BolehMiles values 1 Enrich to be worth 4 to 6 Ringgit Cents per Mile (CPM) for business class redemptions.
Is it worth putting in the effort to accumulate miles? That really depends on your travel preferences. At BolehMiles, we believe it is — and here’s why:
There is always a cost to acquire a mile.
In the miles game, we want the value to exceed the cost we pay. Hence, the two components that we will analyse in this post are:
- Mile Value – How much value we get compared to paying the full revenue ticket price or paying a cash price that we are willing to pay.
- Mile Cost – How much it costs (including cashback opportunity costs) to acquire the mile.
Mile Value
It is important to realise that while the cost is equal for everyone, the value of a mile is subjective depending on many factors such as
- Flexibility and timing of travel (peak vs. non-peak).
- Travel preferences (willingness to pay for a specific airline product and service).
- The destination you aspire to fly to (distance).
- Your personal financial circumstances.
So, there is no textbook answer as to how the value of a mile should be calculated.
But in this post, BolehMiles will attempt to come up with our calculation. Our hope is to guide you to come up with your own valuation, instead of prescribing a fixed value.
Suppose BolehMiles aspires to use Enrich to fly Malaysian Airlines Business Class. Since we want to maximize the value of our hard-earned miles, the closest destination we are willing to fly is Kuching.
Let’s use sample flight revenue ticket price on 24 July 2024 found on Malaysian Airlines website.
| From | Kuala Lumpur |
| To | Kuching |
| Miles Requirement | 18,000 Enrich |
| Revenue ticket cost | RM989.40 |
Assuming someone is perfectly willing to pay RM989.40 for revenue ticket from KL to Kuching on MH Business, the value you get per mile is 5.5 cents per mile.
But let’s say, in our mind, we are only willing to pay RM800 for this flight, so our preferred value would be RM800/ 18,000 Enrich = 4.4 cents per mile (CPM).
Therefore, the value per mile is agak-agak 4 CPM for the shortest flight we are willing to take.
On the other end, the furthest destination we aspire to fly to is London, on MH Business Class of course, to sleep comfortably. Now, let’s look at the revenue ticket cost for long-haul flight to London compared to the number ofd miles required to redeem the same flight.
| From | Kuala Lumpur |
| To | London |
| Miles Requirement | 108,000 Enrich Miles |
| Revenue ticket cost | RM9,751.00 |
Assuming we are perfectly willing to pay RM9751 for revenue ticket from KL to London on MH Business, the value you get per mile is 9.7 cents per mile if the miles redemption requirement is 108,000 Enrich.
For us at Bolehmiles, based on our personal circumstances, we are only willing to pay ~RM6500 for such a flight.
Therefore, the value per mile for us is RM6500 / 108,000 Enrich = 6 CPM, agak-agak, for the longest flight that we aspire to take.
In conclusion, considering the shortest and longest flight for BolehMiles, we value Enrich Miles to be worth 4 to 6 Ringgit Cents per Mile (CPM).
1 Enrich Mile ~ RM0.04 to RM0.06 ~ 4 to 6 CPM
Now, one may argue that 2 samples may be too little to represent the entire population of revenue ticket prices, or the full spectrum of travel dates. In our experience, 4-6 CPM valuation is as good as it gets for most redemptions.
Mile Cost
Miles costs can come from either the opportunity cost of using a cashback card or the cost of buying miles outright.
Cashback Opportunity Cost
Let’s say we are shopping for groceries. Our shopping cart due is RM200 and we have the following 2 cards:
- Alliance Bank Visa Platinum (0.53 MPR for e-wallet reloads)
- Alliance Bank Visa Signature (1.85% effective cashback for RM3000 spend per month)
If we choose to pay using Alliance Bank Visa Platinum miles card (which we reload our e-wallet with, for example Grab), we earn 106 Enrich miles.
Based on BolehMiles valuation of 4-6 cents per mile, this is worth RM4.24 – RM6.36, which is a 2.1% – 3.2% ‘miles-value-back’.
If on the other hand, we choose to use Alliance Bank Visa Signature cashback card, we earn a 1.85% effective cashback assuming we spend exactly RM3000 that month.
So in this scenario, we can argue that we are ‘better-off’ using Alliance Bank Visa Platinum miles card which earns us 2.1% – 3.2% miles-value-back versus Alliance Bank Visa Signature which gives us maximum of 1.85% ringgit cashback.
Additionally, using the miles option, we don’t have to jump through the hoop of spending exactly RM3000 per month to earn maximum the cashback. A lot of cashback cards in Malaysia comes with minimum spend, spending category and maximum cap, which makes the cashback game really difficult.
As a general ballpark reference, a 0.53MPR miles card generates 2.1%-3.2% of Enrich miles value on the amount spent.
Now, just because the Enrich miles value that we gain is higher in the above scenario, some people may still prefer cold-hard ringgit cashback due to their personal financial circumstances. This is what we mean when we say that miles value is subjective.
Cost of buying miles
You don’t always have to buy stuff to get miles. You can ‘pay’ for miles, and here are two ways you can do that which will significantly increase your miles earning opportunity.
1. Reload e-wallet using credit card – Touch n Go charges 1% to make the funds transferable. You can transfer it to anyone or use it to pay for stuff in Malaysia. Let’s say we use Alliance Bank Visa Platinum (0.53 MPR) to top up RM1000 to our TNG wallet, and then send it back to our bank account. This would cost us RM10 for 530 miles. Therefore, the cost per mile here is 1.8 cents per mile (CPM). If we value Enrich miles at 4 cents per mile, it is ‘worth-it’.
2. Using payment service provider like Everypay – Suppose you’re renting a house for RM3,000 a month. With EveryPay, you can pay your rent using a credit card by paying a 1.79% fee — that’s RM53.70 for this example. Let’s say you use the Alliance Bank Visa Platinum or Infinite card, which earns 0.53 miles per ringgit (MPR).
You’d be paying RM3,053.70 in total and earning 0.53 x RM3,053.70 = 1,618 Enrich Points, at a cost of RM53.70. This works out to a 3.32 cents per mile (CPM). (Of course, it would take years to rack up 108,000 Enrich Points this way — but just for the sake of illustration, let’s run the numbers)
Is that worth it? That depends on how much you personally value a one-way Business Class ticket to London on Malaysia Airlines. For an Enrich Saver redemption at 108,000 points, the “cost” to you would be:
108,000 x RM0.0332 = RM3,586.
Compare that to the cash price of RM9,751 shown earlier which is about 1/3 of the price (before fees and taxes), a pretty decent saving.
But again, it all comes down to how you value that seat. Some people benchmark against half the round-trip fare, while others say they’d only pay the price of an economy ticket, since they would never actually pay cash for Business Class anyway.
Conclusion
We hope this article gave you an idea of how to value Enrich Miles. Knowing the value of one Enrich Mile is an important foundation to strategize your miles game accordingly. Stay tuned as we will share the value of KrisFlyer Miles and Asia Miles in the future.