The Latest Nerf To HSBC Revolution Card May End My Miles Chasing Game

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In mid-June, HSBC released another 'bomb' to HSBC Revolution Card users like myself, which includes:

1)     Starting from 15th July 2024, all contactless payments will no longer be eligible for bonus points.

2)     Starting from January 2025, all travel-related payments will no longer be eligible for bonus points.

Since getting the HSBC Revolution card in 2022, this has been my primary card to accumulate points for my miles game, with the purpose to exchange for a Singapore Airlines Business Class experience for 2 to bring my mum somewhere for a nice vacation in time to come.  Yes I know, it is always simpler to just buy the tickets to travel, but the cheapskate in me finds that paying for Business Class tickets is quite a "lugi" trade, as I can pay for the same journey at a fraction of the cost travelling via budget as I always had.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that my lifestyle have somewhat inflated a little while chasing for miles, and I think I will only play this miles game for one Business Class experience, and thereafter I will just revert back to budget.  While I am still thinking when should I carry out this Business Class travel experience, basically HSBC has it all planned out for me.  With all their policy changes, which includes pooling of points across all HSBC cards and allow free conversion of the points to Krisflyer miles by 31st January 2025, and the termination of eligibility of bonus miles for all travel-related payments using HSBC Revolution card, will expedite my decision-making and probably plan to materialize the Business Class experience in the first half of 2025.

Probably by 2025, I may end up keeping 3 cards, namely DBS Altitude, Citi Premiermiles and HSBC T1 card.  For the first 2 cards, they are kept as it allows me to take advantage of the complementary lounge access for 2 times per year, which is great for my trips with mum.  For HSBC T1 card, it allows me to take advantage of 4 complementary lounge access per year, which is also great for solo travels (but I may cancel it after 1.5 years when annual fee kicks in).  Another benefit of using DBS Altitude and Citi Premiermiles cards are their points have no expiry dates, so I can slowly accumulate the points without any stress or urgency to meet any expiry (provided no nerfs in future).  For now, that should be the plan.

In conclusion, I will probably end the miles chasing game by 1st quarter of 2025.  Thereafter, I any miles I can accumulate will just be considered bonuses, for future possible economy SIA or Scoot tickets.  Hopefully I will be able to materialize my Business Class experience in the first half of 2025 with my mum, to our desired holiday destination!  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

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