HSBC Star Alliance credit card in Australia

[Mr H]

I too got the card last month. I'm a sole trader with a good income. I almost didn't go through with the application process. they were so fussy. A year of bank statements with regular incoming income was not enough. (I haven't yet done 2021-2022 Tax return). I needed a letter from my accountant! He'd never seen anything like it.
Unfortunately I reached the $4000 pretty quickly, still in 2022, but the letter I received about qualifying for Gold says I need to select my status arline in early Jan. I'm choosing Air Canada, since the program is widely praised, has good and unusual non-alliance partners and has reasonable reward tickets and I'm already *AGold with SQ. (achieved through buying points last year in the generous offer which has now ceased) Air Canada seems to have the most generous status allocation being the rest of the calendar year AND the next... I'm hoping that the date will start from when the status is granted, not when the spend was attained (as per the fine print mentioned above somewhere), but I'll let you know.

Really interested to see how this pans out.

 

[SYD]

Hopefully not like this….

ANA All Nippon Airways Has A Severe Elite Passenger Problem And It Shows In Overcrowding

ANA suffers from overcrowding of their Priority Services.

loyaltylobby.com

 

[AGSA4727]

Really interested to see how this pans out.

My card was approved on 21 Nov’22 and reached the $4000 threshold on 29 Nov. I was given the *A gold status by SQ on 27 Dec, and the gold status will expire on 21 Nov’23.

 

[Danger]

My card was approved on 21 Nov’22 and reached the $4000 threshold on 29 Nov. I was given the *A gold status by SQ on 27 Dec, and the gold status will expire on 21 Nov’23.

Welcome to AFF, AGSA4727 and thanks for posting. Interestingly, your experience is very different to the one posted by nightelves on 20 December.

My work colleague got issued Gold Krisflyer today. It took roughly 3 weeks and the expiry says 20th December 2023.

 

[AGSA4727]

Welcome to AFF, AGSA4727 and thanks for posting. Interestingly, your experience is very different to the one posted by nightelves on 20 December.

Yes, his friend seems to be very lucky and got a better experience and outcome. (Able to get the gold status around three week instead of the 28 days per their T&C and seems to get a longer period before the status expired). I’m wondering why *A or SQ could be so inconsistent regarding the status expiry date

I had a trip planned on Christmas day with SQ, and I’ve enquired with both *A and SQ if they could grant me the gold status before my trip, but was told it is processed by the system and they were not able to expedite the process.

 

[chiken_nugets]

If my intent is to use my status to fly Virgin domestically and use lounges, am I correct in saying that there would be no difference between selecting Aeroplan or KrisFlyer for my gold status?

What differences are there when booking / flying award seats on SQ if you have KrisFlyer Gold vs Aeroplan Elite 50K i.e. in which ways is the Aeroplan status worse?

 

[encryptededdy]

I guess if you use KrisFlyer, you can transfer those miles back to Velocity if you wish in the future

 

[chiken_nugets]

I guess if you use KrisFlyer, you can transfer those miles back to Velocity if you wish in the future

I don’t think there is any relationship between the status and the miles.

 

[encryptededdy]

I don’t think there is any relationship between the status and the miles.

Right, but don't you have to attach your KrisFlyer account to your domestic Virgin flights to use the status? Therefore collecting KF miles.

Unless you can keep your velocity number attached and enter lounges with a KF card (unsure)

 

[chiken_nugets]

ah gotcha. Anyone know if you need to link your KF number or Aeroplan number to the booking to gain the lounge access etc?

 

[nightelves]

Any update on Aeroplan gold?

 

[Jet L]

Got this card at the beginning of the month HSBC were a pain with the application process with the overseas call centre calling multiple times asking for the same information, they also couldn't understand that I have two PAYG incomes which means two companies pay me, I didn't even bother trying to add any sole trader ABN or investment income to the application because banks always want too much documentation for it, I needed to email my premier RM to step in and communicate with them near the end because I didn't have the time to sit on hold while they "verified the information on their end" alas two hours after my email to my RM and the card was approved and ready to add to apple pay.

I have some Y SQ travel booked in April and May which is the main reason I got the card as my VA Gold won't provide lounge access and gold track in some out-station airports, I've hit the min spend as of 11/01 and I got an email today letting me know my status airline is set as SQ and I have until 27/01 to change it before they request the status from SQ.

Is there any reason I should be going with another *A airline over SQ other than the possible extra year from AC and SQ miles expiry timeframe.

As far as travel for this year I see most of it being on SQ does anyone have any data points on SQ flights as a KFEG vs *G. I've only ever flown with them as VA Plat or Gold in J using miles.

I am also QF and VA Gold if that changes anything

Thanks

 

[Jet L]

ah gotcha. Anyone know if you need to link your KF number or Aeroplan number to the booking to gain the lounge access etc?

Back in 2016/2017 I was using Air Berlin Gold for VA lounges before getting VA Gold. Sometimes they typed in the number and sometimes they just wanted to sight the status on the AB website. Once they did change the earning airline on my ticket but never issued a new BP so I had to fight to have those points and SCs credited to VA but they did in the end.

 

[attimo69]

I too got the card last month. I'm a sole trader with a good income. I almost didn't go through with the application process. they were so fussy. A year of bank statements with regular incoming income was not enough. (I haven't yet done 2021-2022 Tax return). I needed a letter from my accountant! He'd never seen anything like it.
Unfortunately I reached the $4000 pretty quickly, still in 2022, but the letter I received about qualifying for Gold says I need to select my status arline in early Jan. I'm choosing Air Canada, since the program is widely praised, has good and unusual non-alliance partners and has reasonable reward tickets and I'm already *AGold with SQ. (achieved through buying points last year in the generous offer which has now ceased) Air Canada seems to have the most generous status allocation being the rest of the calendar year AND the next... I'm hoping that the date will start from when the status is granted, not when the spend was attained (as per the fine print mentioned above somewhere), but I'll let you know.

Any update on Aeroplan gold?

So, to recap - got the card (eventually) in early December. Crossed the $4000 threshold in late Dec. I think the email was Dec 30th.. asking me to choose my status arline by Jan 15th. I went with Air Canada for the reasons above.
On that day (Nth American time) I got the email from Star Alliance saying that AC had confirmed my Gold status. (Air Canada calls it "50K". It's not their highest tier - actually it's TWO below their highest tier, but it is the equivalent of Star Alliance Gold)
Most importantly - the expiry date is 31st Dec 2024. It was kind of tricky to find the expriry date. you have to click somewhere on the app in a place which doesn't really look like a hyperlink, but when you click it, it reveals a bit of extra info, including the expiry date.

So the main point is, the status clock starts in the year the Gold status is processed, NOT when you achieve the spend, or when you got the card. (for Air Canada at least). My fear was that I'd get the rest of 2022 (ie, one day) + the following year. Instead I got almost all of 2023, plus all of 2024.

Has anyone confirmed whether you need to have your AC flight number associated with a Vigin booking to get the Gold benefits? Or is simply having the status enough if you can show it?

 

[Mr H]

Most importantly - the expiry date is 31st Dec 2024. It was kind of tricky to find the expriry date. you have to click somewhere on the app in a place which doesn't really look like a hyperlink, but when you click it, it reveals a bit of extra info, including the expiry date.

Really good to know - thanks for posting. You may, of course, have to shell out for a second annual fee to retain your status until the expiry date.

 

[somewhat]

Anyone tried link *G with United?

 

[momad]

How long from approval do you receive the card? Iirc someone posted somewhere that you can add the card to Apple Pay before receiving the physical card. Have an upcoming expense that I would like to pay with the card!

 

[Danger]

Mine took about six calendar days.

 

[GerFlyer]

Hi there, I received an email on 30th Dec from star alliance confirming that I was eligible for gold status based on the HSBC credit card promotion. I followed the link in the email to select Singapore airline as my status airline. I got a call today from Singapore airline to tell me that my Gold Status will not be upgraded to Gold until the 12 month anniversary of the Credit Card opening. I then looked up the T&Cs and see in the FAQs attached that as part of the welcome offer, status upgrade would be in 10 days. Did anyone else have this problem or can anyone give me some help please? Thanks everyone!

 

[Viridis]

How long from approval do you receive the card? Iirc someone posted somewhere that you can add the card to Apple Pay before receiving the physical card. Have an upcoming expense that I would like to pay with the card!

Yes, you can

i got mine late last year and the approval email said that you can add it to your phone wallet from the HSBC App which I did. Limit of $3000 until you receive & activate the physical card. Hopefully this is a step in the direction of not having to wait for the physical card at all.