Guy Betsy

I just did today.

theworld

Hello people

Having a usual Friday "blond" moment.

Firstly, thanks for the help re probably avoiding the Public Bank query re foreign spend.

I see the following promotion with HSBC:

http://www.hsbc.com.hk/1/2/special/cards/prom228#offers

I note that the Red Hot Offers has been mentioned before and you have to nominate a specific category.

When I'm abroad I normally use my SCB AE (at HK$2.5 per AM) or my Fubon visa (at HK$3 per AM). As my foreign spend isn't so great, I'm quite OK with that.

I however note the above linked promotion (which I think has been mentioned here before) would mean HK$0.9 per AM, which I would understand is VERY good.

I will be away during Easter, and will probably be paying for my tour in a foreign currency, so I could get quite a few AM.

Just want to check one thing though, it says the maximum rewards cash available with $300. Does that mean the maximum travel spend would be about HK$4,000?

Thanks in advance.

percysmith

You can still play this promo even if your 6X category is something else. Mine's dining for instance. This promo and 6X are separate - HSBC just included 6X so it can advertise a larger Rewardcash multiple.

$0.9/mile *If and only if* your 6X cat is overseas
For me (not overseas) the earn rate is $1.23/mile

Beware you must have a "sales slip" for this promo - so avoid any tour purchases online or by mail or fax order.


$6,000 (300RC x 20)

theworld

Percy, thanks as always.

Hmm, for me, not really good, was going to pay for tour via online booking and HK$6,000 won't cover enough of my spend to make it worthwhile.

Thanks anyway.

percysmith

http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...ow.php?id=9817

Applied and received USD Visa for myself and sub card for one of my parents

Signed up 6X as Overseas Spending for this parent

Applied for Paypal account in parent's name

Paid US$10 to myself

Got 2RC posted yesterday

Therefore 6X applies to USD card as well (US$10 / US$30 per RC x 6 = 2RC as received)

AmD950

Doesn't paying yourself with paypal mean a 3.5% loss?(or whatever paypal charges)

percysmith

Cost of doing research!

AmD950

I have thought of paying myself using HKD with PLK card to earn miles... at the end of days I have seen too many paypal horrific stories - so I stopped right there.

nanirina

newbie question:
Is there a way to see how the bonus RCs are credited with HSBC? I currently see fewer RCs than I expect but not sure how they've calculated....I have yet to receive a statement....

btw....for those red hot offers, how soon does HSBC credit the extra RC (i know terms say soemthing like May but does it really take that long? Thanks).

percysmith

Actually, in retrospect, paying urself for fee (as if merchant) and then refunding to bank will be a good way to go...tho sooner or later Paypal's gonna ask what's going on (and their tolerance will be a lot less than Mr. Law of Shacom).

percysmith

RCs are very difficult to keep track of
I can't even reconcile my HSBC Diamond Unionpay account in the office just now. I have to go home to do it.

The only thing you have to go on is the RC balance on each statement.
I try to reconcile the difference in each statement:

Last month's balance:
+ spending / 250
+ 6X spending / 50
+ promos rebated
- RC redeemed
= This month's balance.

The "ADDITIONAL REWARDCASH EARNED" information from "REWARDS OF YOUR CHOICE PROGRAMME" is garbage data - the additional RC info is wrong, even tho the ending balance is right.

I rely on hongkongcard.com to tell me when RCs have been credited for various promos. The HSBC CS agents can tell you credited amount in respect of the promo. If I can't back-reconcile the amounts using the identity above I call CS in the first instance - normally they're in the right so far.

However with other banks (BEA) I did have to mail my reconciliation to them and they credited missing points.

(Told you miles collecting is for accountants)

host2087

Hey Percy,

Do you think it is better to redeem the 30%-off-asia-miles-ticket now OR redeem the normal tickets (without discount) for traveling during the Christmas?

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

Traveling during Christmas. Your cash price can be worth double the march-June fare.

But where do u want to travel for Christmas? I'd imagine most tix are gone by last Christmas already!

host2087

You are right about the Christmas ticket. I want to go to some places that have snow:-:~ No chance again

percysmith

Yeah. Looking at ICN. Only 1 seat for 27 Dec/1 Jan and that's in F!

Can fly further to Europe/US but costly in terms of both miles, $$$ (accomodation, transporation) and time.

I was desperate enough for snow I redeemed HKG-SYD-MEL-SYD-HKG for July 1 holiday. I figured I can drive up Mt. Buller from MEL faster than Thredbo from SYD, and redeemed it even tho it costs me 60K rather than the normal 45K to go to Aus - on Qantas instead of CX - and for two. Then the bloody red rat killed my afternoon flight making me head down the mountain right after dinner on the only day I'm really on the mountain.

Fri 28 Jun: Fly out of HKG after work to SYD
Sat 29 Jun: Fly from SYD to MEL - can only get there in the afternoon. Get the rental 4WD and drive up to Buller before dark
Sun 30 Jun: Rent ski gear, ski the day, return the ski gear, head back after dark. Must reach MEL airport hotel.
Mon 1 Jul: MEL-SYD 7:15am, SYD-HKG 9:50am.