Mannings $1/mile to $6,000, other $2.5/mile to $10,000 1/1-29/2
 

https://www.redhotoffers.hsbc.com.hk...fers/mannings/

https://www.redhotoffers.hsbc.com.hk...start-rewards/

http://www.hongkongcard.com/forum/fo...p?id=16950&p=1

The current provider (Ten Group) was pretty kickass in my experience.

I am also prejudiced that Citi is moving my for-fee card concierge to one that SCB has been providing without fee.

Objectively, Ten Concierge advertises:

http://us.tengroup.com/page/6019/global-footprint

"Our global reach and experience extends to more than 80 countries, 38 of which have active client programs carefully managed through our 17 international offices.

Our wholly-owned and managed offices are located in London (HQ), New York, San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas, Mexico City, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Cape Town, Mumbai, Dubai, Brussels, São Paulo, Dubai, Melbourne and Zürich."

Aspire isn't just HK local (which was my first fear) but still less forthcoming than Ten:

https://www.aspirelifestyles.com/en

"The benefits of partnering with a genuinely global firm are now yours. With the largest integrated, directly-owned and managed footprint in the industry, Aspire Lifestyles leverages state-of-the-art infrastructure and features 900+ concierges in 19 Concierge Service centres speaking more than 90 languages"

I chucked some requests I really need help on to Ten - incl restaurant and train ticket help requests in Japan and Argentina. Both got forwarded to a local office for handling. The responses I got were always satisfactory (not that they can do everything - one of the restaurants my wife wanted last month came back "don't even think about booking. In fact, expect to queue a long time if you want to eat there").

I chucked a local booking request at Aspire once and that request was handled ok also. Perhaps they may do as well with the overseas requests once we get to them.

But the think that irks me is besides being able to access Aspire for free right now, I also have the choice of using Aspire as my plan B provider should Ten ever fail currently. This choice will be removed 31 January.

I had a high level of frustration with Amex lifestyle concierge (the plat charge one). They try to do everything out of HK, except when I asked them to book a restaurant covered by Amex Australia's same day guarantee benefit.

SCB Visa Infinite is done out of Visa Infinite Asia Pacific's concierge service right (ie not a SCB specific service provider)? I used to use that - thorough but slow. The Platinum version of service has been blogged about last week, I expect the call centre to be inundated by requests soon.

CC concierge isn't a top priority when I am comparing credit cards to use, for me.

I've never used Ten for anything else other than hotel bookings, but they've always been very prompt with requests. Will be interesting to see how it works out with the new promotion.

On the HSBC offer, seems pretty straightforward. I'm read it to mean I just need to spend hk$3,000 on a weekend to get the $300 in reward cash.

and even for hotels, I would only use them to compare for (SPG) BRG, if I can't find a better deal using other methods (or not really care about cost since client is paying for it.)

Regular (=non-Mannings) promotion capped at 10,000 HK$ for transactions over 500 HK$ to earn 5,600 AM (or 1.79$/1 AM), yes?

Maximize Asiamiles
 

Happy New Year all! percysmith, what is the your strategy to maximize asiamiles for this new HSBC promotion? Thank you in advance.

Buying $6,000 Mannings coupons now to see if I can get Rewardcash by 3 Jan

The 10,000 I'll leave til 2nd half of Feb - no promos then.

Percy: isn't the promotion capped at $300? I'm out of HK right now so won't be able to buy either way, but I'll catch up when I'm back.

Promo is 5% mon-sun capped at 300 Rewardcash, extra 5% fri-sun capped at another 300 Rewardcash.

Happy New Year to all.

Percy, it seems that HSBC has now revamped some terms but I am not able to understand fully about days of the week (eg weekends), caps etc.

Could you please tell us the earn rate (eg HK3 = 1 AM), the cap (maybe different for different days of the week), whether outlet specific (eg Mannings) and whether it is ongoing (as opposed to a promo).

Plus, what is the significance of trying to incur the spending this weekend ? (you mentioned hoping to post on 3 Jan).

Thank you.

Incywincy: derek2010's updated the wiki for basic rates but we haven't found a really satisfying way to present HSBC's numerous permutations.

I'll try presenting it in one dedicated post.

Base earn rates:

Basic earn rate (1X) = $25/AM
No more Red Hot Friday bonuses
Spending with your VS (extra 3X) in your 6X (extra 5X) category = 9X = $2.78/AM
Spending with your non-VS in your 6X category = 6X = $4.16/AM
Spending with your VS in a Rewards of Your Choice category other than your 6X category = 4X = $6.25/AM

The VS extra 3X and 6X Rewards of Your Choice are both capped at $100,000 for 2016 each.

Current promos (all these are presented before including base rates above)

Mannings to 29 Feb: 300 RC for $6,000 spending incl coupon + 300 RC for spending on Fri/Sat/Sun = 600RC = extra $1/AM
Broadway to 29 Feb: 5% extra RC to 600RC on $12,000 spending incl coupon (all HSBC promos incl coupon) = extra $2/AM
Overseas to 10 Jan: 210RC on $7,000 overseas spending (plus $300 supermarket coupon but I'll ignore that for calculating AM earn rates) = extra $3.33/AM
Great Start to 29 Fen: 400RC on $10,000 local spending = extra $2/AM

So if I am spending on my VS and my 6X is Home (it now is - I changed 9 Dec and it came into effect yesterday) my total (base + promo) earn rates will look like:
- Mannings: $0.735/AM
- Broadway: $1.163/AM
- Overseas: $2.174/AM
- Great Start (I'm assuming I don't spend this in any Rewards of Your Choice merchant, like my dermo): $2.27/AM

To throw a further spanner in the works, increase all earn rates by 50% if you have a Premier card and redeeming your RC (this can be redeemed under your VS) into Avios (or KF) in lieu of AM (e.g. my VS earn rate in Home remains $1.85/Avios not $2.78AM after post-4 Jan devaluation).
After the last batch of RC from yesterday have been credited to AM, all my subsequent RC will be earned into my VS and redeemed into Avios).
But I realise not all of us want Avios so I will write up HSBC earn rates in terms of post-4 Jan AM first.

Re Citi, well that's just annoying. I did fine Ten quite useful at times. Don't know much about Aspire, but from what percy is saying, they are not the same as the SCB Visa Infinite concierge, which I have found to be a bit crap in the past.

I just hope we won't lose our fourth night free benefit with the change in Citi's concierge service (handled by Carlson Wagonlit, but has to be booked via the concierge service).

Thank you for the summary Percy. Looks like unless one has HSBC VS, there is no point at all!

Regarding Citi concierge, does the change affect 4th night free? It shouldn't, right?
Who books the 4th night free? Ten or Carlson Wagonlit? I suppose the latter. Will be continue?

Currently Ten will liaise with Carlson to book the 4th night free. I wish they had a more efficient way of doing this.