3 days ago I decided to take advantage of the BA bonus and transferred all my points to my BA account. I went on to their rewards website and chose the BA avios. I had to enter the amount of BA avios I wanted to buy (being 1.25 x the HSBC points I wanted to use). After entering my BA avios number, I got a confirmation. About 48 hrs later, the avios were credited to my BA account. To my surprise, the amount was higher than the amount I had expected. In fact it was 25% more than the 25% extra notated on the HSBC website!!

For example:
50,000 HSBC points
Used 50,000 points to purchase 62,500 Avios (according to HSBC rewards website)
When Avios were credited... I received 78,125! (that is 25% more than 62,500)
That actually works out to a 56% bonus!!

Not a bad deal. Especially since the HSBC points were not doing me any good just sitting there!

I wrote an email to them when you login into your account but no response. Sigh, if only there could be some petition that we could all sign and get them to work on it. :( I kinda doubt their CSR team would lurk in these forums.

I'll write an email to CS as well. I'll report back with any info I get. It may also be best to keep this thread alive so that in the event that any CSRs do lurk this board either for personal or business reasons. They'll see it.

Agreed. I'll report back if they respond too.

I can vouch this worked out the same for me too. I got close to a 57% bonus to my Avios acct on . Who needs the Chase BA card w/ redemption rate like this. I paid off my HSBC mortgage so there is little reason keeping my at HSBC premier. However bonus like this. And Fairmont and China Airlines discounts keep coming... may reconsider closing it out my HSBC acct^

New Promo: 10000 bonus points for $4250 spend between now and May

Interesting. Where'd you hear this? I got an email yesterday offering double points from now until the end of May, but nothing resembling the offer you posted.

it came via snail mail.

I guess depending on the spending level, a double pts offer is even better.

Does anyone know if HSBC Premier MasterCard offers a chip option for its card for travel to Europe?

You dont have to park the $100k in the interest acct. You can actually invest it in a bond fund and earn some decent interest. Or stocks if that's your thing. You just need $100k with the bank - it doesn't have to be earning .2%.

Yep. I have this card on account of my Canadian Premier status. I qualify with investments through their discount brokerage. I hold very little cash in my accounts.

You need $100k or a mortgage/loan set of greater then $250k for the US card.

While the earning rate is $1:1point, keep in mind the redemptions are not always. A lot of the gift cards redeem at 1.25% ... the 1.67% for airline is still there ($400/$800/$1200 off any ticket at appropriate ratio) ...

Has anyone tried the HSBC Premier Concierge benefit? Thoughts?

One thing I want help with is getting a visa to Minsk. Do you think they'd be able to help with that? (Weird asking here... I could just call!). But i'm lazy ;-)

Double Pts emailing: July 1 ~ Aug 15.
They keep this up and this card isn't so bad.

The HSBC premier credit card in the US can have points converted to Avois fyi.
Cheers
Howie