maya1005

Thanks Percysmith!

I was looking at 2 credit card slips for separate non-hotel restaurants. And neither shows the restaurant codes (at least they are completely different).

Does anyone know whether the restaurants at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Eaton hotel (Jordan), Hyatt Regency (their buffet is good) and the Harbour Grand Kowloon (I know the Chinese restaurant is operated by Maxim's) would fall within hotel or restaurant categories? What about Gaddi's and Caprice?

And I guess speakeasies would be neither hotel or restaurant?

Thanks.

percysmith

(Before I begin let me post up master list of MCCs: http://www.dm.usda.gov/procurement/card/card_x/mcc.pdf)

For Visa and Mastercard, you *****cannot***** tell a merchant's MCC by looking at the slip alone. Most flagrant example of how you'll shoot yourself in the foot:

http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...hp?id=8741&p=4

The only way you can confirm a Visa/MC restaurant's MCC is to ***call your issuer bank***. No smartalec ifs, buts or elses - I've been earning dining spending since DBS $4/mile around 2009 to know. I even taught the Singaporean FTers this for their dining promos.

With Unionpay, if you see the four digits "5812" somewhere inside the 15(?)-digit the merchant code, then the restaurant is probably coded as 5812. But not all Unionpay restaurants (even in HK) have 5812 in their merchant code, so it is merely a sufficiency but not a necessity factor. If you don't see it, again call your bank.

Anyway, your restaurants:

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel: no idea, I don't have kids
Eaton hotel (Jordan): no direct knowledge but Langham doesn't have its own MCC so probably a restaurant
Hyatt Regency (their buffet is good): restaurant for Unionpay http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...hp?id=9135&p=5 50#, not tried for V/MC but caution advised as Hyatt has MCC 3640
Harbour Grand Kowloon (I know the Chinese restaurant is operated by Maxim's): Harbour Grand North Point's Chinese restaurant is resturant for Visa (post-funeral lunch - I don't pass on miles just cos a relative's kicked the bucket - obviously no miles for the funeral itself)
Gaddis: Not sure but Peninsula generally codes its restuarants as dining for V/MC
Caprice: Not sure but Blue Bar is restaurant for V/MC

Speakeasies: if you mean places like Magnum, Tazmania Ballroom et al, they are consistently coded as dining. I'm not sure whether they should be coded under the 5813 subcode, but generally HSBC, BEA and anyone else who runs dining promo tell me those places are dining for V/MC without exception.

percysmith

Bankcomm has a tendency to release offers mid-month. So I checked today,

They did. Unfortunately it's only a cash rebate offer, and a pretty weak one at that. I won't go into the details as it is OT for FT: http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...w.php?id=12344

The trouble is, if this is all they're doing this summer, then we've got to find some other way to manufacture more miles this summer!

dannyhk

Going to Macau tomorrow. Any advice which card is best to use there? I seem to recall that some banks don't treat Macau Pataca transactions as overseas spending? (I have Fubon, DBS Black, CCB Eye, BEA SupremeGold and Bankcomm CUP).

percysmith

dgittings

DBS Black will be affected.

Fubon will earn you $3/mile but you'll incur 1.85% fee.

Bankcomm CUP will earn you $6/mile but you won't incur the fee. CUP rates for MOP are very good.

So for $100 spending:

$1.85 = 16.67
Each mile = $0.111

You may want to go for Fubon
However
- non-compliant DCC pretty prevalent in Macau - imported PRC firmware
- Unionpay acceptance even higher than HK

dannyhk

Fubon and Bankcomm it is. Many thanks, as always percysmith. You really are an incredible source of knowledge on all things HK credit card related.

Chiccathy

What do u mean by "$1.85=16.67"?

percysmith

16.67 extra miles for Fubon

percysmith

Hongkongcard.comers argue it's local transaction time http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...?id=11847&p=21

Their arguments seem to be based on what transaction day will appear on their HSBC statements, not what HSBC staff told them. They also discussed the case where transaction date will be stated as the date the goods are dispatched, as is the case of apple online store and amazon.

christep

Just an observation that I can't find any evidence that this (from the Wiki) is still ongoing.

Shouldn't the end date be 16 Feb 2014?

percysmith

Stray entry that should be deleted

I added back Citi "As low as $2=1 mile" promo 15 May-31 Aug (up to $5.085/mile loc $2.145/mile os) . I should have added back CCB's 12K AM for $45K spend offer also but that's coming to an end in 5 days. (stupid me CCB's 12K has been up there for ages...)

Mafai

Hi Percy Smith

Since this has been brought up again, Clause 5 says the initial $5000 is for any phase, so no need to spend the initial $5000 each phase.

Also, sorry for my math, but if the cap is 8000 miles per phase, how is the max spend equivalent to $245,000/phase (Prestige)$111,666.67/phase (Premiermiles) and overseas is $37,000/phase?
Simple math
$245000/5 = 49000 miles, $111666.67 /5 =22333 miles, $37000/2 =18500 miles?


Thanks again to all your contributions to this thread.

percysmith

You need $5,000 in any phase *you want to earn extra miles under the promotion in*. You can't spend $5,000 in last phase and $10 in this phase and expect to earn $5/mile in this phase on the $10.

8,000 *extra* miles

Overseas earn (Prestige and Premiermiles): $2/mile total = $4/mile normal + $4/mile extra
Max spend = $5,000 + 8,000x4 = 5,000 + 32,000 = $37,000

Local earn (Premiermiles): $5/mile total = $8/mile normal + $13.33/mile extra
Max spend = 5,000 + 8,000x13.33 = 5,000 + 106,666.67 = $111,666.67

Local earn (Prestige): $5/mile total = $6/mile normal + $30/mile extra
Max spend = 5,000 + 8,000x30 = 5,000 + 240,000 = $245,000

percysmith

http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...w.php?id=12388
https://www.redhotoffers.hsbc.com.hk...d-hot-festival

"Up to 50%" spending rebate

God I hope there's some RC as well...Bankcomm's disappointed us HSBC and CCB's my last hopes...

Mafai