Decent tier point runs around Asia on Malaysia Airlines
Whilst North and Central America are widely celebrated to be the holy grail of Tier Point runs, one should not fail to see Asia as a competing force too.
Historically Cathay Pacific was where the Asian Tier Point action would happen, but Malaysia Airlines' disastrous year has sent their premium cabin fares tumbling down too.
The golden benchmark for Tier Point running is £1/TP. Of course you need to add on your positioning flights too, but should you wish to find another reason to do the trip, all the destinations mentioned below are very interesting for tourism in their own right.
Currently there are fares of £345/€441 for Bangkok to Taipei via Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia Airlines Business class round trip. This itinerary would net 360 Tier Points for a ratio of £0.958/TP and straight turnarounds are possible.
There is certainly no shortage of this fare.
Next, there is Delhi to Bangkok, which prices to £378/€482 for 360 TP, so a ratio of £1.05/TP. This fare is probably less attractive for most of my readers given the visa requirement of India, but it is a very good price nonetheless.
Finally there is Taipei to Delhi for £837/€1067 which earns 560 Tier points at a less favourable rate of £1.494/TP.
If you've paid attention this far, you will probably have noticed that these are the same three cities in different permutations, meaning that you can create the following end-to-end itinerary if you buy each ticket separately:
The three tickets added together comes to £1560/€1988 or an earning rate of £1.219/TP. Don't forget as this is all in Business class, the 20683 miles you fly will credit as 25853 miles remembering the only bonus you get is from class of service, not elite status. If you're so minded you could deduct the value of the miles from the cash value of the ticket to make it seem like you paid less, though I do not endorse this practise.
Considering all of the above takes place outside the TP hotspot of North America, this price is certainly very reasonable. El Salvador is normally a prime destination for Tier Points, but with headlines like their President celebrating their first murder free day in 3 years, I'm happy to steer clear of there.
Of course the TP earning rate can be optimised by striking out the TPE-DEL ticket and replacing it with more DEL-BKK or BKK-TPE tickets which will bring your average down to the golden £1/TP. It will not be as good as the sub-£0.90/TP you sometimes see in the Americas but it's very close.
Malaysia Airlines' international business class seat is unfortunately a sloping one, but for mileage run purposes we cannot complain too much!
But if you're based in Europe and can't be bothered to head to Asia, then just hop between Amsterdam and Jersey. Easier and quicker!
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