Best Travel Credit Cards in Malaysia

Travel credit cards offer much more than just the ability to make purchases while traveling. They come with features designed to enhance and simplify your travel experiences. Beyond covering flight tickets, hotel accommodations, and other travel-related expenses, these cards provide a range of benefits:

• Airport Lounge Access: Enjoy complimentary access to airport lounges where you can relax, enjoy food, and rest before your flights.
• Complimentary Rides: Some cards offer complimentary rides to and from the airport and your home.
• Fast Track Immigration: Certain credit cards come with fast track immigration services at destinations worldwide, saving you time and hassle.
• Travel Insurance Coverage: Many travel credit cards include insurance coverage for personal accidents, travel-related issues, luggage damage, flight delays, late arrival of luggage, and flight cancellations.
• Travel Campaigns and Promotions: Banks often collaborate with travel agencies, hotels, and tourist attractions to offer special promotions and campaigns, allowing you to maximize your travel spending.
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By leveraging these features, you can significantly enhance your travel experiences and gain peace of mind while on the go. In this article, we curated some of the best travel credit cards in Malaysia for your references and hope they will help you in your next travel or holidays.

CIMB Travel World Elite, Travel World and Travel Platinum

The CIMB Travel World Elite Credit Card is the most affluent travel card that CIMB offers, providing 1.25 miles per Ringgit spent overseas and a complete set of features that make it one of the best travel credit cards in Malaysia.

Lounge Access The CIMB Travel World Elite Credit Card provides 12 complimentary accesses per year to Plaza Premium First and Plaza Premium Lounges worldwide, with no spending requirements. This is a rare feature among Malaysian credit cards. The CIMB Travel World and CIMB Travel Platinum credit cards offer 12 and 4 accesses to Plaza Premium Lounges, respectively.

Bonus Points for Point Transfers CIMB Travel World Elite, Travel World, and Travel Platinum credit cards earn 1.25, 1.00, and 0.63 miles per Ringgit spent overseas, respectively, when converting 8,000 Bonus Points to 1,000 Air Asia Big Points. For Malaysia Airlines Enrich loyalty program, the conversion rate is 12,500 Bonus Points for 1,000 Enrich Miles, consistent across all three cards.

In addition to Enrich and Air Asia, you can transfer points to various other airline partners, including:

• Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue
• EVA Air’s Infinity MileageLands
• British Airways’ Executive Club
• Etihad Airways’ Etihad Guest program
• Turkish Airlines’ Miles & Smiles
• Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club
• Emirates’ Emirates Skywards
• Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles
• Japan Airlines’ JAL Mileage Bank

There are also three hotel partners:

• IHG One Rewards
• Marriott Bonvoy
• ALL - Accor Live Limitless
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You can use DuitHub’s reward estimator to optimize your spending across different programs, as each carries different earning and burning rates.

Complimentary Data: When traveling, flying from one destination to another often requires subscribing to a data plan in different countries or even on the flight itself. While major airlines like Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines offer complimentary unlimited data, the data quota and speeds are typically limited.

With the CIMB Travel World Elite credit card, you receive complimentary in-flight WiFi access through RM80 cashbacks for in-flight WiFi services. The question is whether this RM80 is sufficient to cover all your in-flight data needs. The short answer is: it depends. For instance, on Air Asia, while all passengers are now entitled to unlimited data, those looking for an internet plan suitable for streaming can pay RM58 for a 200 MB Internet Plan. CIMB Travel World credit card and CIMB Travel Platinum credit card cardholders get RM50 and RM30 cashbacks respectively.

The CIMB Travel World Elite credit card also collaborates with Flexiroam to provide a complimentary 3GB global data plan for 15 days, covering up to 150 countries. If this is insufficient, you can purchase additional Flexiroam data plans with a 15% discount using the same card. This benefit saves you the hassle of searching for a data plan upon arriving at a new destination.

Hotel Stay Benefits: Both the CIMB Travel World Elite and CIMB Travel World credit cards allow you to enjoy a 3-night stay at Club Wyndham Asia in Bali or Phuket, two popular holiday destinations. Additionally, CIMB Travel World credit cardholders receive a complimentary 12-month HoteLux Elite membership, while CIMB Travel World Elite credit cardholders get 3 months. However, the spending threshold to qualify for the 3-night stay is quite high. CIMB Travel World Elite credit cardholders need to spend more than RM10,000 in the calendar month of the stay, while CIMB Travel World credit cardholders need to spend a minimum of RM5,000.

Airport Transfer: While CIMB Travel Platinum credit cardholders don’t get a 3-night free stay at Club Wyndham, they receive a different reward in the form of airport transfer credits worth RM65 for Grab rides at participating airports in Malaysia. Cardholders need to meet a minimum spend of RM3,000 per quarter to qualify for the offer, and the Grab ride promotion is capped at two times per annum.

Travel Coverages: The CIMB Travel World Elite credit card offers one of the most comprehensive and premium end-to-end travel insurance coverages. Cardholders are covered for travel accidents and travel medical benefits up to USD 500,000 respectively. CIMB Travel World credit cardholders receive similar coverages up to RM 1,000,000. Additionally, there are other coverages, such as COVID-19 quarantine allowance, trip inconvenience protection, luggage protection, purchase protection, and e-commerce purchase protection.

UOB Prvi Miles Elite, and Prvi Miles credit cards

Another competitive series of travel cards is the UOB PRVI Miles series, which includes the UOB PRVI Miles Elite and UOB PRVI Miles credit cards. The UOB PRVI Miles Elite credit card offers a competitive rate of 1.1 miles per Ringgit spent overseas, slightly lower than the CIMB Travel World Elite's 1.25 miles per Ringgit spent overseas. However, what makes the UOB PRVI Miles Elite credit card stand out is its rate for local spending, earning 0.56 miles per Ringgit compared to only 0.25 miles per Ringgit for the CIMB Travel World Elite credit card. The UOB PRVI Miles credit card earns 0.42 miles per Ringgit for both overseas and local spending.

Lounge Access: The UOB PRVI Miles Elite credit card provides eight complimentary airport lounge accesses per year. If you visit the KLIA 1 Plaza Premium Lounge, this card grants you exclusive private lounge access, enhancing your travel experience.

Airport Transfer: Instead of requiring a high spending threshold, UOB PRVI Miles Elite cardholders only need to provide three overseas retail transaction receipts within 30 days before travel to receive one complimentary airport ride. UOB PRVI Miles cardholders receive a 50% discount on Grab rides.

HSBC Travel One Credit Card

When traveling to different locations around the world, you often use different airlines and stay at various hotel brands. Most credit cards focus on a few point transfer partners, as many travelers from Malaysia typically use Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia, and Singapore Airlines. However, there may be times when you opt for other airlines, or the major airlines do not serve your destinations. The HSBC Travel One credit card offers a unique solution with close to 17 airline transfer partners. In addition to Enrich, Air Asia BIG, and KrisFlyer, it includes major airlines such as Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Qantas, and many others. It also has four hotel partners: Marriott Bonvoy, Accor Live Limitless, IHG One Rewards, and Wyndham Rewards. With 0.67 miles earned per Ringgit spent overseas and 0.42 miles earned per Ringgit spent locally, this card is a solid choice to have in your wallet for travel.

Maybank KrisFlyer American Express Platinum

In addition to UOB and HSBC credit cards that earn KrisFlyer miles, KrisFlyer has also partnered with Maybank and American Express to offer the Maybank KrisFlyer American Express Platinum card. This card earns 0.5 miles per Ringgit for both overseas and local spending and requires an annual income of RM60,000 and a low annual fee of RM300. It also provides complimentary access to Plaza Premium Lounges five times per annum and travel insurance coverage up to RM750,000. A notable convenience of this card, applicable to all Maybank credit cards, is its support for mobile payments via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Garmin Pay. This feature is especially convenient when traveling abroad, particularly in countries where mobile payments are widely accepted for public transport, theme park entries, and retail shopping.

Summary:

Travel credit cards offer more than just payment convenience; they come with a variety of features to enhance and simplify your travel experiences. These cards provide access to airport lounges, complimentary rides, fast track immigration services, and comprehensive travel insurance coverage. Additionally, they often include special promotions and campaigns in collaboration with travel agencies, hotels, and tourist attractions. By leveraging the features of these travel credit cards, you can significantly enhance your travel experiences, enjoy peace of mind, and maximize the value of your travel spending.