HSBC India has rolled out a new feature called Travel With Points within its mobile app’s Redeem Points Credit Card section. This is similar to HDFC Bank’s 10X Rewards on Smartbuy (or) 12X Rewards on iShop with ICICI Bank’s credit cards.
Unlike other bank’s that tie up with traditional booking engines, HSBC runs this platform with Hopper.
With this new feature, HSBC credit cardholders can now earn and redeem points directly for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Here’s a quick look at the big picture.
Earn Rate
While you can earn accelerated rewards on flights, hotels and even on car rentals across all rewards linked HSBC credit cards, let’s have a look at the key spends like flights & hotels on noteworthy cards like HSBC Premier and HSBC Travel One Credit Cards.
| Card Type | Hotels | Flights |
|---|---|---|
| HSBC Premier | 12X (36%) | 4X (18%) |
| HSBC Travel One | 6X (24%) | 4X (16%) |
- Fulfilment: within 10 days of transaction
With this new feature, HSBC Premier Credit Card is now better than HDFC Infinia & even ICICI Emeralde Private as it not only earns better return on travel bookings, but also comes with no restriction on redemption like 70% on HDFC Bank Credit Cards.
What makes this proposition unbeatable is the ability to transfer points to Accor at a 1:1 ratio, translating into an impressive 72% reward rate on hotel spends with the HSBC Premier Credit Card.
Max Cap
Accelerated points are capped at 18,000 points per calendar month and it translates to something like below:
| Card | Hotels | Flights |
|---|---|---|
| HSBC Premier | 50,000 INR | 100,000 INR |
| HSBC Travel One | 75,000 INR | 112,500 INR |
Additional Benefits
On top of these, we also get additional benefits like Best price guarantee, price drop protection, etc available as an add-on while booking.
Price Drop Protection is going to be quite useful with select brands like Taj which lately drops the price in the last minute if occupancy goes low.
Given that Hopper is known for finding better deals, I guess the frequent rate difference issue on other platforms like HDFC Smartbuy would be sorted.
Bottom line
With the introduction of accelerated rewards on HSBC Credit Cards, we’re now spoilt for choice when it comes to earning accelerated rewards on travel spends. Yet, HSBC’s Travel with Points is the superior one among.
While the HSBC Premier Credit Card is the clear winner, it comes with significant eligibility requirements. The said, for most premium cardholders, the HSBC Travel One Credit Card will likely be the best travel card for the rest of 2025 and hopefully beyond as well.
It’s there. I can see while looking for flights. Intact in my last international booking which was done last month, I got both price guarantee credit and price drop protection credit in my wallet. Which is awesome on HSBC part.
Did they just remove price drop protection? I don’t see it on the travel with rewards website anymore.
Got the Travel One card recently and booked 3 hotels, though price was slightly higher, not much to worry about. Called for price match and was refunded the amount in wallet immediately. loved this service.
For flight i have seen the price to be slightly higher but not much to worry about in most cases as you are anyway covered under price match guarantee and get accelerated points. Prices on Smartbuy are Best. The current promotion of 50% accor points had increased the reward rate on HSBC Travel One to whopping 72%.
I took the card and now after doing some research on the hopper portal. I see the below concerns –
– the prices of hotel / flight is much higher than the infinia portal. Completely defeats the purpose of reward multiplier if I end up paying more money for the revenue booking
– the cancelation is only applicable for flex fares and the saver / lower fares
– you can’t book different airplane for the to and fro journey
– the portal doesn’t show all flight options. It has restrictions on categories.
Happy to hear thoughts from other folks in this community.
How to communicate the price difference with HSBC customer care? On the email, they are saying we have to go through chat or phone support. on phone support, they dont even know the policy of price difference adjustment. How do we escalate?
How to book flights for maximum reward points as I am having HSBC premier card do they have any specific portal ?
HI, How about converting 1RP to 5 Shangri-La points?
Travel one reward points are not worth it. To use it on the portal 1rp = .31 rupee which effectively makes the 16% to 4.9% approx and paying 6k joining fee is not worth it for this cashback rate.
Does one earn separate base points and separate Accelerated Points like how Smartbuy is 1x+4x bonus in case of flights and there is a cap only on the bonus points. E.g. if i book a flight for 1,00,000 – then does one earn 3000 base points and additional accelerated 18000 points i.e. total 21000 points ?? Is this understanding correct – if not please guide.
Does HSBC’s booking platform show more fare types (ex Flexi for Indigo). Or does it offer only the base fares? That would also be a step up from Smartbuy
It does show multiple fares for Air India but not for Indigo (shows only ‘Regular’ fare).
Regular Fare = Saver Fare or Flexi Plus Fare on Indigo?
Do travel one point expire?
I swiped the card on 25th, no points have been awarded yet, Usually how many days it takes to reflect in app? Or we have to wait till statement generation date. Thanks.
when I click the Redeem Rewards it asks me to go to 3rd party website. On Yes, it takes me to a new page but the page gives error – You are currently logged out. Pls re login. But nothing happens despite relogging. Any idea what to do ? Cust support is hopeless, they are not even aware of the travel portal itself.
Re-installing app might fix, happened to me previously. Don’t forget to unlink the device upfront.
I faced the same issue, uninstalled and re-installed the app but didnt help . Any other known workarounds to recover ?
@Sam Were you able to resolve it, if so how ? Customer support is clueless. Any inputs would be greatly appreciated .
I want to make a booking using the app but unable to.
Hi @Abhisek @Sam,
Is the issue fixed, i got my card and i am seeing this issue? What steps worked for you?
The issue was resolved for me after about 2 weeks , I had to do multiple follow ups and the customer service was poor, most of them had no idea about it.
Please raise a case with HSBC customer support on chat or on call and ask for a service number , request them to do account maintainence ( atleast thats what they call it internally in HSBC).
Have you tried to uninstall the HSBC app and reinstalled again to see if it helps- before you install ensure to unlink the device first .
How can I claim 4x and 6x reward points. Do need to book through hopper or I can book through normal aggrigator.
You’ll have to go via HSBC App that takes you to the booking portal.
Is the “Cancel For Any Reason” feature applicable for the Premier credit card too?
Yes, I can see the option for hotels on Premier Card. Asks for +1K for a 9K booking on a quick check.
Introduce vouchers please then this card will be a block buster
That might not happen if HSBC knows what happens with vouchers business lately.
What’s happening with vouchers business?
Economics no longer works on popular vouchers and so the convenience fees kicks in, eventually making it pointless for most. So it’s better to avoid them to keep things simple.
Even the customer service should know about these kind of offers before they are introduced to the customer.
So that they can help the customer as the first point of contact for the customers is contact center and they dont know about the offers till we help them with websites or the link details. Kindly improvise this first.
Although reward acceleration is a welcome move, I observed anomalies within the booking UI. Lets say you’re doing a BOM-DEL-BOM sector and you select Air India on the BOM-DEL sector, it is forcing you to choose Air India on the DEL-BOM sector. This is a huge restriction as we must have the liberty to choose the airline on any sector for pricing, timing and other factors.
Spoke to the HSBC customer care and got the same (painful) experience. It is an unfortunate double whammy of ignorance and arrogance.
If it persists, it will ultimately deter making bookings from this. SMARTBUY will continue as a superior functional and value choice in the interim.
What is the eligibility of hsbc premier card?
Does tax payment earns points?
On HSBC Premier Credit Card?
Yes, upto 1L a month.