Get a 75% bonus on IHG transfers from HSBC credit cards – but still a bad deal

IHG One Rewards has launched a 75% bonus when you transfer HSBC Premier credit card points.

Whilst this sounds like a good offer on the face of it, in truth it is still poor.

This is because HSBC Premier has a bizarre 2:1 transfer rate to all of its airline and hotel partners, even though airline miles are typically worth 1p and hotel points are typically worth 0.33p to 0.5p.

Full details of the bonus are on this special page of the IHG website. The offer runs until the end of November.

As a reminder, the HSBC Premier credit cards are tricky to get. You need to sign up for free to HSBC’s Premier current account (£100,000 income or £100,000 in a HSBC investment product required) in order to apply for the free Premier credit card or the paid-for Premier World Elite credit card.

The two HSBC credit cards earn as follows:

The free HSBC Premier card, reviewed here, earns 1 HSBC point per £1 spent, which translates to 0.5 airline miles or hotel points.

The representative APR is 23.9% variable.

The £290 HSBC Premier World Elite card, reviewed here, earns 3 HSBC points per £1 spent, which translates to 1.5 airline miles or hotel points. There is a sign-up bonus of 40,000 HSBC points, worth 20,000 airline miles or hotel points.

The representative APR is 100.2% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 29.9% variable.

Who are the HSBC Premier credit card travel partners?

Here are the HSBC airline transfer partners:

Remember that 2 HSBC points will get you 1 airline mile or 1 hotel point.

Here are the hotel partners:

Are these transfers good value?

Yes. Unlike many credit cards, airline miles are excellent value compared to taking shopping vouchers which is the only other option.

1,500 HSBC points gets you 750 airline miles or £5 of vouchers (Amazon, Costa, M&S, John Lewis, Tesco etc) so you are ‘paying’ just 0.66p per airline mile.

However, the hotel transfer ratios stink.

The exchange rate from HSBC to hotel points is 2:1 – the same rate as used for airline miles. This is shocking value because, using a very broad generalisation, airline miles are worth double what hotel points are worth.

Are IHG transfers a good deal with a 75% bonus?

Not really. This shows how poor the HSBC Premier hotel transfer rates are.

I value an IHG One Rewards point at 0.4p. This means that 2 HSBC points get you 0.4p of IHG One Rewards points.

Let’s add 75% to that because of the current IHG One Rewards transfer bonus.

2 HSBC points now get you (0.4 x 1.75) 0.7p of value, so 0.35p per HSBC point.

This is still noticeably poorer than getting 1 airline mile, which I’d value at 1p, for every 2 HSBC points you transfer.

What we can say is that IHG transfers are now less poor than they were. I would previously have said that anyone who transferred to IHG was going mad. After all, you got 50% more value using your points for shopping vouchers.

With a 75% bonus, you are still getting a poorer deal than redeeming for airline miles but it is just about acceptable.

Conclusion

Just because IHG One Rewards is offering a 75% bonus on HSBC Premier points transfers doesn’t make it a good deal.

However, if you are sitting on a pile of HSBC points and don’t feel the need for any more airline miles at this point then it is worth considering.

Remember that HSBC Premier credit card points have a ‘hard’ three year expiry – ie they expire irrespective of what you spend in the meantime. An IHG transfer may be worth a look if you have points which are about to disappear.

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

You will NOT see details on the HSBC website. If you are nervous about it working, do a small test transfer first. There is no minimum transfer out of HSBC and no minimum transfer into IHG to qualify for the bonus.

The offer closes on 30th November.

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IHG One Rewards update – December 2024:

Get bonus points:

You will earn 3,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay between 19th September and 31st December 2024.

Nights to do not need to be consecutive. Read more in our article here and click here to register.

IHG is running a second promotion for stays at five of its smaller brands. You will receive triple base points between 1st October and 31st December 2024 on stays at voco, avid hotels, EVEN Hotels, Atwell Suites and Garner Hotels. 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.

IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 13th December 2024. Your annual purchase limit is increased to 300,000 points plus the bonus. Click here to buy.

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.