Disclaimer: The article and product(s) that is/ are mentioned are non sponsored. All insights are based on personal opinions and researches done. The information would have been updated during the time you read this article. The resources are based on the day of this article being posted.
In previous article, we discussed a little bit about the situation of points and miles game in Thailand. [Applying Travel card During Pandemic] This had made me being a lot curious about the culture of credit cards in Malaysia. Hence, a series of Credit Card [Malaysia] had been started and consist introductions of 12 major issuers.
Being a credit card enthusiastic myself, points and miles game in the States is positioned as "golden rule" in my evaluation. The liquidity of points transfers is indeed a must. The more I digging into, to play the points and miles game in Malaysia is a lot more difficult in Thailand, despite the variation of cards offered.
Let's start with a relatively "shocking" miles redemption chart from Malaysia's national carrier- Malaysia Airlines by Citibank.
For USA, the redemption rate for Citibank's Thank you point is 1:1 to Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles.
To simplify, it is approximately 4.36 MYR (approx. 33 THB) for 1 Enrich Miles for Citibank in the states.
This is before any multipliers added.
In Malaysia, the redemption rate for most Citi Credit cards is 25,000 Citi Rewards Points to 1,000 Enrich Miles. (25:1)
To compare with Citi Bank USA, earning rate of Citi Bank Malaysia is 25 MYR (approx 185 THB) per Enrich mile.
Even the Prestige card is 7 MYR (approx 52 THB) for 1 Enrich mile. Well, Citi PremierMiles is winning here with redemption rate of 1.5:1. But, it is a different story. Anyhow, we get a rough idea about the points and miles game in Malaysia.
In this article, we will compare the points and miles reward chart from major banks and credit card issuers in Malaysia (12...well, most of them). The comparisons will be a useful guidance for the next travel card you will apply.
The points earning rate in Malaysia is pretty straight forward, typically 1 point per MYR spend (approx 7.39 THB)
Unlike in Thailand, credit card issuers provide miles redemption more than just Malaysia Airlines. Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer, Airasia BigPoints and Asia Miles are always under the redemption program, which is a huge plus.
A. Standard Chartered Bank
Standard Chartered Bank has 2 points system: 360º Rewards Points and WorldMiles.
Mileage redemption partners: Asia Miles, KrisFlyer of Singapore Airlines, Enrich Miles of Malaysia Airlines and Big Points of AirAsia.
"WorldMiles" is only offered for WorldMiles Mastercard.
While "360º Rewards Points" is offered for other reward credit cards.
Redemption rate of points to miles for WorldMiles is 2:1 for all participated partners.
360º Rewards Points: 46:1 (Min. 46,000:1,000)* for Enrich Miles.
360º Rewards Points: 10:1 (Min. 10,000:1,000)* for Big Points.
*Except Priority Banking Visa Infinite & Visa Infinite Cards which is 7:1 (Min. 7,000:1,000)
For 360º Rewards Points, the redemption chart of airline miles is not shown on the official website. It is only available after logging in. The data of points redemptions for Enrich and Big Points are acquired from airlines' webpage, "earn point section". [i], [ii]
B. AmBank
Points system of AmBank is named AmBonus Points.
Mileage redemption partners: Asia Miles, KrisFlyer, Enrich Miles and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- World Mastercard and Visa infinite 7:1 (Min 7,000:1,000)
- Visa Signature and UnionPay/ Visa/ Mastercard Platinum 8:1 (Min 8,000:1,000)
- Visa/ Mastercard Gold: 12:1 (Min 12,000:1,000)
2. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- World Mastercard and Visa infinite 10:1 (Min 10,000:1,000)
- Visa Signature and UnionPay/ Visa/ Mastercard Platinum 12:1 (Min 12,000:1,000)
- Visa/ Mastercard Gold: 15:1 (Min 15,000:1,000)
3. Asia Miles and Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer:
- World Mastercard and Visa infinite 12.5:1 (Min 12,500:1,000)
- Visa Signature 15:1 (Min 15,000:1,000)
- Visa/ Mastercard/ UnionPay Platinum 19:1 (Min 19,000:1,000)
The redemption rate might not be the best. But it is considered the best for domestic travel. Due to Hilton Dining Asia Pacific Membership offered.
*Noted that only UnionPay Platinum points earning rate is x0.5 AmBonus Point per 1 MYR spent [source]
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by AmBank, Malaysia]
C. Affin Bank
Points system of Affin Bank is named AFFIN Rewards Points.
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- World Mastercard 6:1 (Min 6,000:1,000)
- Other cards 10:1 (Min 10,000:1,000)
2. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- World Mastercard 6:1 (Min 6,000:1,000)
- Other cards 12:1 (Min 12,000:1,000)
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by Affin Bank, Malaysia]
D. RHB Bank
The point system of RHB Bank is simply called "Reward Points"
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles, KrisFlyer and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- Visa Infinite 8:1 (Min 4,000:500)
- Other cards 11:1 (Min 5,500:500)
2. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- All Cards 6:1 (Min 6,000:1,000)
3. Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer
- All Cards 12:1 (Min 6,000:500)
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by RHB Bank, Malaysia]
E. American Express
Of course, American Express must be on the list. Membership Rewards (MR) points is the reward system of Amex.
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles, Asia Miles, KrisFlyer, Big Points, Delta Skymiles, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus, Etihad Guest and Emirates Skywards.
Hotel Points redemption partners: Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors.
Points redemption rates:
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles, Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer and Asia Miles:
- Amex Platinum 5:1 (Min 5,000:1,000)
- Other cards 5.6:1 (Min 5,600:1,000)
2. AirAsia's BigPoint, Delta Skymiles, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus, Etihad Guest and Emirates Skywards:
- All Cards 5.6:1 (Min 5,600:1,000)
3. Marriott
- All Cards 3,700 : 330
4. Hilton Honors
- All Cards 2,800 : 850
American Express is the only Foreign Credit Card issuer offers Airlines co-branded Credit Cards.
The Malaysian Airlines American Express Gold Credit Card and Platinum Credit card offer 2 Enrich Miles every 5 MYR spent overseas and 1 Enrich Mile every 5 MYR spent locally, together with welcome bonuses.
American Express also introduces Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer American Express Gold Credit Card, with 2 KrisFlyer Miles every 2 MYR spent on singaporeair.com, welcome bonus and annual bonuses.
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by American Express, Malaysia]
F. UOB Bank
Points system of UOB Bank is named UNIRinggit.
Mileage redemption partners: Asia Miles, KrisFlyer, Enrich Miles and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- Visa Infinite 7.5:1 (Min 7,500:1,000)*
- Other cards 10.5:1 (Min 10,500:1,000)
2. Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer
- Visa Infinite 7.5:1 (Min 7,500:1,000)*
- Other cards 8.5:1 (Min 8,500:1,000)
*Double Miles during Birthday Program
3. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- All Cards (except Visa Infinite) 8.5:1 (Min 8,500:1,000)
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by UOB Bank, Malaysia]
G. Public Bank
The same as Standard Chartered Bank, Public Bank has two points system, namely Air Miles Points for PB World Mastercard and VIP Points for other reward credit cards.
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- Air Miles Points 8.5:1 (Min 8,500:1,000)
- VIP Points 10:1 (Min 10,000:1,000)
2. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- Air Miles Points 4.25:1 (Min 8,500:2,000)
- VIP Points 5:1 (Min 10,000:2,000)
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by Public Bank, Malaysia]
H. HSBC Bank
Points system of HSBC is called as "Reward Points" too, same as RHB Bank.
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles, KrisFlyer, Asia Miles and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- All cards 18:1 (Min 18,000:1,000)
2. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- All cards 12:1 (Min 12,000:1,000)
3. Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer
- All cards 25:1 (Min 25,000:1,000)
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by HSBC Bank, Malaysia]
I. Citi Bank
As from the beginning part of this article, we realised that Citi Malaysia has 2 types of points, namely Citi PremierMiles for Citi PremierMiles Card and Citi Rewards Points for other reward credit cards.
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles, KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Big Points, British Airways Avios, Etihad Guest, EVA Air Mileagelands, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus.
Hotel Points redemption partner: IHG Rewards Club
Points redemption rates- Citi Rewards Points
1. BigPoints, Asia Miles, KrisFlyer 15:1 (Min 7,500:500)
2. British Airways Avios 15:1 (Min 15,000:1,000)
3. Etihad Guest 16:1 (Min 16,000:1,000)
4. EVA Air Mileageland, Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles 25:1 (Min 25,000:1,000)
5. Qatar Airways Privilege Club 18:1 (Min 18,000:1,000)
6. Thai Airways' ROP 16:1 (Min 24,000:1,500)
7. IHG Rewards Club 12:1 (Min 12,000:1,000)
Points redemption for Citi PremierMiles is faster (1.5:1),1.5 PremierMiles for 1 Mileage of Frequent Flyer Program
This information is not shown on Citi Website. But the conversion rate is shown as per (20.) in the product description (year 2018). [Source]
For Citi Prestige card, the points redemption chart is not shown online too. However, we had collected some redemption ratios from airlines website.
7:1 for Enrich (Min 7,000:1000) and 6.4:1 for BigPoint (Min 3,200: 500).
These data could be proved by AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines' websites.
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by CitiBank, Malaysia]
J. MayBank
Points system of MayBank is named "TreatPoints"
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles, KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Big Points and Malindo Miles.
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- Maybank 2 Cards Reserve American Express, All Visa Infinite 5:1 (Min 5,000:1,000)
- World Mastercard Ikhwan, World Mastercard 6:1 (Min 6,000:1,000)
- Normal Visa, Mastercard, American Express Card 10:1 (Min 10,000:1,000)
2. Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer
- Maybank 2 Cards Reserve American Express, All Visa Infinite 5:1 (Min 5,000:1,000) - World Mastercard Ikhwan 6:1 (Min 6,000:1,000)
- Normal Visa, Mastercard, American Express Card 8:1 (Min 4,000:500)
3. Asia Miles
- Maybank 2 Cards Reserve American Express, All Visa Infinite 5:1 (Min 5,000:1,000) - World Mastercard Ikhwan 6:1 (Min 6,000:1,000)
- Normal Visa, Mastercard, American Express Card 7:1 (Min 7,000:1,000)
3. AirAsia's BigPoint, Malindo Miles:
- All cards (except World Mastercard) 7:1 (Min 7,000:1,000)
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by MayBank, Malaysia]
K. CIMB BANK
CIMB Bank is by far the only local bank provides Malaysia Airlines co-branded credit card.
Hence, it has 2 redemption rates for miles. Bonus Miles for CIMB Enrich Credit cards and Bonus Points for other reward credit cards.
Mileage redemption partners: Enrich Miles and Big Points.
Points and miles redemption rates:
1. Malaysia Airlines' Enrich Miles:
- Bonus Miles 1:1 (Min 1,000:1,000)
- Bonus Points 10:1 (Min 10,000:1,000)
2. AirAsia's BigPoint:
- Bonus Points 8:1 (Min 8,000:1,000)
For Bonus Miles, there are 3 variations of Enrich co-branded credit cards, with 3 different earning rates:
- Platinum: 1 Bonus Mile for every 4 MYR spent locally and overseas
- World Mastercard: 1 Bonus Mile for every 1.50 MYR spent overseas and 1 Bonus Mile for every 3 MYR spent locally.
- World Elite Mastercard: 1 Bonus Mile for every 1 MYR spent overseas and 1 Bonus Mile for every 2 MYR spent locally up to 150,000 Bonus Miles*.
*After 150,000 Bonus Miles, 1 Bonus Mile for every 4 MYR spent locally and overseas
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by CIMB Bank, Malaysia]
L. Hong Leong Bank
Hong Leong Bank is the bank with "unexpected" airlines co-branded credit cards. The Emirates. Well, AirAsia too.
In travel category, Hong Leong Bank has 2 types of mileage redemptions: Automatic and manual.
Automatic redemption is applied to cobranded airline credit cards and all the Visa Infinite cards (Enrich).
What interesting here is that Hong Leong Bank offers different redemption rates for redeeming online and Fax/ Call centre.
(i) Points redemption rates- Rewards Points (Hong Leong Club Rewards)
1. BigPoints
Online: 6.5:1 (Min 6,500:1,000)
Fax/ Call Centre: 6.8:1 (Min 6,800:1,000)
2. Enrich Miles
Online: 10:1 (Min 10,500:1,000)
Fax/ Call Centre: 10.3:1 (Min 10,300:1,000)
Now is the catchy part.
(ii) Visa Infinite:
1 Enrich Mile for every 2.8 MYR local retail spending
1 Enrich Mile for every 1.8 MYR overseas retail spending
(iii) AirAsia Credit Card
1 Big Point for every 1 MYR spending on AirAsia
1 Big Point for every 2 MYR overseas spending
1 Big Point for every 3 MYR local spending (Platinum Card)
1 Big Point for every 5 MYR local spending (Gold Card)
Quarterly Bonus is offered too.
Extra Multipliers for Platinum Card
Earn up to x5.5 Big Points for low fare ticket
Earn x7 Big Points for Premium Flex and Premium Flat Bed ticket
(iv) Emirates Credit Card
Hong Leong Bank offers 3 tiers for the Emirates co-branded credit card, in order to attract customers from different market segments.
- Platinum
1.5 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR spending on Emirates
1.25 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR overseas spending
0.5 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR local spending
- World
2 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR spending on Emirates
1.5 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR overseas spending
1 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR local spending
- World Elite
2.5 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR spending on Emirates
1.75 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR overseas spending
1 Skywards Miles for every 4 MYR local spending
The is welcome bonus for all variations of Emirates co-branded credit cards.While both World and World Elite versions will earn you Skywards Silver status on first year.
Click the link: [Details of reward credit cards offered by HongLeong Bank, Malaysia]
The redemption rates provided by major banks are indeed pessimistic, with average of 10:1 ratio. When there are choices higher redemption rate, the cards are typically limited to a specific airline, which is not ideal.
Moreover, the ratios do not mean everything about the dead of points and miles in Malaysia. As there is another important factor in points and miles game, which is the multipliers. Some cards provided huge multipliers, especially travel cards. Those are the "loopholes" we have to optimise and utilise. For getting the most out of every Ringgit we will have already spend.
Check out the excel file for detailed comparison of each card and points earning rate.
If we could use one word to describe the points and miles situation in Malaysia, I would say "Opportunity".
Malaysians are still highly reliable on cash for everyday payments.
"93% prefer cash when they dine out, 90% use cash when they buy groceries, 89% use cash for public transport, 81% for petrol and 81% for taxis."
- Article from Nielsen.com in year 2019
However, we saw a rise of e-wallet in Malaysia. If the credit card issuers being more generous in offering multipliers to mobile wallets' transactions, the market share will be boarded while entering cashless society.
Source: [Fintech Malaysia]
The volume of transactions is there. It should be the right time for entering the market. To create more users and enhancing their experience.
As always, we, the users must spend money as we would have already spend and do not make impulsive purchases just to get that extra credit card points. More importantly, pay for full at the end of every month. Do not leave any balance.
Be a responsible user, so the credit card issuers could provide more benefits for us. The users will always be the biggest beneficials, if we do it right.
P.S. I intended to make a comparison for 14 banks. But, OCBC Bank provides only cash back credit cards and AEON Bank does not publicised its' mileage redemption program.
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