How to fly to Australia or New Zealand in Business for 63,000 Amex Membership Rewards points

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This deal is probably the most generous mainstream redemption you can get. After all, we are talking about flying all of the way to Australia or New Zealand in business class for not a lot more than an economy flight to California.

This is not an easy redemption to snag and only readers with a high credit rating will be able to access it.

It is a very simple redemption to explain, though, and it involves using Malaysia Airlines and its little known Enrich loyalty scheme.

Yesterday I wrote about how you can earn a 60% bonus on your entire UK Membership Rewards balance by taking out a free American Express Green International Dollar Card and transferring your UK points to the International Dollar Card points scheme.

Your existing balance is grossed up by the current £/$ exchange rate, so if you currently have 100,000 UK Membership Rewards points you would receive 160,000 points in the International Dollar Card MR scheme.

I also wrote about how certain airlines have a 1:1 transfer ratio from the International Dollar Card Membership Rewards scheme. This includes Malaysia Airlines and its Enrich programme as you can see here.

The Malaysia Airlines loyalty scheme is not heavily understood by many people. The US blog Travel Is Free wrote an outstanding overview of how it works in this article although – as he is US focussed – he did not pick up on this deal.

Here is the Malaysia Airlines reward chart. This is only valid for flights on Malaysia Airlines itself not oneworld partners such as British Airways. Scroll down to the bottom and the table for Zone 6 (7,000+ miles) redemptions.

This shows that a ‘basic’ return flight in Business Class of over 7,000 miles would cost 120,000 miles return. Malaysia offers a 15% discount for booking your rewards online so you will only need to spend (120,000 – 15%) 102,000 miles.

That will get you a Malaysia Airlines A380 from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur (fully flat beds) and then onwards to Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Sydney.

Here is a screenshot from a dummy booking I did on the Malaysia Airlines website to prove that it works. You will see that London to Sydney, business class, is just 102,000 Malaysia Enrich miles. That would require just 102,000 points in the International Dollar Card Membership Rewards scheme which (at a $1.60 / £1 exchange rate) would need 63,000 points in the UK Amex scheme.

You can see now why this redemption is, to put it mildly, not for everyone:

You need 63,000 UK Amex MR points per person – although Malaysia also has a ‘cash and miles’ option which can reduce that if needed
You need to be able to get accepted for the Amex International Dollar Card in order to transfer your UK MR points to the IDC MR scheme
You need to hope the transfer ratio to Malaysia does not move
You need to hope that Malaysia does not devalue its reward chart
You need to hope – and this is key – that the upcoming scaling back of Malaysia’s operations does not impact your plans

If you are looking for a bit of a challenge and are thinking big, though, this is something worth considering.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

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Category

oneworld alliance partners

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

David says:

4 Dec4 December 07:48

Which could happen to any airline…

The tax is bit high. No more than BA of course, but does have to be factored in.
JQ says:

4 Dec4 December 07:51

Bad luck comes in threes, right?
- JQ says:
  
  4 Dec4 December 07:58
  
  But Boris Johnson is happy to take MH http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30308697
richie says:

4 Dec4 December 08:22

Raffles .
you mentioned you need a v high credit rating for this.
what is the credit criteria for other cards?

eg lloyds avios and ba premium.

iv never had any bad credit , just i dont have much of it. iv only recently taken my first credit card from my nationwide. i thought id use this for a year before i applyed for anything else. i was just wondering how difficult these cards are to get generally.
- Rob says:
  
  4 Dec4 December 10:53
  
  Amex is very picky about who they give the international currency cards to. It is not really about credit rating in itself, more about you having long established banking relationships. They used to drop the bank reference if you had been an Amex client for 10 years for example (although it seems they may have dropped it anyway.)
  
  I think this is partly because you are legally running up a debt in another country (the Green card needs to be settled by making a payment to Standard Chartered in New York) and if you did not pay up they would struggle to sue you.
  
  It is very unlikely in my opinion you would get one if you have only just got your first credit card.
pauldb says:

4 Dec4 December 08:36

Also worth noting that there’s no premium on one-way, i.e. it’s ~32k MR which is more achievable (for one person or a couple), if you have a few AA miles or something else for the other way.
CXMAS says:

4 Dec4 December 08:46

Also worth consideration is that redemption availability for Enrich members is usually good, availability on BA.com gives no indication of Enrich redemption availability.

Also, Enrich do regular redemption sales which range from 30% to 50% off the usual points rate – bargain.

Main problem with Enrich is finding a way of earning points, not so easy when you live in UK.

Currently MAS have a great promo on for flights leaving BKK. I priced a one way BKK to KUL, then KUL to HKG in business one way at £400.
- James67 says:
  
  4 Dec4 December 12:34
  
  May be confusing them with some other carrier but do MAS not operate dynamic pricing on awards? I have largely ignored Enrich because I thought this was the case but following Robs post today I will need to take a closer look. Loyaltylobby reported great MH fares exBKK a few weeks ago too. When I checked for a flight to LHR though AY was about half the price with a 3-4 hour shorter journey.
  - James67 says:
    
    5 Dec5 December 06:02
    
    Thanks to both for feedback. I do quite a bit of point to point flying in Asia but usually just use Air Asia as I can get just about anyplace direct and at very low prices and with virtual 100% on time performance in recent years. The revenue J fares on MH within Asia merit more of my attention though but would need to decide whether to credit to BAEC or Enrich.
    - CV says:
      
      5 Dec5 December 09:06
      
      I use Air Asia as default airline when in Asia, but have started to look at combining with MAS/CX using Avios redemptions when the taxes are low (i.e. flights within Malaysia, flights out of Thailand). So I often mix airlines up. Was very tempted by the MAS Business class seat deals out of Thailand, but my Avios balance is well stocked at moment and flights already booked.
      
      The Enrich programme remains pretty good, both for offers and seat availability. The points do expire though, and being based in UK makes it hard to earn points.
    - Polly says:
      
      6 Dec6 December 23:34
      
      Agree James, we mix and match in that area too, got CX HKG to Bali for 20k miles and £77 total for both of us return, cash price asked was £480pp return, so def worth storing avios for those routes. I guess you could use enrich miles too. But I feel best keep miles in the one program. Air Asia goes in so many directions,it’s a fab set up.
CXMAS says:

4 Dec4 December 08:53

Amazes me that people think it’s ok to make comments like that whilst families across the world are left suffering the consequences. Then there is an airline and its staff suffering from lack of moral and job cuts for situations they had no control over.

Bear in mind that there was a Singapore Airlines flight flying just a few minutes behind MH17, it could so easily have been any other airline.
- Brendan says:
  
  4 Dec4 December 09:01
  
  Whilst I agree with your point in principle and would have no hesitation to fly MH, it is incorrect to say it could have happened to “any other airline” as some airlines were diligent enough to avoid the airspace (BA. quantas, Cathay)
  - CXMAS says:
    
    4 Dec4 December 09:57
    
    I could list out a load of airlines which flew on that route (e.g. Lufthansa). Airlines were advised at the time that as long as they flew at cruising altitude there was no risk and it was unrestricted airspace.
    
    Based on specific information received from the UK government BA took a different route – information which wasn’t shared with other airlines.
    
    http://www.ttgdigital.com/news/mh17-tragedy-could-have-been-avoided-if-airlines-shared-info-emirates-ceo/4692701.article
    
    Prior to the incident who didn’t trust the airlines and checked themselves the route an aircraft flew prior to buying their ticket? I have been on plenty of flights which have flown over Iraq.
    - Brendan says:
      
      4 Dec4 December 13:14
      
      I agree with all that, I was just pointing out that your statement was factually incorrect.
    - Lady London says:
      
      5 Dec5 December 02:19
      
      ditto. and Afghanistan. I don’t think Ted or JQ meant to be insensitive CXMAS. Ted just expressed a little bluntly the fear that has brought home to all of us. The sympathies of everyone will be with the families as it could so easily have been anyone who flies.
      
      I feel for the management of Malaysian who must feel they have suffered for reasons out of their control in at least one of their incidents and I know it’s unfair but having said that I was planning to fly them but changed those plans.
      
      Thanks also for the hint about SQ CXMAS I’m shocked and will check their routes on my next flight with them.
      - James67 says:
        
        5 Dec5 December 05:53
        
        You will find on my flights to or from se Asia you will fly over a few of the ‘stans’ into Russia but now I believe all carriers avoiding Ukraine. Personally I find the turbulence over the Bay of Bengal much more frightening than thoughts of which war zones I’m flying over. Hope you fly MH in future sometime, service and product exLHR on a380 is good.
Keith says:

4 Dec4 December 10:04

As an Australian Membership Rewards cardholder, where MR AU partners with Enrich, this is the best bargain use of AU MR points to get to Europe and back. I’ve done it a few times and while the product on the KUL – Australia leg is angled flat, their A380 is pretty good.
Review at http://www.pointhacks.com.au/malaysia-airlines-a380-a330-business-class-review-mh21-mh141-paris-kuala-lumpur-sydney/
grex9101 says:

4 Dec4 December 10:20

No way I’m ever going on a Malaysian Airlines flight.
Bad things happen in threes.