toplayer

I called up the Elite number today - the official line is that they have absolutely no information whether AM participation will be extended beyond 30 June and cannot say anything such as whether negotiations are in progress etc. Unofficially, the CR said to call back early June when they will have something relevant to say (+/-).

percysmith

Well, if they want to play Chicken then I'm walking away...particularly since the BEA 4% beats the Fubon offer by miles when the sales amount is not near $500-600 (excuse the pun).

I hope they notice a serious volume drop-off in May and extend the offer before June. But now I'm at a 120K points (some points under "Sure Win" receivable in June) and am not budging unless a time extension is granted.

Even if a time extension is granted, I have to convert before Jan 11, when my 1-year points expire.

percysmith

I was none too happy about that either. I was vacationing in Australia when I was browsing through hongkongcard.com over breakfast and read the news. Then I had to make half an hour's worth of calls to SCB CS back in HK to get the old rate - thank goodness I was in my brother's house and they've a fixed line calling card.

One CS said the notification came in an updated gift catalogue in Oct 09. I am still uncertain about receiving such a catalogue, and even if I did I definitely did not remember reading anything about Asia Miles (it might have been there, but hidden under a lot of other irrelevant gift offerings).

Another CS said that catalogue was not mailed to everyone. We were deemed to have been notified when the new catalogue was uploaded on the website.

That doesn't make me very loyal to SCB. I've already done away with their Manhattan Card once I picked up the Lumix FS3 camera and waited for the cancellation penalty period to lapse. I'm be very watchful for the 6X on overseas and travel agents and will terminate that too if they tried to do anything gimmicky with it.

Does anyone else recall receiving the Oct 09 catalogue with the devalued miles program?

percysmith

3.com.hk, PCCW will happily accept any AE for autopay, so DBS Black is best as it earns points for such autopay at the normal 2X.

Funny thing - I was looking at how to pay Towngas. They only take certain credit cards including Amex own cards (by arrangement with Amex rather than with Towngas). It still earns double points under Turbo Program tho. And same with HEC.

And WSD doesn't even offer a credit card autopay facility.

carrotjuice

Indeed this is a gripe that I have with Fubon points. All points earned throughout the year are set to expire in a particular month (eg. mine expire in July 2010... regardless whether the points were earned a year before in August 2009, or just a month before in June 2010!)

This is stupid. Normally the one-year validity should apply one year from the month in which the points were earned.

And different customer service agents give contradicting information. One said I have a grace period until October 2010 to redeem my points, another said the grace period is only one month post expiry which is August 2010. Not sure who to trust... like you I'm converting my bulkload before June 2010.

I personally think Fubon likes to make things as complicated as possible with such burdensome processes as the lucky draw, surreptitious rules pertaining to point expiry date and not giving clear indication on whether AM conversions will continue post June 2010... what the hidden agenda is here is anyone's guess.

percysmith

Did you vote in the miles valuation poll http://polldaddy.com/poll/3099340/?view=results ? Most FTs value miles at between 1 to 3 US cents per mile. My HK$0.1/mile valuation correspondes to roughly 1.3 US cents, yours is roughly 1.8 - 3.2 US cents.

percysmith

http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...hp_15rebate_en

Gimmicky bordering on false advertising
There are two phases (26/5 – 25/6, 26/6 – 25/7)
You must spend $5,500 to qualify in each phase
Any dining spending within the $5,500 will qualify for 15% rebate (on top of normal points e.g. 2X points for dining spending on SCB Plat Visa/MC, which you can exchange for Asia Miles later)
Cap at $500 per phase and $1,000 for whole promo

So ideally you should spend $3,334 dining and $2,166 on something else in order to maximise promotion rebate, and even if you do that, your rebate on that $5,500 spending is $500/$5,000 = 9.09%

Still a good rate, and as I’ve been running around $3,000 - $5,000 dining spending (including work lunch bills which are later split and repaid) I’ll go for it. But can they really promote this is a 15% promotion?

http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...ate/en/tc.html

In any case, if you have two SCB cards, they are counted separately for this promotion and require separate registrations. You can earn $1,000 on each card for the promo.

toplayer

Thanks for posting this. I am now utterly confused as to which card I should be using for which purchase and for how much for the next 2 months!!!

BTW, if anyone is still interested, HSBC are offering a 20% discount on conversion of their Rewardcash (or whatever it is called) to Asia Miles until 30 Jun.

percysmith

Moved to here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...amiles-hk.html

tedhl

<deleted - re-read the original message>

percysmith

Added the following to Bill payments


VI. Bill payments

i. (to 30 Sep, and up to $5,000 every month) DBS Black - 1 mile per $6 spent (no fee), DBS Plat - same ($100 flat fee)

That's cos DBS is doing double points for bill payments up to 30 Sep and up to $5,000 per month http://hk.dbs.com/en/consumer/promot...1_ebbpdraw.htm

fallinasleep

percysmith, do you know which HK-based credit card charges the lowest FX fees on overseas transactions? Doesn't need to earn miles. thanks

percysmith

Public Bank HK's Platinum Visa, which charges no bank markup over Visa forex rate http://www.publicbank.com.hk/en/retail_banking/cards#84. Most other HK banks charge 0.95% bank markup for Visa.

However, it still passes through Visa's 1% foreign currency surcharge, like other banks.

IncyWincy

Thanks for the info.
However, the link you provided says that each cardholder can earn up to HK500 per period and HK1000 for whole promotion. Does this mean two or more cards will not help?

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))

I asked SCB, they said each card is counted separately. If you have more than one card, you have to perform registration for each card separately. Spending is only attributed to the card which was used. So it's possible to earn more than one award of $1,000.