Quick thoughts of AE Explorer vs HSBC EveryMile

• Both are $5 = 1 mile, but HSBC has a chance of hitting the selected merchants and categories for $2 = 1 mile
• HSBC has pretty bad redemption rate; 1% for general spend and possibly 2.5% for selected merchants, but AE you can redeem points at 2% cash back if you book travel via their portal
• Both have a stated annual fee that can be waived upon hitting a certain amount of annual spend, 120k for HSBC and 150k for AE; however I think you can get both waived even if under that figure
• Some other marginal differences; HSBC offers 6 lounge visits to Plaza Premium while AE offers 10, and HSBC travel insurance covers mobile phones

Honestly the cards are pretty similar. I would prefer AE and HSBC simply for flexibility and not being tied to Cathay. Only consideration is you can earn Club Points on SCB CX card, but it's useless for most people.

I have the AE Explorer card and will just stick with that. Not interested in signing up for EveryMile.