Get a 25% bonus on HSBC Premier credit card points conversions to Avios

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HSBC has launched a secret 25% bonus on conversions of HSBC Premier credit card points to Avios.

I say ‘secret’ because no announcement has been made. HSBC has form on this front, however – when it last did an Avios conversion bonus it never told anyone.

We have no idea how long it lasts. Back in 2018 and 2019 it ran similar offers in August which ended on 31st August, although those offers had started on 1st August. This one didn’t start until mid-month.

If you want proof that a bonus is running, take a look at this Flyertalk thread. You will see a screenshot there from someone who accidentally got the bonus after making a planned transfer. Other users did trial transfers of their own and also received the bonus.

Are the HSBC Premier credit cards a good way of earning Avios?

The two HSBC Premier credit cards are very generous. The snag is that you need to have a HSBC Premier current account to get them. Whilst Premier is free, the income and/or savings requirements are high as you can see here.

The free HSBC Premier Mastercard, reviewed here, earns:

0.5 Avios
0.5 Asia Miles
0.5 Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles or
0.5 Etihad Guest miles

…. per £1 spent in the UK. This rate is double for overseas spending.

Note that the credit card earns 1 HSBC point per £1 spent (2 HSBC points per £1 spent abroad) and these convert at 2:1 into airline miles. Don’t get confused by the HSBC earning rate and the equivalent airline miles earning rate.

The £195 per year HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard, reviewed here, earns 1 mile per £1 spent in the UK (2 HSBC points per £1) and double this when abroad.

The card also comes with airport lounge access via LoungeKey. The World Elite card is less good for families who want lounge access than Amex Platinum as your HSBC card only gets the main cardholder into an airport lounge.

You can pay £60 to give your partner a supplementary card for a year to get them in, but there is no way to get children into airport lounges for free. Amex Platinum, on the other hand, gets a family of four into a lounge.

You also get comprehensive travel insurance as part of the HSBC Premier current account, which makes this an interesting alternative to The Platinum Card from American Express for couples or solo travellers.

Disclaimer: don’t blame us

Whilst HSBC Premier is clearly running a 25% bonus on transfers of HSBC points to Avios, there is some risk in this:

we don’t know when the offer ends, although no-one has reported getting the bonus who transferred before last Monday and I doubt it would end in under a week
everyone who has reported in the Flyertalk thread has a World Elite card. Two HfP readers have told me that they got the bonus on the free card, although I haven’t seen screen shots.

If you don’t get the bonus, you can’t complain to HSBC and you won’t get very far with us either!

If HSBC does make a formal announcement about an Avios transfer bonus, we’ll mention it in a ‘Bits’ article.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

British Airways and Avios, HSBC Premier Mastercard

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Harry T says:

21 Aug21 August 08:51

Anyone considering transferring should make the smallest possible transfer first, as a test, unless you are happy converting your entire balance to Avios without a bonus. I doubt you will have much luck persuading HSBC you should have received a bonus if all the evidence you have is this article…
- Doug M says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 10:06
  
  I agree this makes some sense, but what if the bonus is a one time thing? These unwritten things are very unreliable.
  - Harry T says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 12:34
    
    You raise a good point. I guess it very much depends on your planned imminent redemptions etc.
  - ZB says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 14:38
    
    I just did two 195k transfers to test this, will report back once they get posted.
- Pete says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 11:05
  
  CAN take 14 days to do transfer to test though:/
  
  Last month was advertised 40% offer.. I didnt see on this website but Prince of Travel is ON IT:)
  
  https://princeoftravel.com/blog/hsbc-rewards-avios-transfer-bonus/
  - Andrew M says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 11:12
    
    That’s a Canadian blog. The bonus was Canada only.
    - Peter K says:
      
      21 Aug21 August 13:50
      
      Prince of Travel is ON IT, but clearly @Pete isn’t this morning 😃
Terry Semmence says:

21 Aug21 August 08:53

Following on from Rob’s Tweet about this a few days ago, I asked HSBC if there’s a bonus on WE transfers to Avios, they said no. Though of course it might be super secret…
Sina says:

21 Aug21 August 09:56

Is this just for UK cards or is it usually global? 🤓
Doug M says:

21 Aug21 August 10:09

What is the logic with something like this? Someone, HSBC or Avios is ‘paying’ for this additional 25%. If you don’t publicise it you’re not really changing behaviour so why?
- The Savage Squirrel says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 10:53
  
  Good question. Lazy coding/IT? Someone dumped in a *1.25 multiplier between x and y dates from a previous promo but didn’t specify only for 2020 or whatever as they thought they’d just remove it at the end of the promo… and then forgot to remove it.
  - Andrew M says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 11:04
    
    It is bizarre. As far as I know they have never had a transfer bonus promotion that started mid month. I made a small test HSBC to Avios transfer on the 2nd of August and it didn’t attract any bonus so it definitely wasn’t working at the start of the month.
Pete says:

21 Aug21 August 11:02

Hi HFPs – DId you miss last months 40% offer?

https://princeoftravel.com/blog/hsbc-rewards-avios-transfer-bonus/
- Andrew M says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 11:06
  
  That’s a Canadian blog. Canada gets these HSBC bonus promotions all the time.
- JD says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 11:13
  
  Was this for UK or just Canada?
  - Andrew M says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 11:15
    
    Canada.
Berni B says:

21 Aug21 August 12:17

Nice bonus
As many airline lounges remain shut (as ‘cost centres’), the LoungeKey on the World Elite is a huge benefit (commercial lounges are open as they are ‘profit centres’).

Much as HFP drones on about how amazing Amex is, no amount of waving your £250 BA Amex will get you into LoungeKey.

After dumping Amex HSBC gives not dissimilar avios with these bonuses, better wider lounge access, a lower fee, a more widely accepted card, and among other things hard to put a price on, a phone line answered by U.K. based employees for whom English is their first language.
- Harry T says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 12:35
  
  They are pretty good on the phone, to be fair. I agreed the product is free nearly good value, especially if using lounge access a lot. Although you obviously need to pay £60 a year for the supplementary card if bringing a companion to the lounge.
- Russ says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 15:51
  
  Interesting. I’d like a card that rewarded cash paying J customers with something other than Keys or Passes we can’t use. My reoccurring moan is having to queue behind droves of economy passengers with Key’s/Passes; each personally needing to be told by the gate dragon why they can’t go in because they’re full.
Andrew M says:

21 Aug21 August 12:42

Is anyone else having trouble logging into their HSBC account right now? I haven’t been able to access it in the app or online for the last hour or so.
- Sam G says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 12:54
  
  I think there are problems – I just got an alert about HSBC not syncing via open banking API
- Doug M says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 13:04
  
  Me too, was checking here to see if there was mention of it.
- Harry T says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 13:42
  
  Yeah, I’m having the same issue.
  - Andrew M says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 13:46
    
    It’s back now, on the app anyway. Panic over.
Tical says:

21 Aug21 August 17:06

Did a large transaction on the 12th (posted on the 14th) – no bonus unfortunately (WE card)
- Rob says:
  
  21 Aug21 August 18:30
  
  Yes, 17th is the earliest we’ve found where the bonus got applied.