HSBC Star Alliance credit card in Australia

[twiningb]

I was approved today. When should I expect my Star Alliance Rewards invite email?

The answer to this is "about 20 hours later".

 

[twiningb]

Any datapoints on whether I should select my status airline immediately, or wait until after I get the invite having hit the initial qualifying spend? Ideally in terms of people who successfully got the 50k Aeroplan points?

Also I see that it lists the seven airlines with Select buttons under them. If I do that, can I then nominate a specific existing account (which I have) or does it force me to create a new Aeroplan/KrisFlyer/whatever account?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Any datapoints on whether I should select my status airline immediately, or wait until after I get the invite having hit the initial qualifying spend? Ideally in terms of people who successfully got the 50k Aeroplan points?

Also I see that it lists the seven airlines with Select buttons under them. If I do that, can I then nominate a specific existing account (which I have) or does it force me to create a new Aeroplan/KrisFlyer/whatever account?

dunno about the 50k points, i selected Air Canadia as soon as i could, 3 minutes after receiving the qualifying spend email. The 50k still took 6 weeks or whatever.

 

[HSB44]

my card arrived in the mail after 7 business days.
I know AusPost is slow these days, but it felt very slow to me.
In the past ANZ, NAB etc seem to issue these cards pretty quick smart...

 

[SeatBackForward]

I am interested in this HSBC Star Alliance card, however I assume this is a Personal Liability card? Has anyone been able to sign up for this as a Business Liability Card? I don't think I would be approved under personal liability (already have sufficient credit with other providers). But a business I own needs a new credit card...

 

[SeatBackForward]

I am interested in this HSBC Star Alliance card, however I assume this is a Personal Liability card? Has anyone been able to sign up for this as a Business Liability Card? I don't think I would be approved under personal liability (already have sufficient credit with other providers). But a business I own needs a new credit card...

Right so I rang HSBC today, and after being on hold for an hour, was confirmed it's a Personal Liability product, but was informed there is an identical business liability product available. Got transferred to a business card specialist, who then told me I needed to complete an online form to have a discussion with a Business Relation specialist. So much for spcialisation!

So I will have to wait a few days, but I suspect the original agent may not appreciate I specifically wanted the Star Alliance card, not just a corporate credit card from HSBC. So I remain sceptical that its a thing.

 

[N860CR]

As far as I know, it’s personal only. Never crossed a business one.

 

[albyd]

I didn't realise HSBC offer any business cards (business liability or otherwise) as IME they're very reluctant to on-board any customer who even remotely smells like a business customer. I have a family trust account with them and that took some doing. When I closed a company account whose sole purpose was to receive passive income and wanted to re-open it again, they said at best, it would take a couple of months even though I previously had an account in that entity with HSBC. In short, find another bank if you want to open a business account. Unless of course I've been wholly misinformed by my branch in Sydney. YMMV.

 

[serfty]

IME they're very reluctant to on-board any customer who even remotely smells like a business customer.

Seems a theme. I noticed the T&C's for the HSBC Premier MasterCard excludes rewards earn on transactions considered "business expenses" .

 

[twiningb]

OK. I received the card on Wednesday and paid just on $4k of a large bill I'm otherwise putting to Amex, in order to expedite the status uplift. (I am aware that will throttle my earn for the first month and it's a reasonable tradeoff for my purposes.) That transaction posted overnight and I received my invitation to select a status airline this morning. I've chosen Aeroplan for obvious reasons. (That's likely where most of my ongoing earning will go too.)

Some questions for those who've held this for a while, some of which may have been answered in the past but I don't recall seeing definitively when I've reviewed this thread over time:

1. Per my reading of the terms, the points are only swept to Star Alliance Rewards once per cycle. Is that correct? Is it after statement issue, or payment, or...?
2. If so for #1, is there a way to track the earning in the current cycle, within the HSBC online portal? I found something that potentially might be it, but it's showing zero at the moment and it's not 100% clear it's the right place.
3. What's the deal with the 6-months-interest-free on the participating airlines? Does it activate automatically when you make a transaction? If you pay the remainder, does it sequester the Star Alliance purchases and allocate the payments appropriately? If you have direct debit set to pay the balance in full, does it carve-out the Star Alliance purchases or just ignore the free period?
4. I think this is the first time I've received a credit card that doesn't, as far as I can tell, have a signature panel. Even the Amex Plat with the metal card and numbers on the reverse, has a signature panel. Is this because they expect all transactions to go through without a signature? Has anyone tried in the US, where tap or chip-PIN aren't ubiquitous yet?

 

[HSB44]

Just curious - are most people picking Aeroplan or Kris?

What are the pro s/ cons in trying to credit star alliance points to access rewards? Is there much difference between the ability to access rewards on the two schemes?

Can you book VA flight rewards with SQ flight number, through Aeroplan? Or no access to VA reward flights through aeroplan? What I mean is if select Aeroplan, but then I end up needing to credit and book through Kris, will I have less access to Kris rewards as my gold status is only via Aeroplan?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just curious - are most people picking Aeroplan or Kris?

What are the pro s/ cons in trying to credit star alliance points to access rewards? Is there much difference between the ability to access rewards on the two schemes?

Can you book VA flight rewards with SQ flight number, through Aeroplan? Or no access to VA reward flights through aeroplan? What I mean is if select Aeroplan, but then I end up needing to credit and book through Kris, will I have less access to Kris rewards as my gold status is only via Aeroplan?

You cannot access code shares for flight rewards, regardless of the program you redeem from.

VA flight rewards will be a VA flight number only, not SQ.

You can access VA awards through both Aeroplan and Kris.

I used my Aeroplan star gold on tickets issued by Lifemiles for travel on Lufthansa, no issues. I forgot to put the card into the booking so just showed the digital picture of the card to be scanned at lounges.

Even if you have selected aeroplan for the HSBC card, this doesn’t flow through to your bookings. You need to enter your preferred FF number for each booking you make, during the booking process.

 

[RubyCate]

OK. I received the card on Wednesday and paid just on $4k of a large bill I'm otherwise putting to Amex, in order to expedite the status uplift. (I am aware that will throttle my earn for the first month and it's a reasonable tradeoff for my purposes.) That transaction posted overnight and I received my invitation to select a status airline this morning. I've chosen Aeroplan for obvious reasons. (That's likely where most of my ongoing earning will go too.)

Some questions for those who've held this for a while, some of which may have been answered in the past but I don't recall seeing definitively when I've reviewed this thread over time:

1. Per my reading of the terms, the points are only swept to Star Alliance Rewards once per cycle. Is that correct? Is it after statement issue, or payment, or...?
2. If so for #1, is there a way to track the earning in the current cycle, within the HSBC online portal? I found something that potentially might be it, but it's showing zero at the moment and it's not 100% clear it's the right place.
3. What's the deal with the 6-months-interest-free on the participating airlines? Does it activate automatically when you make a transaction? If you pay the remainder, does it sequester the Star Alliance purchases and allocate the payments appropriately? If you have direct debit set to pay the balance in full, does it carve-out the Star Alliance purchases or just ignore the free period?
4. I think this is the first time I've received a credit card that doesn't, as far as I can tell, have a signature panel. Even the Amex Plat with the metal card and numbers on the reverse, has a signature panel. Is this because they expect all transactions to go through without a signature? Has anyone tried in the US, where tap or chip-PIN aren't ubiquitous yet?

Re interest purchase on flights directly from Star Alliance websites, yes it was automatic and is noted separately on the statement. You do still need to make the minimum payment each month though even if there were no other purchases on the card. I only tried with Air NZ as they have Australia based payments though - I considered it for some Air Canada flights but didn’t want to pay the forex fees.

I had no issues until the end of the 6 month period, at which they did change some interest, but after getting in touch with them to point out that the final payment was made before the interest free expiry date, they reversed it.

Also note that the Star Alliance transactions don’t count towards minimum spend.

 

[minesapint]

Has anyone identified a status match that can be leveraged from getting gold status through this card?

Would be sweet to squeeze out a year on another frequent flier program after having the HSBC card for a year and then waiting a year to get a 2nd fee free “first” year.

Came across this today to match to BA Silver (OW sapphire) for a minimum of 6 months (longer if you take and credit an IAG transatlantic flight during those 6 months) for those that went down the AC or United road. promotion is only open those who live in the United States of America and Canada, not sure how they will verify this but is fairly easy to update your address details on the BA website.

https://www.britishairways.com/content/en/us/executive-club/offers/tier-match-offer?clickref=1100lypNNLFp&DM1_Channel=AFF&DM1_Campaign=UKI_GB_EN_PHG_ALWAYSON&DM1_Site=PHG&dclid=CN603M2Xv4UDFWS_SwUdCVEOjg

 

[SOPOOR]

My welcome pack arrived today.

Signed up oct or nov last year
Qualified immediately

Need to read up on benefits of membership as im a once a year traveller

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My welcome pack arrived today.

Signed up oct or nov last year
Qualified immediately

Need to read up on benefits of membership as im a once a year traveller

oh wow! we get a pack!!? Almost in time for our year to come to an end!

Yeah, there are some ‘elite benefits’ that you get to choose. Like some points, or ‘gold for a day’… the latter which gives anyone you nominate ‘star gold’ on air canada for a single day… business class check-in, lounges, priority baggage, etc.

 

[minesapint]

I think 1 is pretty clear in the terms and conditions.

2 is the interesting thing we’re waiting to find out about!

I cancelled today and so will wait and see if / when my Aeroplan status is impacted.