percysmith

Unionpay only available for PRC residents travelling to HK for the concert...not HK residents who'll have their tickets mailed in advance.

(Here's the actual AEG site: http://www.aegpromotion.com/Leo2011/tc/main.asp...and more concerts here http://www.aegticketing.com/tc/index.asp).

Hmmm Unionpay is still relatively hard to use in HK. If your merchants don't expect a lot of Mainlanders you aren't gonna get Unionpay coverage. Also very little online use as well (asiamiles.com is just about all there is for a HKD Unionpay card).

percysmith

Just got off the phone with Bankcomm CS - for those of you considering taking the Bankcomm Plat Visa overseas, confirm that overseas spending count including those where DCC is applied.

If DCC, you lose the 50% overseas spending bonus tho http://www.bankcomm.com.hk/en/creditcard/pcard.html

percysmith

Wirelessly posted (Palm850/V0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))

I finally caught a fly visa taxi with the app. had to wait for 5 mins for the guy when there're other taxis floating around me.

I didn't select "Visa required" for the call and lo and behold the fly visa cabbie who showed up refused to take visa - this time the reason trotted out was he wasn't registered to operate the visa terminal - only the day shift is - and if I selected "Visa required" on the app he wouldn't take the call.

He said in any case even if he's registered he'll only use the terminal for trips to/from airport. ha - the cabbies really like making the rules as they go.

I decided to let it pass cos he's otherwise friendly and the co is picking up the cost anyway (I'm doing OT).

I also gave him a hard time over why cab unions don't take Octopus either.

Also no-one else is here so I get to muck around...if this was a weekend night I simply won't bother.

percysmith

From NowTV news: Octopus Cards Limited is due to announce trial program of Octopus payment in taxis this afternoon. Stay posted...

jg86

Novice alert!

I'm new in HK and currently only have the standard Chartered Platinum visa card.

All I'm wondering is do online purchases count towards points? If not, I'm a bit annoyed because i just spent 30,000hkd on flights!

Thanks!

(Note: I tried to look on terms and conditions but what it seems to say is 'retail' purchases. Is retail restricted to outdoor shopping?)

Final question... If, as I am beginning to suspect, SC card does not reward online purchases, which card is the best for online purchasing?

Thanks very much

percysmith

SCB Platinum gets points on online purchases.

I'm not saying this out of first hand experience cos there's no way I'll charge an online purchase to my SCB Platinum.
But my SCB Priority Banking Visa Infinite (PB VI) has the same bonus point program T&C as the Platinum and I'm earning points for those (double points in fact).

https://ibanklite.standardchartered....ewTNC&menuNo=1

SCB Platinum is a just an useless card for anything (I think I compared it to a foreskin - yes I did http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...l#post16237347)

If you have the opportunity to apply for another card and your online travel agent accepts Amex, get the DBS Black:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...hk-10.html#144


Point of note: SCB Platinum does explicitly exclude online purchases to its welcome offer, but not for collecting normal points on spending:

http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...ow.php?id=5434
http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...ard/tc/tc.html

percysmith

http://news.sina.com.hk/news/32/1/1/2384460/1.html
http://www1.881903.com/apps/newsBoss...5504157600.htm
http://www.metroradio.com.hk/997/New...6-3ceb1b1ce247
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/realti...rt_id=50028115

Salient points:
- 300 taxis, introduce within next 4 months
--- 31 taxis already have it today
- they will have Octopus branding on the side of the taxi
- Octopus Cards Limited will co-operate with a taxi company to release an app like Autotaxi
- night and day drivers will get separate codes
- 1% interchange
- next day crediting
- tipping functionality will be included

Taxi drivers are naturally cool about it:
- "有的士司機認為在手續上帶來不便 , 因為要在一日後才可結算, 收回工資" / "有的士司機擔心，用八達通收費延遲收到現金，交車租及入油都不方便" - they hate the settlement period
- (TVB) taxi drivers find the 1% interchange costly and have little motivation to adopt Octopus
--- "not something we want" <-- of course not! It's something we passengers fxxxing want tho

If there's a rally to persuade the Transport Dept and the IRD to make cabbies adopt Octopus as a condition to increase flagfall >$20, I'll help run it.

percysmith

I put the SCB AE into palliative care...getting ready for SCB to pull the 6X life support that's keeping this card in my wallet.

But to my surprise they've just put out a few new promotions on the SCB AE:

http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/.../en/index.html
http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...an-express/en/

These offers appear to be unique to SCB AE - Amex own cards and DBS Black don't seem to have these offers.

Glimmer of hope? Or a last swansong for this old lady?

Psychiatrist

Yes, you get 6x points for online spending with the SCB Amex. Have been using it online for many years.

Most recent purchase - over US$20,000 (and only US$700 of it mine) on a new but well set up online shop selling high-end men's stuff (John Lobb, McQueen, YSL, etc.) - they had a VIP sale, lots of stuff 50% off. The bill was in British Pounds..... a very easy way to earn over 60,000 miles.

Another example - buying from a well-known French leathergoods/trunk maker - sent directly to Hong Kong (instead of paying 30% extra at their boutique in HK) - purchased 19 of the same handbag (in different colors) and a briefcase for me. Don't get me wrong - I'm not re-selling the bags - I just gathered a big group of friends who were willing to split the hefty delivery charge. Another 60,000 miles earned without any effort.

Oops, I've said too much.

The answer to your question - yes, SCB Amex doesn't care how you spend it, online or not - as long as it's in a foreign currency.

jg86

Just a note about the SCB platinum card though.

I realise it is techincally $15 per asia mile... However after the first 4000 spent in a month, you get double points, and by using your card 2 days in a row (even on a can of coke) you get an extra 500 points. upto a total of 5000. So if you spend your card everyday on a tiny purchase you'll get the 5000 pts (cancelling out the initial 4000 which wasn't doubled, plus 1000.. so effectively ALL of your points are doubled).

So... in the end it works out to about $7.50 per mile, plus an extra 66 miles per month.

I hope that makes sense!

Also you get 10% off in parknshop and some other perks, so it's not terrible.

If the worst comes to the worst, just use the standard chartered card to get 5000 points (333 airmiles) a month for buying a bottle of water everyday.

Edit: But obviously with the $300 fee to convert to asiamiles, you want to be converting a good few thousand miles for it to be worth it.

percysmith

Not really:

http://www.standardchartered.com.hk/...tinum-card/en/

8,000 pts = 533.33 miles
So the earn rate is $11.25/mile

jg86

About taxis not accepting cards.

If a taxi states on its window that it accepts cards, and the driver refuses to accept the card, what happens if you refuse to pay?

Surely if you did that they'd miraculously accept your card.

jg86

That example is only for the 'double reward' not accounting for the 'consecutive spending award' (detailed in the same link)

As i said, you get an extra 5000 points per month for spending next to nothing. (on top of the points for those transactions)

Example...

Monthly spend = $8000
(4000 1x pts, 4000 2x points = 12000 points.

PLUS the extra 5000 points for spending on consecutive days (even small transactions)

12000+5000 = 17000 points for a $8000 spend.

This is 1133 air miles for $8000 = $7.06 per mile

percysmith

But to use my card consecutively I probably have to give it some transactions I usually have a higher rate for, like $6/mile AE transactions or $4/mile food transactions.

jg86

You can buy a can of coke. You're not going to lose a lot of points doing that.