Amex Membership Rewards points devaluation in Hong Kong

[mdzs]

Received the following email from Amex Hong Kong on 21 September. Membership points are essentially going to be devalued when transferring to airline programs (will become 18:1 instead of the current 15:1). Is this going to be rolled out globally, or is it a local thing?

“Beginning December 1, 2023(“Effective Date”), the conversion rate for American ExpressMembership Rewards points to participating Frequent Flyer Program will become 18,000 points to 1,000 Air Miles, with the minimum redemption of 18,000 Membership Rewards points per conversion, applicable to the Cards listed above. Membership Rewards Terms and Conditions apply and can be found at go.amex/en-terms. 

The above amendments will take effect on the Effective Date and will be binding on you. If you do not accept the amendments, please cancel the Card before the Effective Date in accordance with your right provided in the Cardmember Agreement.


Notice to Cardmembers of American Express Personal Cards About Access to Credit Data
American Express is dedicated to providing the best services to our valued Cardmembers. We recognize that our Cardmember’s financial position may have changed over time, and we will continue our efforts to identify the services that best meet individual Cardmember’s needs. To do this, every month throughout the next 12 months, we will access your credit data with the credit reference agencies. We will do this for the purpose of performing an ongoing credit review for perspective on but not limited to: increasing the credit amount, cancelling credit, or decreasing the available credit amount, and/or rescheduling or modifying the payment terms of your account(s).


We’re here for you
Rest assured we will strive to continue providing you with an excellent Cardmember experience. If you have any questions, or need assistance, please call the number on the back of your Card.”

[John]

The credit card market (and retail finance in general) in HK is very different to anywhere else and far more lucrative than the UK.

As you know, it’s not as simple as £1 = 1 mile like in the UK, even after this devaluation the HK cards are still reasonably good, although you always needed to have the appetite to do the calculations as there are so many different promotions from all the banks.

I’m sure Amex UK is considering or has considered devaluing MR to £1 to 0.8 miles.

[mdzs]

Thanks for the reply. I am still learning about the Hong Kong credit card market. It seems a lot of deals appear good at first, but when you do the sums, the actual amounts of miles you get are pretty mediocre. Whereas in the UK, credit card deals (like Amex) usually genuinely give chunky sign up bonuses. In Hong Kong, the bonuses are smaller in size and you need to play the complicated game, which I dread, of spending with different cards for different types of expenditure. For example, one card only gives decent mileage rates for grocery, another one only for dining out, another one for online purchases. It is such a waste of time and energy for the size of reward.

If you have any good recommendations, do give us a shout! Thanks.