2024 was the year where everything went wrong for the HSBC Revolution, with this once-excellent card losing its bonuses for travel agents, hotels, groceries, food delivery, and fast food. And because that wasn’t enough, HSBC also decided toย axe bonuses for all offline transactions, turning the Revolution into an online spending-only card.ย
But hey, there’s still time to flog this dead horse, and with less than three weeks left in the year, HSBC has managed to sneak in one more nerf to the HSBC Revolution’s complimentary travel insurance.
HSBC Revolution ending complimentary travel insurance
Currently, HSBC Revolution Cardholders receive complimentary travel insurance from MSIG when they:
- charge the full fare of their flight, rail or cruise to their card, or
- redeem a flight with airline miles, and use their card to cover the taxes and surcharges
This policy provides coverage of up to S$1,000,000 per person, as summarised in the table below.
| Benefit | Maximum Limit Payable |
|
Accidental Death or Total and Permanent Disablement
|
|
| Emergency Medical Evacuation and Repatriation | S$1,000,000 per person |
| Trip Cancellation | S$3,000 per person (S$6,000 per family) |
| Travel Delay | S$700 per person (S$700 per family) |
| Missed Flight Connection | S$300 per person (S$600 per family) |
| Luggage Delay | S$300 per person (S$600 per family) |
| Loss of Luggage | S$750 per person (S$1,500 per family) |
| FAQs | Policy Wording | |
From 1 April 2025, complimentary travel insurance will no longer be offered. What this means is that even if you used your HSBC Revolution to buy your tickets before this date, you won’t have coverage if your travel takes place from 1 April 2025 onwards.
| โ What happens if your travel straddles this period? |
| If your trip straddles this period, you will receive coverage for any incident that happens up till 31 March 2025. |
That doesn’t seem fair to me. I can understand not extending the coverage to those who transacted after this nerf was announced, but what about those who used their HSBC Revolution before the announcement, because of the expectation of receiving complimentary travel insurance?
In any case, I don’t think this should have been your primary source of travel insurance coverage, because there’s no coverage for overseas medical and dental expenses, hospitalisation allowance, personal liability, or loss of personal belongings- all things I look out for in a travel insurance policy.ย
HSBC Revolution nerfing travel bonuses from January 2025
While the loss of complimentary travel insurance is unwelcome, perhaps it won’t matter soon.ย
We’ve already known since June that from 1 January 2025, the HSBC Revolution will no longer award 10X points (4 mpd) on travel-related transactions, defined as:
| MCC | Examples |
| MCC 3000-3299 MCC 4511 Airlines |
Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Cathay Pacific, Emirates |
| MCC 3300-3499 Car Rental |
Avis, Hertz, Sixt, Europcar |
| MCC 3500-3999 Lodging |
Accor, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt |
| MCC 4411 Cruise Lines |
Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises |
| Reminder: MCC 7011 (used by Airbnb and many hotels) and MCC 4722 (Klook, Pelago, Trip.com and other online & offline travel agents) were already nerfed back on 1 January 2024.ย | |
These transactions will earn 1X points (0.4 mpd) instead, and therefore, there’s little reason why you’d be charging airfares to the HSBC Revolution from January 2025 onwards.
I should also point out that this change will be implemented based on posting date,ย so any travel-related transactions that post by 31 December 2024 will continue to earn 4 mpd, subject to the bonus cap. If you made a travel-related transaction towards the end of December 2024 and it posts from 1 January 2025 onwards, however, you’ll only earn 0.4 mpd!
Conclusion
The HSBC Revolution will no longer offer complimentary travel insurance for trips that take place from 1 April 2025 onwards. If you were counting on this to be your primary source of coverage, you should seriously consider getting an alternative policy to protect yourself.ย
With so many nerfs befalling it this year, I must admit I have something of a morbid fascination to see what happens to the Revolution in 2025.
Stay tuned.
complete junk card now just cancelled mine
After 2025 starts there will still be a way to earn 4 mpd on the Revolution for travel: book using Atome. For airlines, Cathay Pacific has a direct partnership with Atome, as well as Alternative Airlines and Fly Fairly among OTAs. But their prices can be inflated, though the pay-in-3-instalments should be good enough for the cash flow.
As for most people, theyโll likely already be using the DBS WWMC, UOB Ladyโs or even Maybank Horizon Visa Signature for their airline tickets.
Though of course none of those cards have transfer partners beyond KrisFlyer and Asia Miles, so if you really want a wide range of transfer partners, HSBC is still your best bet โ as awful as the Revolution has become now!
Good tip! Though that won’t give you free travel insurance, obviously.
Haven’t used the card for almost a year. Too lazy to cancel unless they start charging fees
This is end game card already.