no way to utilize the Enrich Saver but are now stuck in a limbo.
Is it simply a coincidence that the too-good-to-be-true Conversion Bonus + Status Upgrade Bonus and Enrich Saver program gets taken down at the same time?
This post should serve as a warning that some Airlines will disable/remove their program at a whim with no obligation to inform customers first.
I’ve attached one of the responses from Malaysia Airlines official Facebook but if you have a look at almost every post, you will see customers asking over and over again.
Malaysia Airlines has been all over when it comes to its ambitions of being a global carrier to a regional one and also had at least one reboot with a brought-in CEO.
They are currently running several promotions to get Enrich members to convert their banking/credit card points to miles by offering status boosts and bonuses.
However, they have suspended saver award redemptions for “system enhancements” that indeed sound dubious.
Conclusion
We have covered the main promotions of Enrich in the past, but not these most recent ones, as they seem best fit purely for the Malaysian market.
Also, I often flew with Malaysia Airlines when they offered excellent business class fares around Asia, usually from Bangkok or Phuket, which were great for BA Tier Points collectors.
It is unclear what Malaysia Airlines’ strategy is, if they even have one. They used to be a network airline flying from Kuala Lumpur to Buenos Aires via Johannesburg and Cape Town and also serving New York (or Newark) via Stockholm.
They seem to have an incoherent, not well-executed plan that changes yearly depending on who is running the airline or the country.
I have enjoyed flying them, but all these corporate policies make very little sense.