HSBC offering up to 50% transfer bonus to Accor, Flying Blue, Qatar Privilege Club and more

HSBC now offers a staggering 21 airline and hotel transfer partners, and with points pooling, instant conversions, small conversion blocks and a waiver of conversion fees till January 2025, I’d say these are arguably the best rewards points in Singapore. 

There’s another reason to cheer now, because the bank has just launched a series of transfer bonuses for August 2024, which offer up to a 50% bonus on points transfers to six loyalty programmes including Accor Live Limitless, Flying Blue and Qatar Airways Privilege Club. 

While not every programme is attractive even with the bonus, there’s some options here worth mulling over.

HSBC offering up to 50% transfer bonus

From 1-31 August 2024, HSBC cardholders can transfer their rewards points to the following six programmes with up to a 50% bonus.

• Accor Live Limitless & IHG One Rewards: 50% bonus
• JAL Mileage Bank & Qantas Frequent Flyer: 30% bonus
• Flying Blue & Qatar Airways Privilege Club: 20% bonus

All conversions must be made via the HSBC Singapore app. 

Here’s what the conversion ratios look like for these partners, after the bonus is applied.

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC : Partner)
	50,000 : 10,000 50,000 : 13,000 +30%
	35,000 : 10,000 35,000 : 12,000 +20%
	25,000 : 10,000 25,000 : 12,000 +20%
	25,000 : 10,000 25,000 : 13,000 +30%
	25,000 : 5,000 25,000 : 7,500 +50%
	25,000 : 10,000 25,000 : 15,000 +50%

Do note that the HSBC app will only show the regular transfer ratio, and not the bonus component. You’ll just have to take it on faith that the bonus component will show up. For what it’s worth, this offer appears on the HSBC website, so it’s safe to say it’s not targeted. 

Here’s a few more key points to note:

• There is no cap on the maximum number of bonus miles/points you can receive 
• You will need to transfer a minimum of 10,000 miles/points (5,000 points in the case of ALL), but subsequently the minimum block decreases to just 2 miles/points (1 point in the case of ALL)
• Transfers should be processed instantly for all programmes except Club Vistara, Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings and JAL Mileage Bank
• Transfer fees continue to be waived till at least 31 January 2025

Terms & Conditions

The T&Cs for this offer can be found here.

Which partners are worth it?

With six partners offering bonuses, which ones should you choose?

You should not be transferring points to Qatar Privilege Club, not because the programme is bad, but because the baseline ratio is terrible. HSBC points transfer to Qatar Airways Avios at a 3.5:1 ratio, which is 40% higher than the 2.5:1 ratio for British Airways Avios.

Since you can convert British Airways Avios to Qatar Airways Avios at a 1:1 ratio, you’d have to be insane to opt for the Qatar option, even with a 20% bonus. 

You should also not be transferring points to IHG One Rewards. I value 1 IHG One point at 0.5 US cents, which means you’re trading 25,000 points for US$75 (S$100). But those 25,000 points could have become 10,000 KrisFlyer miles, and unless you value 1 mile at less than S$0.01, this is a poor option to take.

While JAL Mileage Bank has some sweet spots, the problem is that the baseline ratio is so incredibly unattractive at 5:1. Even a 30% bonus can’t salvage this, so it’s a hard pass. 

By my own admission, I’m not much of an expert on Qantas Frequent Flyer. But based on what I’m reading online, I don’t think the programme would be that useful to someone based in Singapore. 

Accor Live Limitless is a straightforward programme to analyse, because points have a fixed value of 2,000 points = €40 (or S$0.029 per point). 

Therefore, with a 30% transfer bonus, you’re trading 25,000 points for S$216, which works out to an opportunity cost of 2.16 cents per KrisFlyer mile. It’s not too bad, and I could justify going for this, assuming you’re into the whole ALL ecosystem already.

That leaves us with Flying Blue. I’ve long ignored this programme, but in recent times have been warming to it. While it’s true that there’s no award chart and prices can sometimes be insane, you’ll occasionally find good deals too. 

My most recent success was a pair of Etihad Airways Business Class tickets to Madrid and back, which cost 181,000 miles + US$410 per person. Even with the fuel surcharges, I think that’s a decent price considering that KrisFlyer would have cost 206,000 miles (and then I’d still need to book a separate ticket on to Madrid).

If you’re lucky, you can sometimes find 70,000-75,000 miles Business Class awards from Singapore to Amsterdam and Paris on Air France or KLM, or 20,000 miles Business Class awards to Bali. Other suggestions include:

• China Airlines
  • Singapore <> Taipei (Economy): 14,500 miles
  • Singapore <> Taipei (Business): 28,500 miles
• Korean Air
  • Singapore <> Seoul (Economy): 24,000 miles
  • Singapore <> Seoul (Business): 59,500 miles

It’s hard to generalise what you’ll find with Flying Blue because the prices are all over the place, so I’d highly recommend searching first, then transferring points when you find something you’d like to book. HSBC points transfer instantly to Flying Blue anyway. 

Full list of HSBC transfer partners

Here’s a reminder of HSBC’s full list of 21 transfer partners, with their regular conversion ratios. 

✈️ HSBC TravelOne Airline Partners
Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC : Partner)
	50,000 : 10,000
	40,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	35,000 : 10,000
	30,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000

🏨 HSBC TravelOne Hotel Partners
Hotel Programme	Conversion Ratio (HSBC : Partner)
	30,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 5,000
	25,000 : 10,000
	25,000 : 10,000

It’s just unfortunate that the ratios differ between partners, because it nerfs the value of some otherwise excellent options (such as Aeroplan). 

I’m not going to say you should never transfer points to a programme without a 25,000 : 10,000 ratio, but I will say the use cases would be very limited and niche. In that sense, the number of “useful” transfer partners HSBC has might number just eight or fewer (I don’t count airasia rewards because it’s more like a rebates programme) – and of those I’d only consider using Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club, Asia Miles, EVA Infinity MileageLands, KrisFlyer, and maybe Eithad. 

Conclusion

HSBC cardholders can now enjoy a transfer bonus of up to 50% when they convert points to six different airline and hotel loyalty programmes, up till 31 August 2024.

I personally am tempted by the Accor Live Limitless option (if only ALL were running a concurrent transfer bonus, wouldn’t that be sweet), though Flying Blue can also make sense if you spot a sub-100K Business Class award between Singapore and Europe. 

(HT: Suitesmile)