How much is Enrich & Krisflyer Miles Worth?

Introduction:

For those who like to collect credit card points or airline miles, most of the joy derived from the moment we finally convert the points/Airmiles into something tangible that we can enjoy the most. Hence it is worth to know how much exactly each airline miles worth, and hence select the points/miles method that maximizes the earnings. 

Things get complicated when there are numerous ways to use Airmiles. Taking Enrich miles, for example, you can use enrich miles to redeem Lazada voucher, redeem for a stay in a hotel of your choice,  or redeem an economic / a business class flight ticket. Each of these options values the miles differently, and it is important to know the value before redemption to avoid losing out. 

For the benefit of Malaysian & Singaporean travelers, I did a quick study on the RM value of each enrich & kris flyer miles, with results as below

Discussions:

1. In-flight redemption with items are usually of the worst value as items sold (whether it is a luxury bags, watches, electronics or alcohol etc) are usually highly overpriced. Which is why I don't calculate for this redemption option. 

2. Lazada E-Voucher is one of the worst redemption options for Enrichmile, where your mile is only worth RM 0.0125

3. Redemption for a hotel stay is surprisingly quite valuable for Enrichmiles, which currently valued at RM0.034 per mile by the Enrich Hotel. For Krisflyer mile, the value is a bit worse at SGD 0.8cent per mile or RM 0.0244. 

4. The estimate redemption value for flight tickets is the average of 

- short-haul flight (KL to Singapore)

- Middle-haul flight (KL/Singapore to Tokyo) 

- Long-haul flight (KL/Singapore to London). 

The general rule of thumbs is that 

- redemption for a longer haul flight will have a higher valuation, 

- redemption for higher class flight (like business or first class) will have a higher valuation. 

The second rule is especially true for Singapore airline Krisflyer Airmiles, where their business class will require fewer miles to redeem compared to Malaysia Airlines Enrich thanks to the availability of saver package. 

All in all, you can safely assume that if redeem wisely, the value of Enrich/Krisflyer miles can reach RM 0.05 to RM 0.10

5. The best redemption option when using Krisflyer Airmiles is to redeem a business class Round The World (RTW) ticket from Star Alliance with 240,000 miles. This article summarizes well the how and the rule of booking an RTW ticket. And a quick try using the Star Alliance Website indicates that the Business Class RTW tickets can easily cost you around S$15k, which brings the redemption value of Krisflyer mile works out to be about RM .195 per mile. 

Final Thought:

There are some explanations why redeeming for the higher class long-haul flights will give you more value per mile:

1. Accumulate miles is not easy.  Especially when both the credit card points and miles have a three-year validity date. It is very hard to imagine a person/family spend enough in the few years interval to accumulate the 240,000 miles required to redeem one RTW business class ticket. Hence airlines like Singapore Airlines are not afraid of people redeeming this high-value reward, as very few people actually able to do this. 

2. Most people will not choose to fly a higher class because of the steep increase in costs. Taking the RTW mentioned just now, for example, the same route booked using economical class and accepting stopover flight costs about $3k only, or around RM 12k, which is only one-fourth of the cost when booking business class. And most people will find the extra 50-70 hours experience of flying first class not worth the extra RM 38k. 

But there is another perspective looking at it, most of the Airmiles are accumulated at very low / no cost. And instead of redeeming it at a low value (like RM0.0244 per mile for hotel stay), you can use it to an RTW Business Class ticket that gives you 8 times value at RM 0.195 per mile.  And moreover, this will be items that you won't buy in the first place. 

So, are you convinced to start to accumulate Airmiles now to redeem the RTW Business class award? Let me know if you ever redeemed one.