curious if you guys have ponied up your HSBC points for travel.

Seems like a phone call has to be made. I like being able to look at a website and browse flights and times, picking as I chose. This phone call only method seems old school and time consuming, on both ends, and they have to pay for people to do this.

Well anyway, if I recall, 25,000 points gets you 400$ USD off a flight.

Can you pick any airlines? anyone w/ experience using points for flights, please enlighten me.

Are HSBC rewards programs flight prices 'inflated'? it would surely defeat any much benefit of using points for travel.

Where do they get their prices from. If they are all direct from say American Airlines, Delta, Cathay, etc... that would be a time saver as I can readily prep by going to th carrier sites directly, do my research, and prices, and then call HSBC and make things easier for both of us.

Thank you!