My 2026 Airline Miles Strategy
- Refined Points
- 7 hours ago
- 33 min read
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Every year, the airline miles “meta” in Malaysia shifts a little. Sometimes it shifts because banks genuinely improve a product. Most of the time, it shifts because someone in a boardroom decided the fun has gone on long enough, and the spreadsheet needs to look better by next quarter.
Either way, this article is the yearly anchor.
It’s the one write-up where I stop reviewing individual cards in isolation, zoom out, and show you the real thing that matters: how to combine the right cards into an actual strategy you can run for an entire year, without losing your mind, without paying dumb annual fees, and without waking up one day realising you’ve spent 12 months earning miles you can’t even use.
Last year’s Airline Miles Strategy ended up being my most-read article of the year. That tells me two things:
Many of you are taking this seriously (good)
Many of you are still looking for a clean, grounded way to think about airline miles (also good, because Malaysia’s “miles education” online is… let’s just say, heavily polluted)
So for 2026, I’m intentionally bringing things back down to earth. Yes, Refined Points is usually written for people who already know what MPR means, who already understand transfer partners, and who have already been hurt at least once by a devaluation.
But this specific article is written so that even if you’re new to the miles game, you’ll still understand exactly what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how you can build your own version of it based on your lifestyle.
Before we start, two quick reminders:
First, there is no “best card” in Malaysia. There is only the best card for your spend pattern, your destinations, and your tolerance for annual fees and admin.
Second, earning miles is a long game. If you’re expecting to fund a Business Class family holiday to Europe in 6 months on a RM3k monthly spend… I respect the optimism, but we need to talk.
Now let’s get into it.
Key Terms (so everyone is on the same page)
MPR (Miles Per Ringgit)
This is the only metric that matters at the start. If a card earns 1 mile for every RM1 you spend, that’s 1.0 MPR. If it earns 1 mile per RM2, that’s 0.5 MPR.
Transfer Partners
This is where most Malaysians get trapped. Bank points are only valuable if you can transfer them to multiple airlines. If your card locks you into a single airline program, you are not “earning miles”. You are “buying optionality” from one airline, and you’re accepting whatever seat availability and redemption pricing they choose to give you.
Award Availability
You can have a million miles and still be “poor” if you can’t find Saver seats. Always separate earning from redeeming. Most people don’t. That’s why they get burned.
Now, with that out of the way…
Recap of Key Credit Card Events in Malaysia (2025)
2025 was not a calm year. It was a year of recalibration.
And the theme was simple: banks either tightened loopholes, introduced new hoops, or tried to reposition their premium products without actually improving the underlying value.
Here are the key changes worth remembering as we enter 2026.
CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite Introduces a New Bonus Points Threshold
The clear winners are cardholders whose natural monthly spnding already sits somewhere in the RM8,000–RM9,999 range on the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite.
If you regularly charge your insurance premiums, utilities, education fees, large retail purchases, and day-to-day expenses to this card, you may now find yourself hitting RM8,000 more often than you realise.
Alliance Bank’s Huge Devaluation
Alliance Bank used to have one reason to exist in a miles strategy: e-wallet reload. That was it. If you used it for anything else, you were already playing the game incorrectly.
UOB Malaysia Hardens Annual Fee Waivers for 2026, Removes Rewards on Digital Ad Spend, and Strips Supplementary Lounge Access
Annual fee waivers now come with clear spend requirements, rewards for certain spend categories got axed (digital ads being the loud example)
Supplementary lounge access was removed across the board for many cards. This matters because UOB’s ecosystem only works if you can run a multi-card strategy efficiently. Once you force people into paying annual fees and remove family utility (supplementary lounge), the value proposition collapses for normal households
HSBC Premier World and Premier Travel Mastercard's Revamp
HSBC’s Premier cards got refreshed, and on paper, some of it looks modern (especially around travel positioning and lounge access). But HSBC still has a habit of over-engineering caps and conditions. So the cards can work in specific scenarios, but they’re rarely the centrepiece of a top-tier airline miles strategy in Malaysia unless you’ve exhausted other options
HSBC's credit cards will not be featured as a viable strategy, but you can view the full article here.
The Shocking Devaluation of AmBank Enrich Credit Cards
AmBank’s Enrich Visa Infinite and Enrich Visa Platinum took one of the most brutal haircuts we’ve seen in a while, with massive reductions in earn rates and new restrictions around what earns “properly”.
This pushed the cards firmly into “niche use case” territory (Golden Lounge access and Enrich fast track), rather than being legitimate mileage engines
Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite Gets a Huge Revamp
Hong Leong Bank did what many banks refuse to do: create something that is easy to understand and genuinely strong for a specific use case.
The revamped Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite became one of the most important Enrich-centric cards in the market, especially because it made the dining story ridiculously simple. In a market full of caps, tiers, and gimmicks, simplicity is a competitive advantage.
RHB Introduces a New Points System (Loyalty and LoyaltyPlus)
RHB’s move to restructure its points into Loyalty and LoyaltyPlus is part of a broader industry trend: banks trying to segment value without explicitly saying “we are devaluing you.”
Depending on which card you hold and how you spend, the change can feel either neutral or quietly negative. But strategically, it signals that RHB wants tighter control over points issuance and redemption economics.
That’s the backdrop. Now we talk strategy.
Why Your Destinations Still Matter (and even more in 2026)
If you only remember one thing from this entire article, let it be this:
"Your destination determines your strategy. Not the MPR."
Most Malaysians build their miles strategy backwards. They pick a card first, then they “figure out redemptions later”. That’s like buying tyres before you decide whether you’re driving a Ferrari or a Myvi.
Here’s the clean way to think about it.
Step 1: Decide what you’re actually trying to redeem
Different routes = different airlines = different award inventory behaviour.
Step 2: Decide which airline program actually makes sense for that destination
Europe is the easiest example.
If your dream is Europe, and you’re blindly accumulating Enrich miles because “Malaysia Airlines is Malaysian”… you are putting yourself in a box. Yes, you can redeem Enrich for Malaysia Airlines flights. But you’re exposed to Enrich’s pricing decisions, fuel surcharges, and the reality that your ideal dates might never line up.
Meanwhile, KrisFlyer can be excellent for Europe… but only if you understand one painful truth: Saver awards are not guaranteed, and competition for premium cabins has intensified. Even when pricing is “reasonable”, availability is often the real boss fight.
In other words, it’s not enough to ask “how many miles does it cost”. You must ask “can I even get the seat”.
Step 3: Protect yourself with transfer optionality
This is where things get tricky for most Malaysians.
If you’re using a bank that only transfers to one or two programs, you’re basically gambling every time you spend.
If Program A is full, you’re stuck.
If Program A devalues, you’re stuck.
If Program A decides to release fewer Saver seats, you’re stuck.
The safest route is to earn points with a bank that has multiple airline transfer partners, because it gives you escape routes. If Asia Miles is dry on your dates, maybe Avios has space. If KrisFlyer Saver is dead, maybe you pivot to another redemption path entirely.
This is precisely why CIMB’s ecosystem is so strategically powerful in Malaysia. Most banks will give you the “holy trinity” (Enrich, KrisFlyer, Asia Miles). CIMB goes far beyond that, which means your points are not hostage to a single airline’s mood swings.
Step 4: Always check seats before you transfer
This sounds obvious, yet Malaysians still transfer points like it’s topping up Touch ’n Go.
Before you move a single point into an airline program, do a pre-emptive redemption search. If the seats aren’t there, don’t transfer.
This is doubly important for KrisFlyer, where Saver inventory on popular routes can be brutally competitive, and the difference between Saver and Advantage pricing can make you feel like you’ve been robbed in broad daylight
My Existing UOB Strategy
In 2025, I earned over 200,000 Asia Miles from my UOB two-card strategy, using the UOB Visa Infinite and the UOB PRVI Miles Elite.
To be fair, my situation was unusually favourable. I was based in the UK, so most of my earning came from overseas spend. On top of that, I could still capitalise on local spend patterns in Malaysia (especially dining) through my household spend routing.
That combination made the strategy look brilliant on paper, and in practice it worked well for me because I was completely comfortable paying FX fees in exchange for accelerated miles earning. More importantly, I’m very comfortable on the redemption side. If you’re resourceful with award space, you can squeeze real value out of UNIRM.
But UOB changed the rules. And when UOB changes the rules, you don’t “adjust slightly”. You re-run the math from zero.
The core issue is annual fees.
Both the UOB Visa Infinite and UOB PRVI Miles Elite now require a RM50,000 annual spend each to qualify for an annual fee waiver. On the surface, RM50k sounds doable. In reality, it breaks the strategy’s logic.
The UOB Visa Infinite is primarily a dining and overseas workhorse, but it is not a strong everyday local spender outside of its sweet spots. So to hit RM50k a year on it, you either need a very dining-heavy lifestyle, or you need to force spend onto a card that isn’t designed to be your main daily driver.
The UOB PRVI Miles Elite is even worse. It’s functionally an overseas spend tool. Most Malaysians simply won’t hit RM50k a year on overseas transactions alone, unless they travel constantly or have major foreign currency expenses.
And here’s the key point: Paying annual fees for the UOB PRVI Miles Elite makes no sense.
Not “it’s not ideal”. It makes no sense. There are too many competing options in Malaysia that beat it once you account for lounge access, supplementary utility, and ecosystem flexibility.
So yes, the classic UOB two-card strategy is no longer viable for most people in 2026.
Does that mean UOB is irrelevant? Not exactly. But it does mean UOB is no longer the default answer for people who want a clean, scalable strategy without admin fatigue.
Future Planning is Key (because miles is a long game)
Most people treat miles like a one-year sprint: Earn as much as possible this year. Redeem as soon as possible. Repeat. This works if you’re a solo traveller with high spend and flexible dates. It does not work for the average Malaysian household.
For most normal people, earning enough miles for a meaningful redemption takes time. Especially if you’re planning for two people, or a family of four, or you’re trying to fly in peak seasons when everyone else is also trying to redeem.
This is why 2026 is the year I want more of you to adopt a “product pipeline” mindset.
Airlines are constantly rolling out new cabins. Those cabins usually take years to fully spread across fleets. And the best time to redeem them is early, before everyone catches on and before award inventory becomes the Hunger Games.
A few cabin “pipelines” worth paying attention to:
Singapore Airlines: new First and Business Class products are expected from 2026 onwards, tied to A350 retrofits and wider cabin refresh plans.
Cathay Pacific: Aria Suites is already in the wild, and Cathay has now revealed Aria Studio for regional A330 operations, moving toward proper lie-flat regional consistency.
Qatar Airways: Qsuite Next Gen (what people casually call “Qsuite 2.0”) has been publicly showcased, with rollout expected on future aircraft types and deliveries.
Malaysia Airlines: yes, the A330neo Business Class is new and it’s clearly a step forward for the airline. But when you benchmark it against what Cathay, Singapore Airlines, and Qatar are doing, the gap is still obvious.
The strategic takeaway is simple: If you’re going to play the miles game, you may as well align your accumulation to cabin products you’re actually excited about.
Miles Aren’t Everything
Most of your time is spent earning, not redeeming. So if your earning life is miserable (poor acceptance, annoying caps, useless benefits, no merchant offers), you will burn out long before you ever sit in Business Class.
This is why airline miles earning rates alone should never be the only reason you choose a card.
A perfect example is the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum. People are flocking to it because the headline MPR is attractive for local spend. But they ignore two huge realities:
You are locked into KrisFlyer, which is not “bad”, but it is restrictive.
AMEX acceptance in Malaysia is still a daily inconvenience.
I've written an extensive article on why you should be very careful about putting all your eggs into one basket, like in the case of the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum here.
If you want a strategy that lasts, you need balance. High MPR where it matters. Good merchant offers so your “earning life” is rewarding. Strong lounge access so travel feels premium even when you’re flying economy. And ideally, an ecosystem that doesn’t force you into one airline program.
This is also why I’ve been paying close attention to CIMB’s merchant promotions. If you can get 50% cashback on flights, it becomes financially irrational to ignore it just because you want to earn an extra few thousand miles elsewhere. Your miles obsession should never override basic math.
If you’re only thinking in MPR, you’re leaving real money on the table. I occassionally get emails asking me why I generally talk about CIMB promotions on my "Deals" page. I don't really have an answer but perhaps its because we haven't seen anything remotely close to what CIMB is offering.
And this is all while I'm on the UOB strategy!
Which Cards Should You NOT Consider in 2026?
Before we jump into viable strategies, it’s important to call out a handful of credit cards (and in some cases, entire bank lineups) which, in my opinion, should not be part of any serious airline miles strategy in 2026. I’ve written about many of these over the past year, so where relevant, I’ll link to the appropriate articles.
Maybank Credit Cards (non co-branded cards)
Maybank’s mainstream credit cards, particularly the Maybank 2 Cards Premier AMEX Reserve, Maybank Visa Infinite, and Maybank World Elite Mastercard, are among the weakest options in Malaysia for earning airline miles.
In the case of the Maybank Visa Infinite and the Maybank 2 Cards Premier AMEX Reserve, I won’t dwell on these too much because they are long past their prime. But in short, you’re looking at some of the poorest miles-per-ringgit earn rates in both local and overseas spend, paired with benefits that feel increasingly underwhelming by 2026 standards.
The only thing keeping these cards even mildly “relevant” is their dining discounts with groups like Shangri-La and Marriott. Even then, you should ask yourselves a very simple question: how often do you actually dine at these hotels, and does the cost-benefit analysis truly work in your favour? A discount is not value if it nudges you into spending money you wouldn’t have spent otherwise.
As for the Maybank World Elite Mastercard, while it’s still relatively fresh in the market and markets itself with headline benefits like complimentary buy-one-free-one Business Class tickets, once you dig into the terms and conditions, you may genuinely wish you never applied for the card in the first place.
For avoidance of doubt, co-branded cards such as the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum are excluded from this list. They have specific use cases, which I’ll cover later on.
AmBank Credit Cards (everything)
It’s rare for me to write off an entire bank, but after the recent devaluations to AmBank’s Enrich Visa credit cards, I’ll go as far as to say you’re genuinely better off earning Enrich miles by ignoring these cards completely.
Despite being co-branded, the AmBank Enrich Visa Infinite and AmBank Enrich Visa Platinum are no longer viable miles earners. Unless you’re desperate for Golden Lounge access, I would skip them outright, especially given the stricter annual fee policies AmBank has been enforcing.
Beyond the Enrich range, other cards such as the AmBank Signature Priority Banking Visa Infinite, AmBank Visa Infinite, AmBank Metal Visa Infinite, and basically any AmBank Visa Infinite variant should be excluded from consideration for a very simple reason: there are better alternatives across every important dimension, whether it’s miles earning, lounge access, or overall benefits.
The only potential saving grace is the AmBank Enrich Visa Platinum, and even then, I would only consider it for one singular reason: its fast track to Enrich status, which reduces the Elite Points required to move up tiers in the Enrich frequent flyer program. It also helps that this card is typically positioned as a zero annual fee product.
But let me be crystal clear.
If you’re applying for the AmBank Enrich Visa Platinum for the fast track benefit, you should absolutely not be spending on the card. Get it, activate it, enjoy the fast track, and toss it aside for the rest of its existence.
Alliance Bank Credit Cards
Historically, Alliance Bank’s Visa Infinite and Visa Platinum served one primary purpose: e-wallet reloads. Any other use case was irrelevant, and if you’ve been following Refined Points (and not “influencers” trying to milk affiliate commissions), this should already be well understood.
Since the complete gutting of these cards, their relevance has largely ceased to exist and will likely remain that way. Personally, I don’t think that’s a tragedy either, because even in the “good old days”, Alliance’s ecosystem was still extremely limiting. You could previously only convert Alliance Bank’s points into Enrich Miles, which is a pretty meaningless endgame for serious miles earners who value flexibility and high quality redemptions.
Yes, some people still dabble with Alliance Bank’s Virtual Credit Cards for e-wallet reloads. But I would personally skip them entirely, given the limited and increasingly fragile use case, and instead opt for something more straightforward like the Hong Leong Bank Sutera Visa Platinum.
And once again, this is only if you’re absolutely desperate for Enrich miles, which I would hope most Refined Points readers are not.
Credit Cards with Bulk Bonuses at Year-End
What are bulk bonuses?
These are the “spend X amount per year and we’ll give you a huge lump sum of points” mechanics that show up on cards like the UOB World Card and UOB Zenith World Elite. Note that this is different from CIMB's tiered points structure, which only requires as low as RM3,000 spent per month to qualify.
It goes without saying: these are gimmicks.
When you actually do the math, bulk bonuses often look impressive only because the marketing is designed to make them look impressive. In reality, they tend to underperform compared to simpler strategies that utilise consistent accelerators.
For example, using the UOB World Card’s own structure, RM48,000 spent nets you 125,000 UNIRM points. But if you spent the same RM48,000 on the UOB Visa Infinite for dining, you’d earn 240,000 UNIRM. Even if only half of that RM48,000 qualified as dining, you’d still earn 120,000 UNIRM, and the remaining RM24,000 would still earn you additional UNIRM.
In short: don’t waste your time chasing bulk bonuses. Focus on simple, repeatable earning accelerators that don’t require you to hit arbitrary annual milestones.
HSBC’s non-Premier Credit Cards
With the recent revamp of the HSBC Premier World Mastercard and HSBC Premier Travel Mastercard, I do think there are niche use cases for these cards, assuming you’ve exhausted other options (for example, you’ve been rejected by CIMB, UOB, or Standard Chartered) and you’re willing to tolerate the often ridiculous caps HSBC tends to impose.
However, the same cannot be said for the rest of HSBC Malaysia’s credit card lineup.
Cards like the HSBC Visa Signature, the HSBC TravelOne Mastercard (especially this), and almost any other mainstream HSBC card you can think of are simply not worth the effort for airline miles in 2026.
Poor miles earning rates, weak lounge access propositions, and benefits that feel barebones. The only thing keeping these cards “alive” in Malaysia is branding, and that’s not a good thing, especially when many people’s impressions of HSBC cards come from influencers who conveniently avoid doing real math.
No Brainer Credit Cards
If you hold the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card, congratulations. This is one of the rare cases where you can genuinely say: the card is expensive, but the value can be obvious in real life.
If you’re the target segment, you will out-value the annual fee easily. If you’re not the target segment, the annual fee will feel offensive. That’s how premium cards are supposed to work.
Viable Airline Miles Strategies for 2026
This is the main event.
As with each passing year, constant improvement and clearer communication is Refined Points’ forte. While this section wasn’t present in my 2025 Airline Miles Strategy, I’m including it this year because I firmly believe every single one of you should be able to identify your “lane” in the airline miles game.
Yes, certain strategies are clearly more favourable than others, and I’ll make that obvious. But you’ll also notice something important: some strategies are objectively weaker, yet still make sense for certain people depending on income, AUM relationships, acceptance constraints (AMEX), and the reality of how you actually spend money month-to-month.
And that’s the whole point of strategy.
Not chasing the highest MPR headline you saw on an Instagram Reel.
Not blindly following an “uncle” who insists one program is always superior.
Not trapping yourself in one airline ecosystem and then crying later when Saver awards vanish.
Strategy 1: The CIMB Strategy
As I’ve mentioned earlier in this article, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all “best” credit card strategy for earning airline miles in Malaysia.
But if there was one strategy that comes closest to fitting the bill in 2026, it would be none other than the CIMB Strategy.
CIMB is currently the only bank in Malaysia that feels like it is building an airline miles ecosystem, rather than just issuing a couple of credit cards and hoping you don’t notice the gaps.
The success of this strategy comes down to two things:
First, UOB’s recent missteps (I’ll be polite and call it a “misstep”, but you already know what it is) created a vacuum in the premium miles space.
Second, CIMB took full advantage of that vacuum, especially by reducing the annual-fee waiver requirement on the CIMB Travel World Elite to a far more palatable level. With the waiver requirement effectively halved versus what many people expected, the card suddenly becomes a no-brainer for the right audience, because the value exchange finally feels fair in real life, not just on a marketing slide.
On top of that, the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite’s new tiered threshold structure also means it’s now easier to earn bonus points without needing ridiculous monthly spend. It rewards “normal affluent” spending patterns far better than before, and this is crucial because most people don’t spend RM10k every single month.
The CIMB Travel World Elite earns fewer airline miles overseas compared to the most aggressive overseas earners in Malaysia. That’s not a secret. But what it does exceptionally well is reduce friction and boost real-world value through its 1% FX fee waiver and ecosystem benefits.
The 1% FX fee waiver continues to be a significant draw for affluent travellers who aren’t desperately trying to squeeze every last mile out of a transaction. And honestly, this is where most Malaysians get the equation wrong.
Yes, earning miles is important, but paying unnecessary FX fees for marginal incremental miles can be a terrible trade, especially if your travel booking stack and promotions can save you real cash instead.
And when CIMB starts running promotions like 50% cashback on flights, having the 1% FX fee waiver as an evergreen benefit becomes even more compelling. That’s not “nice to have”. That’s tangible value that reduces your net travel cost.
Now, the other half of this strategy is the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite.
With zero annual fees and only RM250k in AUM, it offers up to 0.92 MPR on dining, which is just a hair below the UOB Visa Infinite Metal Card’s 1 MPR on dining. But the difference is obvious: the UOB Visa Infinite Metal requires a hefty RM3,000 annual fee and RM3M in AUM, while CIMB Preferred gives you a very similar dining proposition at a far more accessible wealth tier.
And this is where CIMB becomes dangerous in 2026. You’re not just getting a miles strategy. You’re getting a lifestyle and travel strategy.
Most banks in Malaysia give you the “holy trinity” of Enrich, KrisFlyer and Asia Miles. CIMB goes far beyond that. This matters more than Malaysians realise, because transfer optionality is what protects you from award availability problems. If one program is dry, you pivot. If one program devalues, you pivot. If one airline decides to choke Saver inventory, you pivot.
CIMB also occasionally runs transfer campaigns like bonus miles to airline partners (Asia Miles, Avios, etc.). These are strategically useful because they let you amplify your stash only when you actually need to convert. You don’t convert blindly. You convert with intent, on a good bonus window, for a redemption you already checked.
Now, CIMB makes conversion more “frictional” than other banks, because it tends to impose larger minimum transfer blocks. Most banks let you transfer in smaller chunks. CIMB often forces you to transfer in larger chunks. The value per mile is still the value per mile, but the psychological hurdle is higher, and it’s less beginner-friendly. That said, for serious miles earners, this is an inconvenience, not a dealbreaker.
This strategy is also unusually strong from a lounge access angle. Access to Plaza Premium First is allowed, and crucially, supplementary access is included. Most Malaysians aren’t travelling alone. Your wife, your husband, your parents, your kids… if your lounge access doesn’t scale beyond yourself, it is not a premium strategy, it is an ego strategy.
In short, the CIMB Strategy is powerful because it’s balanced.Miles earning, transfer flexibility, lounge access, FX fee efficiency, and merchant offers. It’s a complete package.
Strategy 2: The CIMB Mass Strategy
Despite the sheer brilliance of the CIMB Travel World Elite and CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite, both cards sit behind higher requirements.
So for those who are unable to obtain these cards, the CIMB Mass Strategy is the next best thing, and frankly, still stronger than what many banks can offer at similar eligibility tiers.
This strategy is built around:
The CIMB Visa Infinite (free-for-life)
The CIMB Travel World Mastercard (now with improved fee waiver mechanics)
The CIMB Visa Infinite is the “foundation” card. Free-for-life matters more than people think. It gives you breathing room. You can hold it long term without needing to justify an annual fee every year, and it gives you access to CIMB’s broader ecosystem of transfer partners.
Meanwhile, the CIMB Travel World Mastercard has also dropped its full annual-fee waiver requirements and now only requires RM60k in annual spend for a full waiver. That’s a very practical figure for many working professionals and young families, because it translates to roughly RM5k a month. And if you can’t hit RM60k, there’s still a partial waiver mechanic, which is already more reasonable than banks that simply tell you “pay up or leave”.
Also, even if you end up paying the annual fee, the full annual fee on this two-card strategy can still be less painful than what certain competitors impose, especially when those competitors have simultaneously removed benefits like supplementary lounge access.
And yes, the important CIMB perks still apply here:
Strong partner list
Strong promotions (including the headline flight cashback campaign)
Solid lounge access, including Plaza Premium First access
Supplementary lounge utility that most banks are actively stripping away in 2026
My catch is this: the CIMB Travel World Mastercard, in its current state, isn’t the most exciting standalone card compared to the absolute best in the market, and I’m preparing a separate article on this.
But in a strategy context, it works. When paired correctly, certain flaws become acceptable, because you’re not asking one card to do everything. You’re building a system.
And from a lounge access and ecosystem angle, this strategy can still be more appealing than what UOB offers for many Malaysians in 2026.
Strategy 3: The Reengineered UOB Strategy
It’s important that you familiarise yourself with my 2025 UOB airline miles strategy before reading this section.
The 2025 strategy embodied two cards:
The UOB Visa Infinite
The UOB PRVI Miles Elite
Both cards served different roles, and holding both was the key to maximising airline miles. At least, it used to be.
This is no longer the case in 2026, after several stark devaluations and structural changes, primarily aimed at the UOB PRVI Miles Elite. With an enforced RM50k minimum spend for an annual fee waiver on the UOB PRVI Miles Elite, the card is no longer viable for most people.
There is no meaningful local use case for it. It is primarily useful for overseas spend. And most Malaysians simply won’t hit RM50k overseas spend in a year unless they travel constantly or have foreign currency obligations.
Not to mention: the benefits no longer justify the pain. Yes, the card has Grab-related perks. Yes, there are travel-related hooks. But when you combine poor lounge access, the removal of supplementary lounge access, and the forced annual fee logic, it becomes very difficult to defend.
And here’s the spicy part.
It’s pretty unclear what UOB Malaysia is trying to achieve with its latest changes, but if you look purely at incentive design, it increasingly feels like UOB is quietly favouring its Visa premium lineup over its Mastercard counterparts.
I’m not saying they sat in a room and declared “we hate Mastercard”. I’m saying the incentive structure is starting to behave that way.
And in strategy terms, incentives are truth.
So the Reengineered UOB Strategy is this:
Dump the UOB PRVI Miles Elite.
Focus on a single-card UOB setup centred around the UOB Visa Infinite.
The UOB Visa Infinite, as a standalone product, is still compelling enough to anchor an airline miles strategy in 2026, but only if your lifestyle fits the card.
And there are caveats. First, you absolutely need to be spending at least RM1k on dining monthly for this to work. If you’re not, the entire proposition weakens because the UOB Visa Infinite does not have a tiered points structure that rewards “general spend”. Outside its accelerators, the local MPR is simply too weak.
Second, the UOB Visa Infinite’s benefits are, in many areas, gimmicky and lacklustre. Lounge access runs on DragonPass, and is restricted to regional lounges in Asia Pacific. There is no supplementary access and no guest access. The airport limo benefit is not exactly complimentary either. You’ll need to spend at least RM5k within a specific window to trigger it, and the 30-day pre-travel spend window is awkward because most travel is booked months in advance. It only really caters to last-minute itineraries, which is a strange design choice for a card marketed to premium travellers.
So to conclude, if you are currently on the UOB two-card strategy, I would personally dump the UOB PRVI Miles Elite completely and stick to the UOB Visa Infinite.
Unless you are definitively certain you can meet the RM50k waiver requirements on both cards, and even then, with that amount of spending, you could arguably do far better by routing into a CIMB-based system with stronger lounge utility and ecosystem flexibility.
Strategy 4: The Standard Chartered Strategy
That’s right ladies and gentlemen.
With the launch of the Standard Chartered Beyond Visa Infinite, Standard Chartered Malaysia now has a place in Refined Points’ 2026 playbook.
Please read my First Look article before going through this section, because you need to understand the Beyond structure properly. Standard Chartered’s proposition only makes sense once you understand the tiering and the AUM requirements.
To put it simply, the Standard Chartered Beyond Visa Infinite at RM350k AUM is crucial for this strategy.
You will need a Priority Banking relationship for it to make sense.
For avoidance of doubt, I do not recommend the Standard Chartered Beyond Visa Infinite Priority Private tier requiring RM3M AUM. The incremental benefits at the higher tier are more gimmicky than they are functional, and the value exchange simply doesn’t justify locking up RM3M for marginal perks.
Now, the strategy itself requires one additional card: The Standard Chartered Journey Mastercard for local dining.
Why? Because the Beyond Visa Infinite does not have meaningful local spend accelerators. It is not designed to be your Malaysian dining card. It is designed to be your overseas and lifestyle “engine” card.
The SC Journey’s first year annual fee is waived, and subsequent fees are waived with RM60k yearly spend, translating to roughly RM5k a month. If you qualify for the Journey, this is doable. More importantly, the Journey offers a decent 0.5 MPR on dining with no minimum spend requirement to unlock it. That alone makes it more straightforward than many cards that require you to hit monthly thresholds just to earn properly.
Meanwhile, the Beyond Visa Infinite has a unique overseas MPR structure, strong travel-related benefits, Grab perks, a dining cashback angle, and crucially, lounge access with supplementary access. If you are genuinely a Priority Banking customer, this card starts to look like a real premium system.
If you are not Priority Banking, the RM800 annual fee becomes very difficult to justify. You can’t run a premium strategy on a “maybe”.
Strategy 5: The KrisFlyer-only Strategy
Let me start by being blunt: I am not a fan of single-program strategies, whether it is KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, or Enrich. The moment you lock yourself into one program, your ability to manoeuvre collapses. And with the growing competition on KrisFlyer Saver awards, that rigidity becomes expensive.
Nevertheless, I recognise that certain people, particularly those residing in Johor or those who fly Singapore Airlines frequently, are inherently geared towards KrisFlyer and have done the research to operate within that ecosystem.
So if you insist on a KrisFlyer-only strategy, here is what it should look like.
You need two cards:
The KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum
The UOB Visa Infinite
The KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum offers 0.4 MPR on local spend and 0.5 MPR on online spend, making it a very strong local daily driver if you can actually find AMEX acceptance on a consistent basis.
This is generally easier for households that spend more on groceries and online shopping, rather than households that dine out constantly at merchants that don’t take AMEX.
For overseas spend, you should default to the UOB Visa Infinite. I would strongly caution against using the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum for overseas transactions because American Express FX fees tend to be higher than Visa or Mastercard, and it’s simply not worth paying extra FX cost when you could earn miles efficiently on a Visa product.
Also, plan ahead for annual fees. You will need to meet the RM50k spend requirement within the year on the UOB Visa Infinite to get the annual fee waived, and the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum has its own fee realities (including a non-waivable annual fee after the first year).
This strategy can work, but only if you accept the rigidity and you understand award availability properly.
The Enrich-only Strategy
Let me be clear: an Enrich-focused strategy is not ideal, and I’m covering it mainly for completeness, because new readers need to understand the limitations of centring your strategy around Enrich miles.
If you do go down this route, you should ensure your Enrich redemptions are primarily on Malaysia Airlines. You should not be redeeming Enrich miles for oneworld flights despite the functionality existing, because the value is extremely subpar. Just because something is possible does not mean it is sensible.
Now, if you insist on an Enrich strategy, the most comprehensive two-card setup is:
The Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite
The UOB Visa Infinite
Since the significant revamp of the Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite, it has been flying off shelves for good reason. It offers 1 MPR on dining and has a zero-annual-fee structure, making it extremely attractive.
But there is a structural limitation. Hong Leong’s Enrich earning does not meaningfully differentiate between local and overseas spend in the way many travel cards do. Spending abroad does not necessarily accelerate your earning. So while it’s excellent for dining, it is not necessarily your best card for general overseas travel spend like hotels, retail, and airfare.
That’s where the UOB Visa Infinite comes in, as your overseas and travel spend engine. However, here’s the tricky part:
If you spend abroad on dining, you should still default to the Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite, because it earns 1 MPR on dining abroad, while the UOB Visa Infinite earns less in that scenario.
But by routing too much spend away from the UOB Visa Infinite, you may make it harder to hit the RM50k annual spend requirement for the UOB fee waiver.
So you need to be deliberate:
Dining spend to HLB VI
Travel spend, retail spend, hotel spend to UOB VI
In extreme cases where your overseas spend is very low, I would tell you to forego the UOB Visa Infinite entirely and simply stick to the Hong Leong Bank Visa Infinite, or pair it with a zero-annual-fee overseas spend card.
But honestly, by the time you’re deep enough into this article to consider an Enrich-only strategy, I would hope you’re already considering pivoting away from Enrich altogether.
The Newcomer’s Strategy
I define “newcomers” as those who have just breached the RM60k annual income mark, opening the door to credit cards that can kickstart a long-term airline miles strategy.
It’s important to be realistic here. If you’re a newcomer, you will not earn enough miles in a single year for frequent Business Class redemptions unless your spending power is unusually high.
This strategy is about building your base. It’s about starting correctly. It’s about not wasting 2 years earning points in the wrong ecosystem.
For this, I recommend a single-card strategy: The CIMB Visa Infinite.
Why? Because it lets you consolidate everything. Because it’s free-for-life. Because it plugs you into CIMB’s broader transfer partner ecosystem, which is the safest long-term foundation you can build in Malaysia.
Competition in this space is muted. The alternatives are not compelling as a clean single-card strategy (and yes, cards like the UOB World Card, UOB PRVI Miles Visa Platinum, and Alliance Bank Visa Infinite are, in many cases, jokes if you’re trying to build a simple, scalable foundation).
Newcomers who travel frequently and care about lounge access could consider adding a CIMB Travel Platinum Mastercard for supplementary lounge access and Grab benefits, but only if miles isn’t the only goal and only if you can justify the additional admin.
Because again: The best strategy is the one you can sustain.
Situational Use Case Credit Cards
In some cases, it can actually be smart to add a credit card that has a very specific niche use case, while still keeping your main spend anchored to one of the core strategies above.
These cards are situational by design. Their job is not to fund a Business Class redemption on their own. Their job is to pick up “bonus miles” on certain categories of spend that your main strategy either doesn’t reward as well, or doesn’t reward at all.
So let’s set expectations properly. Do not expect to earn enough miles from these cards to redeem a long-haul premium flight in any meaningful timeframe. But if you deploy them intelligently, they can help you accumulate incremental miles over time, and in some cases, that’s enough to redeem a short-haul flight or meaningfully top up a balance when you’re just a little short.
These are value maximisation tools, not miles maximisation engines.
1. KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum
As I mentioned earlier, the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum offers excellent local MPR and online MPR, which on paper makes it look like a “must-have” card for miles earning in Malaysia.
In practice, it is far more situational than most people realise, largely because American Express acceptance in everyday Malaysian life is still inconsistent.
That said, it can be extremely effective in the right household.
If you’re someone who spends frequently on Shopee and Lazada, has recurring online subscriptions, or even does monthly haircuts at a salon that accepts American Express, the KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum becomes a neat way to capture “leftover” miles that you might otherwise fail to earn under the bigger strategies above.
Think of it like this: it’s not replacing your main strategy, it’s complementing it. You’re using it where it’s strong, and ignoring it where it creates friction.
2. Maybank World Elite Mastercard
For corporate travellers and retirees who travel frequently, obtaining the Maybank World Elite Mastercard purely for its lounge access can still be decent value, even in 2026.
The reason is simple: this card is effectively a lounge access product dressed up as a credit card.
With 16X lounge access and the ability to bring in one guest, you can extract significant value from the lounge benefit alone, even if you’re forced to pay RM800 in annual fees, especially given that it offers entry to Plaza Premium First lounges, where each entry can cost over RM200+ per person.
I personally hold the Maybank World Elite Mastercard (and yes, I received a generous arrangement from my Maybank Relationship Manager), and I only use it for lounge access. I completely maxed out my access in 2025, and the value I extracted from that alone justified keeping the card.
For avoidance of doubt, there is absolutely no situation in which you should be spending on the Maybank World Elite Mastercard. Treat it like a lounge membership and nothing more.
3. Hong Leong Bank Sutera Visa Platinum
For those who reload e-wallets regularly (which is practically every Malaysian), and you want to at least earn something while doing so, I would opt for the Hong Leong Bank Sutera Visa Platinum for this purpose.
It offers a 0.33 MPR on Enrich Miles, while also earning points on spend at convenience stores and pharmacies, and even on MYEG for your summons, which is almost comically Malaysian as a use case.
I would pick this over the Alliance Bank Virtual Visa Platinum because it’s simply less complicated, less fragile, and covers a wider range of merchant categories without you needing to play mental gymnastics every time you tap your card.
If you insist on earning Enrich miles through these “day-to-day Malaysian transactions”, this is one of the more painless ways to do it.
4. AmBank Enrich Visa Platinum
For those of you who are aiming for Enrich Gold or Enrich Platinum status, the zero-annual fee AmBank Enrich Visa Platinum can still be worth holding for one reason and one reason only: its fast track to Enrich status.
This benefit reduces the Elite Points required to move up each Enrich tier by 30%, which is meaningful, and because the card is practically free, it becomes one of those rare “why not” products for the right type of traveller.
However, similar to the Maybank World Elite Mastercard, I would strongly recommend against spending anything on the card itself, because the MPR rates are lacklustre and the opportunity cost is simply too high.
This card has a very specific, singular use case, and that’s pretty much it.
And So… My 2026 Airline Miles Strategy Is…
The CIMB Strategy.
Across the past year, I’ve earned a solid amount of Asia Miles from my UOB credit card strategy. I was able to take advantage of being based abroad to maximise my miles earning through FX spend, and yes, I was perfectly fine paying FX fees on a consistent basis, largely because I’m relatively resourceful when it comes to searching for award availability.
That’s also something I hope to cover more of in future articles on Refined Points, because redemption skill is the part of this game Malaysians consistently underestimate.
Given that I obtained both my UOB Visa Infinite and UOB PRVI Miles Elite in December 2024, I was able to secure annual fee waivers, and I did not pay a single sen in annual fees, despite taking full advantage of both cards and maximising my airline miles accrual throughout 2025.
However, the recent changes to UOB’s annual fee waiver policies simply didn’t work in my favour going into 2026.
My own spending pattern is lopsided. I personally consolidate roughly 80% of my spend on the UOB PRVI Miles Elite while I’m in London, and about 20% on my UOB Visa Infinite during the two months I’m typically back in Malaysia. Once UOB introduced higher spend hurdles for fee waivers on both cards, the elegance of that two-card system started to break, because the entire strategy relied on the ability to route spend efficiently without being “penalised” by fee policy.
And when it came to lounge access, I surprisingly found myself gravitating back to my CIMB credit cards far more than expected, especially for Plaza Premium First access in Malaysia, and for access to certain lounges in Europe during my business travels.
Neither my UOB Visa Infinite, nor my UOB PRVI Miles Elite, nor even my Maybank World Elite Mastercard (which I keep specifically for lounge access) has a wide enough lounge footprint in Europe compared to what CIMB offers through its ecosystem.
And once you experience that limitation repeatedly, it becomes a dealbreaker. Lounge access is not just a “nice to have” benefit for me. It is a quality-of-travel benefit, and it directly affects how I feel about the card’s real-world value.
As of today, I already wield both the CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite and the CIMB Travel World Elite, so switching my strategy is a natural transition. And I have to say, I’m genuinely looking forward to more bombastic offers like CIMB’s 50% cashback on flights, as well as future bonus points transfer promotions that CIMB tends to run mid-year.
I also have my CIMB e Card, which I completely forgot about after moving to London and tossing it aside mentally. But it’s going to come back into play in 2026, particularly on the 28th of each month for its 12X Bonus Points mechanic, while still enjoying its zero annual fee structure.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit it: I will earn fewer miles overall from the CIMB Travel World Elite in London compared to some of the more aggressive overseas earners in the market.
But I’m content with that trade-off.
The 1% FX fee waiver is a meaningful evergreen benefit, and when you combine it with CIMB’s ecosystem, lounge access, and promotions, the “total value equation” becomes more attractive than simply squeezing out the maximum number of miles.
Meanwhile, my wife will primarily be using my CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite for her local dining spend in Malaysia, which is exactly where that card shines.
In terms of airline miles, my strategy continues to focus on Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, which CIMB conveniently transfers to. With the continued rollout of Cathay’s Aria Suites Business Class product and the upcoming Aria Studio cabin on regional flights, I’m looking forward to accumulating as many Asia Miles as possible.
And of course, the beauty of Asia Miles is flexibility.
If I want to redeem on Qatar Airways, Finnair, or Japan Airlines, I can. If I want to pivot into another program entirely, CIMB’s transfer partner ecosystem also allows me to do that. I may even consider converting some bonus points into Avios, because I’m genuinely keen to try Qatar Airways’ upcoming QSuites 2.0 product whenever that fully rolls out.
At the same time, while I will miss the complimentary Grab benefit on the UOB PRVI Miles Elite, I’ll be cancelling that credit card first. I will still keep my UOB Visa Infinite for another year to see whether UOB comes up with anything exciting (although I’m personally not anticipating much) that could justify switching back.
As for my Maybank World Elite Mastercard, I’ll have to start paying annual fees from 2027 onwards, so I’ll see whether I can maximise the lounge access value throughout 2026 before deciding on a full cancellation sometime mid-year.
And finally, I’ll also be keeping my KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum, which my wife mainly uses for occasional grocery shopping and hair salons. It remains situational, but useful enough in our household to justify staying in the lineup.
My full credit card lineup for 2026 includes:
1. The CIMB Preferred Visa Infinite
2. The CIMB Travel World Elite
3. The CIMB e Card
4. The Maybank World Elite Mastercard (purely for lounge access)
5. The KrisFlyer AMEX Platinum
Final Thoughts
If you’ve made it this far, here’s the most important reminder I can give you:
There is no such thing as a perfect airline miles strategy. There is only a strategy that fits your life.
Your income, your monthly spend, whether you dine out or cook at home, whether you travel once a year or once a month, whether you spend mostly in MYR or foreign currency, whether you have a Priority Banking relationship, whether you have a spouse whose spending can be routed efficiently… all of these factors will change the “best” strategy for you.
This is precisely why I have very little patience for the nonsense online. Avoid listening to people who scream about “highest MPR” like it’s the endgame. It isn’t.
Avoid listening to influencers and uncles who tell you that blindly crediting everything into KrisFlyer is always the best case scenario, while conveniently skipping the part where redeeming KrisFlyer Saver awards has become brutally competitive. In many cases today, finding KrisFlyer Saver seats on popular routes can feel even harder than redeeming Enrich, and that’s saying something.
And most importantly, avoid building a strategy that traps you into a single airline program without a very good reason.
Refined Points exists to do the exact opposite of that noise.
First, I show you the key principles and the thought process you should adopt when building a strategy.
Then, I show you the various viable strategies that exist in Malaysia, across different income and wealth tiers.
And finally, I pick the strategy that suits me.
But you might pick something else, and that’s perfectly fine.
As long as you’re intentional, you understand award availability, you respect flexibility, and you’re not building your plan around a mediocre Maybank card and vibes, your strategy probably isn’t that bad.
CIMB is back baby!!