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I’m currently an HSBC Premier customer but I’ve slowly come to the realisation that my HSBC Premier credit card isn’t a great card.
Having compared the two cards in question, I’m torn between the huge 80000 points signup bonus that comes with the HSBC Premier World Elite or the better conversion rate of 1.5 Avios for every pound spent (HSBC earns 2 points for every pound spent, but convert this to Avios and it’s basically 1:1).
I think it comes down to whether using the upgrade voucher vs free lounge access or how much you pay in annual fees. Has anyone enjoyed these benefits before and would you prefer one over the other? Thanks in advance.
I held an HSBC Premier WE in the past and was great value when lounges were more accessible compared to these days. We were also travelling a lot. I was not into collecting avios/points back then and I still regret that I only discovered this post 2021. The card comes with other perks which we also used in the past.
The BA card gives you 4 free dragonpass+ vouchers to use in lounges, it depends on how many ppl you travel with and also if you are using predominantly BA for flights.
@Kyo where did you see the 80k SUB for HSBC WE? The site only says 40k for me.
It’s 80k (40 + 40 at 12 months on spending >£12k):
Welcome reward points
Receive 40,000 reward points when you spend11 view footnote 1 £2,000 on your card in the first 90 days of card membership.Anniversary reward points
Spend £12,000 or more on your card within your first 12 months of membership to receive a further 40,000 reward points at the anniversary22 view footnote 2 of card membership.@Kyo where did you see the 80k SUB for HSBC WE? The site only says 40k for me.
iamlost, what memesweeper said above.
I held an HSBC Premier WE in the past and was great value when lounges were more accessible compared to these days. We were also travelling a lot. I was not into collecting avios/points back then and I still regret that I only discovered this post 2021. The card comes with other perks which we also used in the past.
The BA card gives you 4 free dragonpass+ vouchers to use in lounges, it depends on how many ppl you travel with and also if you are using predominantly BA for flights.
thanks PIL. At the moment, it’s just me and the wife. The upgrade voucher that comes with a flight sounds more attractive in my situation as I could use it with the wife on 2 single flights.
The biggest painpoint with hsbc is no lounge access for guests. You can get add on card for spouse (by paying more), but kids won’t, so you have to pay cash at lounge.
Seriously hsbc, do you think premier account holders don’t have families? If you think they are rich enough to pay for kids, why offer lounge access at all?
I like other benefits like travel insurance, multiple redemption partners etc.The biggest painpoint with hsbc is no lounge access for guests. You can get add on card for spouse (by paying more), but kids won’t, so you have to pay cash at lounge.
Seriously hsbc, do you think premier account holders don’t have families? If you think they are rich enough to pay for kids, why offer lounge access at all?
I like other benefits like travel insurance, multiple redemption partners etc.With HSBC, the insurance comes with the free Premier account, you don’t need a credit card. Re lounge access, the reality is that this benefit has been so devalued (for all providers) as lounges get overcrowded and provide correspondingly lower quality offerings that it should be discounted from evaluation of the card.
Re lounge access, the reality is that this benefit has been so devalued (for all providers) as lounges get overcrowded and provide correspondingly lower quality offerings that it should be discounted from evaluation of the card.
Outside uk, lounge access is reasonable. Hardly been refused, especially in Asia.
Even within uk, the option to register online by paying £5 works for some lounges. Better than nothing.I also value the lounge pass at nothing.
However, I’ve got a Barclays Avios upgrade voucher and that’s completely useless too. Well, at least useless for short haul and BA fees for long haul are still ridiculous.
The real attraction for me of the Hsbc card is the fact you can convert your points into multiple currencies other than Avios. I value KrisFlyer highly, for example.
I’m about to cancel mine. I don’t have use for the transfer partners currently, the lounge access is useless in Europe/US in my experience (even paying the £6 I couldn’t get in the T5 one!). I’ll just be using the free Barclaycard instead I think
I had it before when living in Asia and it was very useful there as lounge access was almost always available and quite a few local airlines accepted the iPass roaming for in-flight wifi
One minor benefit is that HSBC lounge access is via Lounge Key which means you get access to airport restaurants which Amex-issued Priority Passes no longer do.
@Rob
That’s interesting about use of airport restaurants. Thought only allowed GS at LGW. That’s really useful for us hopping back and forth LGW to Dublin on FR cheapo fares, with lounge refusal. They’re happy to run the card through a couple of times.
Where would l find a list of those restaurants? Intra Asia we use it well too. Never refused entry over there.One minor benefit is that HSBC lounge access is via Lounge Key which means you get access to airport restaurants which Amex-issued Priority Passes no longer do.
Would be great to see a review of Lounge Key – differences with PP, the banks who offer it and the cost.
I have held the HSBC Premier WE for few years, including two fee free because of Covid. Will downgrade a month before the fee is next to re-new to the free card, to then upgrade again after a while if bonus available. The reason for not cancelling it is that in my experience HSBC is conservative with assigning limits when you open a card account, even if you held a card with them previously with larger limits so I do not want to loose the nice limit I have now.
I am sure you know that the HSBC point to Avios conversion is 2:1, so I. Reality you are getting 20,000 Avios per year. I believe that if you are new to Barclaycard you get 25,000.
I have used my LoungeKey access only few times, often as a fifth entry for one of my child (other 4 via Amex Platinum PP), but some lounges are stricter and won’t allow you to do that, so cannot rely on that going forward.
Because of the 100,000 Avios promo both i and my wife have product swapped existing Barclaycard to the Avios Plus card, with the idea of only keeping it for 4 months and downgrading it to the free version. For both of us, the HSBC and now Barclaycard Avios earning cards are back up to our Amex BAPP. The Barclaycard Voucher is not as good as the Amex version and thus I rather pay the fee for that and maximise spend on it.
So back to the OP question, your calculation needs to consider annual spent on those cards and if your annual spend plus sign up bonus means that you are better off with one of either card, at least for the first two years.
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