percysmith

1. Amex CX Elite first three months offer only works at their so-called "selected Everyday Spend Merchants" such as Wellcome and Park'N'Shop and Esso http://www.americanexpress.com/hk/en...me/elite.shtml . It used to be all merchants in first three months, this changed around ~Aug 2011.

I've just received a churned CX Elite myself and its back on the shelf after I've paid $8,000 with it.

2. DBS Amex is $6/mile for local spending so it should go ahead of Amex Plat ($7.5/mile) and CX Elite ($8/mile outside of the first three months offer)

3. Note that Fubon Plat is $6/mile for >=$300 payments on Saturdays and Sundays (we have to see whether there'll be any changes to this offer at the end of this month) (this includes bill payments), $12/mile otherwise.

4. Note that Amex Platinum Credit travel insurance only works if you paid for your trip with it, and only covers the journey paid for. Amex Platinum Charge travel insurance works whether you've paid for the trip with it or not, and covers your time spent overseas as well as your stay overseas as well as your journey to/from destination. But I suppose you have Platinum Credit.

kaka

plat CREDIT doesnt give PP directly - only thru the fee waiver of CX AMEX elite
so he oughta be holding the plat charge? btw beware, for buy1get1free movie tickets, you'll need to get them on wednesday if you're looking for the cinemas at city centre (IFC, Pacific Place, the One, and sometimes Broadway Cinemathque)

Connecta

Only useful on weekends with more than HKD 300 on one single retail purchase with HKD 6/AM. But I use it primarily for foreign currency transactions (like hotel, restaurant, etc. on tralve), since earning is HKD 3/AM. All your other cards should have worse earning - percysmith may correct me if I'm wrong.

You get Priority Pass already with your Amex CX Elite. Up to you how often you use the free cinema tickets to make it worth.

Get the x5 Red Hot bonus reward program for a selected spending category, like e.g. dining, supermarkets, etc. I would not select overseas purchases, since you already have Fubon for that. With that you earn HKD 2.78/AM even on local purchases.

SERIOUSLY? Or did you want to write annually? If it's really HKD 200,000 per month, then I would consolidate it all on AMEX Charge Card for a year or so to get an invitation to Centurion (you would be higher than the rumored HKD 1.5-2M threshold?) and worry about Asiamiles afterwards - preferably in another country than HKG which offers the free CX DM program.

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Sorry for double-posting some stuff - didn't change to page 5 to see the latest posts.

Moscowflyer

Thanks for these very helpful responses, I've already learned more than I imagined I would! So it seems to me that based on this I should do the following:
Local spending:
1 Use the CX Amex Elite card for the first 3 months to the maximum of $120,000(40,000 AM) at their designated merchants because it's $3=1AM, then put it away.
2 Use the DBS Amex after that because it's $6=1AM.
3 Where an Amex card isn't welcome, use the Fubon card because it's generally $12=1AM but can be as low as $6=1AM
Both Amex and Fubon have the advantage over the CX Amex that the miles don't post automatically every month (and start their 3 year life to expiry).

Overseas spending:
1 Fubon Card at $3=1AM.

HSBC card and Amex Platinum (after the first HK$160k) really don't look that attractive except for the occasional discounts at shops with HSBC.

In answer to Connecta, my credit card spending's averaged around $150k a month for the last year but in the last few months it's jumped up to $200k as I've just been goofing off and having a good time :-) I'm asking myself why I'm paying the membership fee for Amex Plat because the AM earning opps are definitely less good than any other card I could realistically use. Centurion is even more expensive I think and I wonder what I'd get for it that I would really value. Having the Platinum card is just an insurance policy for a very big expense if I'm overseas and need to go somewhere in a hurry.

BTW I'm pretty sure I must have the charge card, it just says American Express Platinum on it and it gets the PP card and travel insurance so I guess that means the charge card (I was slightly worried that I'd been travelling without insurance there for a while but I think it's been ok).

Thanks for the very helpful feedback so that I'm able to put all these cards in the right order of using them.

percysmith

Apologies - it's rather rare to see a Plat Charge holder also have a DBS Black as well...it's like almost the two opposite extremes of HK AE offerings (I have both, but only as a supp for Plat Charge).

$5,500 annual fee:

1. Have you negotiated some rebate? I bargained for $1,000/200K MR points last year (took the latter). I think the highest is 400K MR.

2. Stand-alone insurance policy is ard $3,300 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...hk-35.html#517. Are you using any other features of the Plat (e.g. FHR)? If not then yes you're overpaying for travel insurance.

3. DBS gave me a whopping 8 months' salary as credit limit http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...ow.php?id=4424 - I rather have that whilst overseas. Having a set credit limit is safer than having a no-preset limit esp given Amex's financial woes post-GFC. Plus DBS AE earns at $4/mile overseas compared to AE's $7.5/mile.

fakecd

I donno about that "G Sushi" you mentioned you can click on "sushi/others" below takes you to many other restaurants. Perhaps you missed the other options available.

SUshi-Hiro (at CWB or TST) have been my only sushi restaurant in HK (i am japanese and I know what I'm eating). The dinner set is only 550 or so, but if you sit at sushi-counter order alar-cate it will easily hit 2k with wife including 1 or 2 orders of hot sake.

fakecd

I can't speak for Amex Cent/Plat charge card insurance but I reckon they are no way as generous as the stand-alone annual travel insurance. I had few issue on my travel recently so I literally done a 2 day full-on research about the typical credit card travel insurance offersings and found out they are no where as comprehensive as they make it sound like. I know it's pain in the butt but do some study, you won't regret when you break your back in ski-resort and need emergency evac. I got a zurich-annual plan for family for HK$3500 and still swear it's best value aftering comparing offerings from 15+ providers.

percysmith

I totally missed other options. Let me see what's good.

Connecta

The one unique Centurion benefit is still the free CX DM membership in some countries other than HKG - I didn't mention it for anything else. Of course no idea how long this promo will go or whether it's limited to only one year. But since many have complained about no life-time membership with CX, it might be an interesting alternative when reducing travel for retirement or whatever. In relation to your spending, even HKD 20K card fee may be at 0.8% - the absolute fee amount is still high, but relatively speaking it's low. But sure, if you don't need any free DM and travel sufficiently to comfortably get it, then you could save of course and utilize better AM earning with other cards.

To be honest, I travel most of the time even without dedicated travel insurance. Some very good health insurances already include worldwide coverage on any health issues incl. accidents and emergency evacuation, etc. (mine is German DKV - cover even LASIK!). Health insurances don't cover lost/delayed luggage, which is to some extent covered by CX AMEX (free with CX elite tier). On top I've got a worldwide private liability insurance covering up to EUR 10M (or HKD 100M) incl. rented sports items and vehicles - should be enough for most incidents. Even some household insurances cover lost items on travel to some extent. Above insurances are what I would need anyways, even if not traveling. With that kind of constant coverage, I don't need to worry about short notice travel either.

So it actually only boils down to the non-overlap benefits like flight cancelations and delays with compensation for hotel stays (and only if airlines are not jumping in). Maybe I'm just lucky, but the few times it happened were on business travel anyways on which I could expense charges where necessary. For those few remaining non-overlap benefits it's difficult for me to justify any extra travel insurance expenses. In a way it's agreeing with fakecd - specialized insurances (in my case even further down to health/accident, liability, etc.) are just better.

percysmith

I'm not sure if the stand-alones cover dependents tho. Amex Plat Charge covers supp Plat Charge cardholders like me - up to 4 per principal.

Connecta

Depends on which standalone insurances you look at. fakecd opted for a family insurance. My household and private liability insurances cover everyone in the household, incl. domestic help even (who probably would not get a supplementary Plat Charge card, but do correct me if I'm wrong - but then again, usually not traveling with domestic help although some do for kids).

So only the health/accident insurance has a per person coverage. Since we need comprehensive health insurance and it's combined with accident anyways in my case, it doesn't matter that one policy doesn't cover multiple persons. I don't think that any credit card insurance I've come across so far would provide comprehensive health insurance (e.g. local doctor visit while not on travel, maternity, etc.). As a HKG PR I do get subsidized services at public hospitals even without health insurance - but I really prefer private ones for serious stuff...

For that I want treatment by head-doctor or most expensive specialist in private room or suite of the best hospital available, with surgery, organ transplants and chronic treatments without any set limits - on travel AND at home. On the other hand, I'm not too worried whether I get a couple thousand HKD more or less for lost/delayed luggage or flights. But yeah, guess it comes down as usual to individual requirements and insurance coverage to match those. At work they provide us with life insurances including war and terror risk because we have government contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

percysmith

re Connecta - I looked at the various policies again. Seems like 3,300 premium is closer for family than personal:

Zurich: $3,960/year http://www.zurich.com.hk/eng/doc/travelplus_eng.pdf
BoC: $2,200 http://bocg-ins.bocgroup.com/html/pTravelEng.htm
SCB: $1,700 per person http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...-insurance/en/

Travel insurance is the only one I need, cos my parents have health insurance and I'm covered by BUPA at work.

kaka

the travel insurance plat charge gives is pretty nonsense - 400 for every 8 or 12 hour delay. but having life insurance for every card holder at travels is pretty good without purchases made on the card tho.

percysmith

Didn't notice that! https://secure.cmax.americanexpress....WInsurance.pdf

But Zurich is $300 for >6 hours delay (each 6 hours thereafter)

SCB same as Amex
BoC is $250 for 8

fakecd

don't really want this to be an insurance topic but one must utilize insurance for the tail risk events... I agree that luggage delay or cancellation are handy benefits however this isn't going to worry me... what i really worry about, shud I be caught in middle of earthquake in Cebu and needed urgent medical evac for my injured 1yr old girl and wife in coma, I will probably quickly looking bills going north of 1mm HKD... also these "SOS service" isn't readily provided by your "world-wide health coverage" insurance... the generic insurance companies simply lacks the know-how to handle these emergency.

I'm sure the guys caught in Fukushima during aftermath of 3/11 or Phuket after 2005 Tsunami would agree they swear by the travel insurance, it's really that Tail event risk we gotta manage and protect for... all the other BS benefits (hole-in-one 1000 hkd benefits?) don't matter.