Originally Posted by
bmtsang
For the HSBC 6X Red Hot Rewards if I choose Dining category, how do I know if the dining outlet is classified as restaurants or dining merchants? I'm particularly interested as I dine out a lot in a hotel so want to make sure I get maximum rewards thanks
bmtsang - no alternative but to
***call HSBC*** right after the waiter has charged your HSBC card.
No ifs, buts, or elses.
No "it's got a Tip column, so it's dining?"
No "it's says Food and Beverages, so it's dining?"
HSBC will be able to see Merchant Category Code until the next morning after the transaction. I will generally get the MCC before leaving the restaurant (no matter how asinine or anti-social it is, see below) and if it's not dining, ask the waiter to void slip and use another card (like BEA Flyer World).
The following is the best counter-example:
Petrus
Shangri-La Hotel
FOOD AND BEVERAGES
Base:
Tips:
Total:
You'd think it'll be dining right?
Bam! Wrong! It's MCC 3543 Shangri-La International, which is not a dining MCC for any bank's promotion. So sorry...
On the other hand, not all hotels are bad - even a banquet venue in certain hotels (preferably non-chain so they don't have their own MCC codes) can be dining, such as Park Lane banqueting below:
Asinine things I've done to make sure I earn the dining spending include:
1. When paying for last year's 14/2 dinner deposit, I called SCB (I was playing their dining promo at the time) and asked for Amber's MCC:
"There's no charge yet"
"The waiter's just pressed the button. Try again"
"It's 5812"
2. The banquet above - I wasn't even a guest but a a friend of mine has dining 6X and paying. I went down to Park Lane during 送客 to test the card terminal.
The bill was 6 figures. I charged the odd figure (namely, $449.80) in Park Lane's dingy banquet back-office behind the Churchill Rooms and got HSBC on the phone. After confirming with two CS it's dining, I had my friend charge the 6-figure remainder. The bride's mother was steaming but we held her down by saying that more than 60,000 miles were involved.
If you do come up against a chain hotel like Shangri-La above, it may help to use HSBC Diamond Unionpay. Restaurants like Man Ho in the Marriott come up as 3509 Mariott International for V/M and 5812 Dining for Unionpay. But you still have to check.