Connecta

Thanks, kaka and percysmith!

Yeah, HSBC x5 promo runs 'only' until August 2012 anyways. Maybe no reason to renew after that and divert spending (applied x5 all for dining) back to other cards, like DBS Black if they have still their 3x dining promo on by then.

kaka

well, unless either program (AM or HSBC) which makes us needing to convert for whatever reasons, keeping RC @HSBC allows more time before expiry. Afterall you'd use HSBC now and then for some discounts anyway (how i have some 100 odd RC expiring this year).

ChrisLi

o just FYI if it is not reported earlier, the fubon AsiaMiles redemption hit my AM account today, which takes 5 working days (Submit on Thur via Fax, hit account on Wed)

percysmith

Update on the cabbies - they seem to be going backward.

I ordered an Visa Fly Taxi from my girlfriend's place last night. Her's isn't the easiest of places to get a Visa cab, it took me about 7 mins to go through plus another 7 to wait for the cab. Then again, nothing else is really gonna be faster.

The cabbie that took me had taken me home before "you were OTing from XXX co last month, right?". But I don't recognise his cab.

Firstly, he's taken down the "wings" on top of the taxi. I've noticed this on other cabs, the cabbie explained the wings ate up fuel. At first I thought this sounded fair enough, until I noticed the other thing.

More importantly, I realised he's taken down his "We accept Visa" and the red Autotaxi roundel decal. I asked why - surely this made his cab more difficult to identify as a Visa-taking cab? His response "we don't want to offer Visa unless you've pre-ordered it". Now I get it - they only want to accept Visa when they think its worth their while, like my cross-harbour co to home trips and my $150 girlfriend to home trips. Otherwise (e.g. taxi rank, flag on the street), they want cash like any other cab.

The driver added - "we don't want a 1% impost like the Octopus taxis. If autotaxi imposes it, the Visa card machines will go". I believe this will occur near the end of the year - Dah Sing can't fee-waive the Autotaxi's credit card interchange (merchant fee) indefinitely.

I related the discussion to my girlfriend the next day - "now my dear, won't you be a little less upset if you took one of those 20% discount cabs like I told you to?". I asked her to pass me the number, I better follow up.

percysmith

On the other hand, last week in Taipei, my Unionpay was gladly accepted by Taipei's 台灣大車隊, even for a NTD85 (roughly HK$23) taxi ride. The Taipei cabbie also tried my Shacom MC, but failed to get an auth code.

percysmith

Answering my own question - http://www.discovernetwork.com/commo...uideCanada.pdf

kaka

Not the best place to ask: but how long it takes to transfer Hk amex to Hilton or spg or priority club?? And do they check names??

Ot police: give me a break, posting at amex forum wont get me anything hk related

percysmith

(quick! before the OT accusations start flying!)
I credited Virgin Atlantic from HK Amex on 9 Jul, Virgin miles available for use on 13 Jul
A name check was not performed but I did get queried by Amex CS for changing Virgin FFP (VFC) numbers again. However they didn't really stop me from doing it.

BryanL

Curious if anyone could help me out.

Today my wife and I had dinner in Macau and I was told that at a certain restaurant, they offer 5AM for every $8 spent if the bill is over $300. So I decided to eat at this restaurant and also saw that if you have an AMEX card, you are awarded 10% off.

When the bill came, I gave them my Asia Miles card and my DBS AMEX and was told that I can only accept either the AM or the 10% off, but not both.

Is this right? Or is it two separate things and hey should accept both.

TIA

ChrisLi

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think there's no clear definition on that, but once I was eating at some place alike and I got offer 10% off on a requirement of no AsiaMiles. Anyway 10% off is always better deal and AsiaMiles is just a bonus.

percysmith

Asia Miles retail earning offers are normally exclusive of discount offers.

Another case in point - Agnes B Floriste - you can either choose to have 10% off or 5 miles per $8 spent.

toplayer

Yes happened to me many times (in HK), as Percysmith said, go for the discount its usually the better offer.

percysmith

If using $0.1/mile nominal valuation, 5 miles per $8 spent is equal to a 6.25% cash rebate --> 10% or more is better than that.

BryanL

Anyone ever try to claim missing miles after selecting the 10% discount?

percysmith

(deleted, misstatement)