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News: HSBC Premier to Avios transfer bonus coming?, Hilton’s Japan / Hong Kong flash sale

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News in brief:

New HSBC to Avios transfer bonus coming?

We may be about to see a new transfer bonus between HSBC Premier credit cards and British Airways Executive Club.

A HfP reader, ZW, found a PDF on the HSBC website.

It shows a 25% bonus on transfers made between 1st December and 31st December.

This could obviously change between now and Sunday, however, so don’t rush out to make a transfer until you’ve seen the offer on the HSBC Premier website.

PS.  Our recent article on the top 10 reasons why you should get the HSBC Premier World Elite credit card is here.

Excellent Hilton ‘50% off’ flash sale for Japan and Hong Kong

Hilton has launched a short flash sale covering its hotels in Japan, Korea, Guam & Hong Kong.

There are some VERY good deals here, particularly for Japan.  I saw in the comments yesterday that a few readers had snapped up a bargain.  Some hotels are only discounting executive rooms or suites, but in these cases it is still worth a look as the prices are often down to the level of the undiscounted standard rooms.

The sale ends at 5am GMT on Friday.  This means, effectively, you need to book before you go to bed tonight, Thursday.

The standard discount is 40% with an additional 10% for logged-in Hilton Honors members.  However, you don’t genuinely get 50% off because the discount is based on the refundable rate.  These sales rates are non-refundable.   You should, however, be saving at least 33% on the usual non-refundable rate.

Stays must be completed by 30th June.

You can find out more on this page of the Hilton website here.   You must book today.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, Hilton Honors, HSBC Premier Mastercard

Comments (135)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • BJ says:
    28 Nov28 November 09:08

    OT amex esso offer: don’t forget to present nectar cards, 4 points/£ at the moment so an extra £1-2 return on a £50 fuel purchase.

    • Shoestring says:
      28 Nov28 November 09:20

      are you going to stay at an Esso *Hotel* then? (see T&Cs)

      Chat agreed that must be a mistake & have referred to Marketing – however, as things stand, the list of participating outlets is very limited (half of them in the middle of nowhere in Scotland if that’s not a tautology) and it does say ‘hotels’

      • BJ says:
        28 Nov28 November 09:35

        Middle of nowhere suits me just fine this weekend so long as we don’t run out of gas before getting there. Just thinking @Alan must be fuming missing all these PFS offers since getting his new duracell-powered toy but being a HFPer he’s probably running it on amazon basics 🙂

    • Harry T says:
      28 Nov28 November 13:53

      Do they sell gift cards for anything useful, @BJ? Not been to an Esso in a long time.

      Thanks for the heads up on Nectar!

  • BJ says:
    28 Nov28 November 10:03

    OT: BA CW meal choices continue to be woeful. Over Christmas choice is turkey, beef or cheese pasta slop. No fish, no Asian meals on a flight to Asia. Wish BA would do something about this, don’t see why the cannot offer a large menu for pre-booked meals. Even budget carriers like Air Asia can offer 3 or 4 times as many choices.

    • TripRep says:
      28 Nov28 November 10:53

      Didn’t get a choice on our Club Europe connection yesterday as they had run out half way through the CE cabin.

      FSM was really good, did give a genuine apology and suggested we lodge formal complaint.

      Is it worth the effort apart from BA CS giving out insincere worthless apologies? I am likely to get any recompense for the time and energy?

      • meta says:
        28 Nov28 November 11:04

        Last time this happened to me on a flight from Madrid CSM offered me anything and as much as I want from M&S menu for free.

      • Anna says:
        28 Nov28 November 11:09

        We got 5000 avios when they didn’t have time to serve my OH anything at all.
        B J – you are seriously risking a burnt breakfast 😂

        • BJ says:
          28 Nov28 November 11:28

          I can hear it now…”Good morning Sir, Merry Christmas, tea, coffee, well-fired toast, brown or black?”

        • TripRep says:
          28 Nov28 November 12:42

          Hi Anna, thanks for that.

          Currently on board in CW pretake off and this flight is also short on food choices, specifically for the starter. Crew blaming caterers this time. Thankfully at least our pre ordered main courses are onboard.

          I feel multiple complaints are required, hoping to more than a stock email template reply for each.

      • Liz says:
        28 Nov28 November 20:59

        We got 2 x 3000 Avios last year when there was only one choice of breakfast left and not the one we wanted. Complaint was rejected initially but i went back with a counter claim so worth a ahot.

    • Lady London says:
      28 Nov28 November 12:42

      Good idea BJ. Would cost BA nothing to expand thé range of options from the supplier for pre-orders. Would being BZ up to standard of Austrian Airlines, Norwegian etc. In their search for cheapness BA would be surprises what passengers would be prepared to pay to order better good from a nice selection especially from DoCoMo.

      • BJ says:
        28 Nov28 November 12:55

        Should be easy, SQ have had BTC forever. I’m not a great fan of SQ food either but I’d trade it for BA any day.

        • Dev says:
          28 Nov28 November 18:07

          On my recent flights to and from Dubai on the A350-1000 with Club Suites (coincidentally the first delivered aircraft G-XWBA outbound and the second G-XWBB return), the choices to pre-order for the outbound flight were dire. The very same choices were offered on board.

          So I reluctantly chose the beef, which is often bad on flights, but to my immense surprise and satisfaction, it was delicious.

          Another observation I made was that the service started from the first row and the last row in Club World at the same time. As I had selected seat 9K to have two windows to look out from, I ended up being served the main course almost 3 hours after take off, whilst also being the last to be served in the entire cabin.

          The afternoon tea served as the pre-arrival meal was served in a similar order, such that I was served after we had commenced descent into Dubai. That was the fastest I have ever eaten anything. 😊

          There was no pre-order available for the return flight and service was random. Had seat 9K again, was the first to be served a snack after take off (it was after 2 AM), appeared to have been randomly selected to be served first. Nothing to do with the late hour as a large number of passengers also decided to partake in the offered snacks. Breakfast service was also random, not by row numbers front to back or vice versa or both.

          So for those who would like to have the dual window seats in row 9 (and row 10), watch out for the possibility of being served last or first!

    • Nick_C says:
      29 Nov29 November 18:33

      Really enjoyed the salmon tartare and seabass on the way to HKG on Tuesday. But had the middle pair of seats and no attempt to serve my OH and myself at the same time.

      Breakfast served very late. Didn’t have time to finish it before landing.

      Also, why do BA cut off pre orders so early? I completely forgot about pre ordering until OLCI, and then it was too late. Surely they could take pre orders up to about 4 hours before the flight?

  • Martha says:
    28 Nov28 November 11:04

    Heathrow Rewards,
    I applied some some ago but never used the 3000 points bonus fro £150 spend. Is that still possible? or any other offers on HR?

    • Martha says:
      28 Nov28 November 11:08

      To clarify, I joined HR in 2018. Thanks

    • Rob says:
      28 Nov28 November 11:28

      Opena new account and sign up for the 2019 version of the 3000 points offer (if you signed up this year it should still be valid). Search HFP for the code.

      • Martha says:
        28 Nov28 November 12:27

        Thanks.
        Do I need new details? email etc?

        • BJ says:
          28 Nov28 November 13:04

          You cannot have 2 accounts at the same address. However, if you add a , or a . Someplace in the address for the second account that takes care of that issue. I usually email them and request account cancellation as I am no longer using it. Usually get an email confirming account closure in 24-48h. I then just open a new account with same details as I think it’s better than having multiple accounts. You might not have time to do this though if you are flying soon.

      • Spurs Debs says:
        28 Nov28 November 14:47

        It was valid for me I spent enough to trigger the 3000 points and a 500 extra from another promotion this was on 11/11. I had to email in receipt to HR customer service email sent at 7am points in my account by lunchtime.

  • Shoestring says:
    28 Nov28 November 11:12

    £1000 book of vouchers & the success email from Amex.

    What’s all the fuss about, you people? 🙂

    • N says:
      28 Nov28 November 11:47

      Not all of us have the cashflow to do this!

      Do M sell John Lewis vouchers?

      • Shoestring says:
        28 Nov28 November 11:58

        Yes they do. Plenty of every giftcard in my M’s. Unfortunately we get through a lot of diesel so it’s only bringing forward a ‘necessary’ purchase by a couple of months.

        Anyway, one of the deputy mgrs was slightly reluctant to help get the transaction through the till – the plastic card replacing the paper vouchers is immediately imminent – but as the big guy himself had brought over the book of £1000, they put it through for me.

        So – no more paper vouchers or change coming right up.

        • Sal says:
          28 Nov28 November 12:23

          What are these vouchers about?

          • BJ says:
            28 Nov28 November 12:31

            Diesel, petrol but it might be game over soon, or game not quite as good as before. Buy Morrisons own paper vouchers with amex offer then you use them to pay at PFS, can get change back from the vouchers when paying with them too.

        • Polly says:
          28 Nov28 November 13:11

          On our way bk from sin, lovely qr a350 via arn now, so hping to biy a pile of paper ones in ours and Waitrose g c. But they will cause a fuss l know. Don’t want red flags as l pop in there most days. Plastic card am ok with, as hope they will let us top up w amex…

          • BJ says:
            28 Nov28 November 13:27

            I’m hoping that Morrisons are the smallest of the major supermarkets they may leave some doors open to us.

          • Alex M says:
            28 Nov28 November 18:00

            plastic gift cards can be bought through self-service tills eliminating need to explain to the store staff why you need £1000 worth of GC – just put something relatively heavy on the scale (like Mars bar) to register the purchase.

        • The Streets says:
          28 Nov28 November 22:54

          I’ve got my mars bar throwing at the self service checkouts down to a technique

    • Harry T says:
      28 Nov28 November 13:51

      My local Morrison’s doesn’t care how many vouchers I want to buy in one go – though the most I’ve graced in one go is £300. They had to go and get the book.

      They also run JL gift cards through as separate transactions for me and laugh at how stupid it is.

      Other branches locally have been obliging, though one wasn’t sure they took Amex! I soon showed them they did.

      Love my friendly Northern Morrison’s staff.

      • BJ says:
        28 Nov28 November 14:36

        In mine they are always running around looking for an envelope to put them in for me, had a free pack of envelopes already. Always find staff in Morrisons friendly too; gives the impression they might be a better company to work for than the other supermarkets.

      • Fred says:
        28 Nov28 November 16:13

        May I ask, but what is the relevance of putting ‘JL gift cards through as separate transactions’ ?

        • Shoestring says:
          28 Nov28 November 16:27

          save 10%/ till won’t take more than £50 at a time sometimes (maybe to do with card activation?)

          • Fred says:
            28 Nov28 November 16:32

            obvious follow-up question incoming! how does one save 10% on a single purchase JL gift card ?

          • Shoestring says:
            28 Nov28 November 17:08

            @Fred check your Amex Offers online/ not everybody gets 10%

        • Doug M says:
          28 Nov28 November 17:21

          Fred – At various times, on and off, and on different cards for different people, but almost continually for the last 3 or 4 months there’s been an Amex cash back offer for Morrisons. Often it’s 10%, and it doesn’t exclude gift cards. Many buy M’s own vouchers to use on fuel. But they also sell gift cards for JLP, Amazon, M&S, B&Q, Argos and many others. Unless there’s been a change B&Q don’t take Amex, so this way you can use Amex for B&Q and save 10%. If you have the money, and time to overcome the various issues with multiple git card purchases, it’s easy to make £200+. I don’t have easy access to an M petrol station, and spend to little on fuel to care anyway, so don’t bother with M’s own vouchers. But I buy lots of JLP, M&S and Amazon gift cards for general shopping in the next few months.

          • Shoestring says:
            28 Nov28 November 17:29

            yep Amazon: definitely worth having a chunky credit balance (unless you are tight on cashflow) – then everything you buy for the next year comes with a further 10% discount

          • Fred says:
            28 Nov28 November 17:53

            Thanks all – but it was the ‘one card per transaction’ that confused me. I have recently bought 6 x £25 JL gift cards in one transaction (and received the Amex M 10% cb) with no issue, so your idea of purchasing them one at a time naturally confused me.

            So…I’m still confused as to why ‘JL gift cards through as separate transactions’ was deemed necessary – as there is no issue with multiple gf being purchased in one transaction.

          • Steve-B says:
            28 Nov28 November 18:24

            @Fred, you were lucky, every M I have been too has a max £50 per transaction on JL gift cards (and I have bought quite a few…).

          • sloth says:
            28 Nov28 November 20:37

            interesting that Fred is saying he put through 6x£25 JL GC’s whereas i got blocked on more than 1 £50 JL gc. perhaps its the £50’s that get blocked in more than 1 per transaction but the £25’s in multiples dont get blocked!

          • Simon says:
            28 Nov28 November 21:57

            I find I am able to put £75 JL gift vouchers through each transaction and keep the total transaction (including e.g. Amazon gift vouchers) to below £200 because I have run into problems with transactions exceeding this amount. I chuck a glove or my keys onto the self service scale to help it register the gift card.

        • The Streets says:
          28 Nov28 November 22:58

          You can buy multiple £25 without any issues. £50 can only be done one at a time for JLP

    • Doug M says:
      28 Nov28 November 16:27

      Nice one, got to milk these offers to pay the card fees. I’m just back from my local M with £200 JLP and £200 Amazon. Now having to extract the numbers from 10 x £20 Amazon vouchers, quite the pain. The 4 x £50 JLP vouchers had to be done in 4 transactions. The people in the queue were very very happy with me.

      • EwanG says:
        28 Nov28 November 16:51

        Indeed, been there with the happy people queuing, giving the staff grief – totally uncalled for, and I agree with others that the M staff are great, so for the past couple of years I have done the majority of big shops there.
        To my surprise last week I cam across £100 Amazon cards at my local store, so less faff there!

      • John says:
        28 Nov28 November 17:12

        Mine has £100, £50, £30, £25, £20, £15 and £10. I have been getting two £100s most days since the offer started, and seem to be the only person buying them. When I exhaust all the £100s they usually replace them before I need to start getting £50s….

  • Grant says:
    28 Nov28 November 12:32

    OT – Email to say direct debit feature is now live on Revolut

    • Roy says:
      28 Nov28 November 19:50

      Yup. That’s GBP direct debits, BTW – they’ve had SEPA (EUR) direct debits for a while…

  • BJ says:
    28 Nov28 November 13:24

    OT: To date I have used Curved linked to Virgin card. Plan to use it now with Barclaycard Hilton. Ok for UK atm withdrawals and adding to my savings at the government bank?

  • Anon says:
    28 Nov28 November 13:32

    OT – what to do with SA Airlink flights? Are these worthless for points accrual anywhere else but SA’s own programme?

  • S says:
    28 Nov28 November 15:44

    OT: Is there any bonus for upgrading Amex Business Gold to Business Platinum?

    Just started my software consultancy business (decided to roll as an independent) and was wondering as I’m ineligible for the sign-up bonus on the Plat (as I hold a MR earning card that I’m not willing to cancel)

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