News: update on HSBC’s 25% Avios bonus, IHG launches a European hotel sale

News in brief:

An update on HSBC’s 25% Avios transfer bonus

As we covered last month, HSBC has launched its ‘roughly annual’ 25% bonus on conversions of HSBC Premier credit card points to Avios.

The offer runs from 3rd June to 17th July.

The 25% bonus has historically been added instantly, although the T&C say that it can take 14 days. We were a little surprised when readers reported that the bonus was not appearing straight away, but the rules did allow for this.

However, a couple of days ago the 25% bonus did start posting instantly for new transfers.

If you transfer points from HSBC to Avios today, you should get the bonus within minutes.

The big question is what happens to people who transferred between 3rd June and (roughly) 27th June? It is now beyond 14 days for those who jumped in early and no bonus has appeared.

The HSBC call centre has been less than useful, including telling some people that our article was untrue. This is despite the fact that the conversion is promoted via a pop-up in the app.

Hopefully HSBC and/or Avios can get this fixed quickly.

IHG is running a short European sale

IHG has launched a ‘Book Early and Save’ promotion covering its hotels in Europe.

This is a surprisingly long offer – it runs until 12th September and you can book for any date in the future.

The headline offer is 15% off Best Available Rate, albeit sale rates are non-refundable and non-cancellable. In reality, you are probably saving about 5% on the usual Advanced Purchase rate.

You can find out more on this special page of the IHG website.

Remember that you may also have been targetted for an IHG / American Express cashback offer. This is worth £75 back when you spend £300 at participating IHG hotels across Europe by 11th August. You can find out more here.

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IHG One Rewards update – March 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is offering double base points on cash stays until 31st March 2025. This kicks in from your second cash stay during the offer period. Read more in our article here and click here to register.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

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