Oh Dear | Maybank Further Devalues World Elite Mastercard for 2026!
- Refined Points
- 21 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Maybank is ending 2025 with yet another eyebrow-raising update to the Maybank World Elite Mastercard — and not in a good way. While Maybank credit cards have already been struggling to stay competitive, especially in the affluent segment, this latest revision pushes the card further into irrelevance for anyone remotely serious about value or airline miles.
To recap, the Maybank World Elite Mastercard already offers some of the lowest miles-per-Ringgit (MPR) rates in Malaysia, which is baffling for a card requiring RM190,000 annual income. Its headline “benefits” are heavily padded by extravagant requirements.
B1F1 Qatar Airways Business Class tickets demanded a ludicrous RM250,000 spend and were allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis. The “complimentary” night in London or Paris required purchasing a qualifying night that typically costs over RM1,000. And beyond these two flashy selling points, every other benefit in Maybank’s marketing deck is simply standard Mastercard World Elite global benefits — the same ones found on the CIMB Travel World Elite.
As I’ve already shown in my detailed comparison, choosing the Maybank World Elite Mastercard over the CIMB Travel World Elite is an objectively poor decision. In fact, you would need to be committed to self-sabotage to pick Maybank’s version.
Goodness Gracious: Maybank Replaces B1F1 Qatar Airways Business Class with B1F1 Malaysia Airlines Business Class
If there were an award for “Most Dramatic Credit Card Downgrade of the Decade”, this might just take the crown. In a move nobody asked for, Maybank has replaced the B1F1 Qatar Airways Business Class perk with...brace yourself...a B1F1 Malaysia Airlines Business Class perk.
Let’s address the one positive upfront: the minimum spend has been reduced from RM250,000 to RM150,000. That’s the only good news.
The new destinations include Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, Melbourne, Perth, Shanghai, and Beijing — which, admittedly, is an improvement from the previous London/Paris limitation.
But you don’t need a finance degree to know that business class fares to these destinations are significantly cheaper than fares to London or Paris on Qatar Airways. And comparing Malaysia Airlines Business Class to Qatar Airways QSuite is like comparing instant noodles to Wagyu.
Destination | % New Config (A330-900) | % Old Config (A350, A330) | % 737 Config | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Melbourne | 100% | 0% | 0% | Both daily flights (MH129 & MH149) have transitioned to the A330neo. |
Tokyo (Narita) | 50% | 50% | 0% | MH88/89 is A330neo (New). MH70/71 is A350-900 (Old). |
Perth | 0% | 50% | 50% | MH125 is daily 737-8 MAX. MH127 is daily A330-300. |
Beijing | 0% | 100% | 0% | Exclusively served by A330-300. |
Taipei | 0% | 100% | 0% | Predominantly A330-300. A330-200 appears sporadically (e.g., early Dec). |
Seoul | 0% | ~85% | ~15% | MH66 (Daily) is A333. MH38 (Extra frequencies) often uses 737 MAX on Fridays/Saturdays. |
Shanghai | 0% | ~85% | ~15% | MH388 is A333. MH386 occasionally swaps to 737 MAX mid-week (Wed/Thu). |
Hong Kong | 0% | ~5% | ~95% | Almost exclusively 737-800. A330s are rare substitutions during peak cargo demand. |
To make matters worse, the hardware situation is grim. As of December 2025, Malaysia Airlines deploys its brand-new A330-900neo on only three of the nine routes: full deployment to Melbourne, partial deployment (around half the frequencies) to Tokyo, and seasonal deployment to Perth.
Everything else is serviced by a mix of older A330-300s and A350-900s. In extreme cases, such as Hong Kong, expect to be greeted by the infamous B737-800 recliner “business class”, arguably one of the worst regional business products in Asia.
This is a colossal downgrade in value. Maybank is simultaneously raising the annual spend requirement for the annual fee waiver (see below) while providing a B1F1 perk that is objectively inferior in every measurable way.
No affluent cardholder with functioning financial logic would willingly choose Malaysia Airlines Business Class when the previous benefit offered Qatar Airways Business Class, the literal benchmark of global premium travel.
Let’s be honest: Maybank knows exactly what it’s doing. This perk is designed for a tiny subset of cardholders who are not optimising for value, not maximising airline miles, and not comparing alternatives. In other words, not Refined Points readers.
Don’t Be Fooled by Maybank's 25% Agoda Discount
The hits keep coming. Maybank has now replaced the complimentary one-night stay at Radisson Blu London or Hotel Napoleon Paris with a 25% Agoda discount code...capped at RM150.
To put this into perspective, the old benefit easily saved you RM1,100 per night. Both properties frequently price above RM1,000 even during off-peak periods.
Now, Maybank has reduced the perk to a measely RM150 discount code, which barely makes a dent on any hotel bookings.
Crucially, both Mastercard and Visa already have generic Agoda discounts which run year-long, and you would be absolutely bamboozled to know that you'll actually see more discounts using these codes rather than Maybank's 25% Agoda discount, which is a pretty hilariously misaligned cost-cutting move.
Contrast this with HSBC’s recent Agoda partnership: RM850 cap on the HSBC Premier Travel Mastercard and RM420 cap on the HSBC Premier World Mastercard. Those are real discounts with real impact. RM150 is the credit card equivalent of throwing crumbs off the table.
Maybank Increases Its Annual Fee Waiver Requirement
To round off the trifecta of downgrades, Maybank has also raised the annual fee waiver threshold from RM80,000 to RM120,000 in spend, a massive 50% jump. This is especially cheeky, given that Maybank previously converted all World Mastercard holders into World Elite holders without adjusting the waiver requirement.
Now, with fewer benefits, lower value, and weaker perks, Maybank expects cardholders to spend RM120,000 annually just to avoid paying the fee. There are simply no words.
Final Thoughts
What Maybank has done to the World Elite Mastercard for 2026 is nothing short of baffling.
Instead of strengthening the card to compete with CIMB’s aggressively strong Travel World Elite or UOB’s increasingly polished premium lineup, Maybank has deliberately weakened its own offering, and not by a small margin.
The B1F1 Qatar Airways perk, despite the conditions, was the one "highlight" feature of this card, and even that came with extraordinary hurdles. Now, with Malaysia Airlines substituted in, the card has lost its only real competitive edge.
The RM150 Agoda discount is an outright embarrassment, especially when competing banks are offering caps up to RM850. And raising the annual spend waiver requirement while simultaneously weakening every major benefit is, quite frankly, tone-deaf.
In its current form, the Maybank World Elite Mastercard offers no compelling value proposition for affluent Malaysians, frequent travellers, or anyone remotely interested in optimising airline miles. It is outclassed by the CIMB Travel World Elite in almost every dimension, from MPR rates to lounge access to overall benefit structure. The comparison isn’t even close.
At this point, the Maybank World Elite Mastercard feels like a product designed for customers who do not actively examine what their credit card offers, because anyone who does will immediately recognise the downgrade for what it is: a cost-cutting exercise disguised as a “refresh”.
If you’re serious about miles, value, and premium travel, there is absolutely no strategic reason to carry the Maybank World Elite Mastercard into 2026. The landscape has moved on, and Maybank clearly hasn’t.
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