For those of us who can take advantage of credit card bonuses in America, we are very fortunate. Other countries have much lower bonuses or higher spending requirements. There are even those that require higher salaries (like this card that requires a minimum $120,000 per year).
A 180,000 Membership Reward Point Offer – but for Hong Kong
But, no issuer probably has the most variation in credit card offers by country than the American Express cards. Some countries have tiny bonuses while other countries have huge bonuses. Like Hong Kong – they have the American Express Business Gold card with an offer of 180,000 Membership Reward points on the Business Gold card. That is 105,000 more MR points than we are offered with the really good deals.
Pretty nice sign-up bonus – 180,000 Membership Reward points!
Who wouldn’t want that many points! Membership Reward points may not possess the same value they once did, but any of us could easily extract at least $2,500 out of such an offer.
But, I Want 1:1 Transfer Ratio Also!
Except, Hong Kong gets the points but they have a terrible transfer ratio. Their transfer ratio is 15 Membership Reward points for 1 air mile! So, if we were to transfer that sign-up bonus and transfer ratio over to our Membership Rewards program, it would mean the sign-up bonus is only worth 12,000 points!
Yes, I want it all – I want the huge sign-up bonuses like this 180,000 point offer and the transfer ratios we have now of 1:1. In fact, throw in the transfer bonuses we see from time to time as well. 🙂 Can you imagine if that were the case with a 40% Avios bonus? That would translate to 56 short-haul oneway trips on Oneworld Alliance partners (like American Airlines).
But, since we can’t have it all, I will take the bonuses we get over what Hong Kong has. Oh, also, the annual fee on that card is HK$980 (about $126) and those bonus points can be exchanged for HK$1000 (about $129). So, we do have the better bonus!
Now, if only we could get their referral bonuses as well…
180,000 Point referral bonus?! Yes, please!!!
You can’t really compare apples and oranges. Hong Kong has a different government and way of life compared to the USA.
First off, 1 USD = 7.75HKD. Since 1USD = 1 mile (in general) in the USA, that 180,000 points bonus in HKG would equate to roughly 24,000 points in the USA, which is comparable to most introductory cc bonuses. As you stated, 15 points equate to 1 air mile point, etc. ahhhhh all these math conversions are giving me a headache so I’ll just stop there! 😉
Heck if CX is on the brink of bankruptcy and one of the banks in Hong Kong saves the airline by buying billions of CX Asia Miles, then who knows most likely HKG residents will be offered with a million point bonus or something similar to what US residents have been receiving since 2008.
My 2 cents.
You are right on the comparison. I just wish we could get a number like that on a card offer whil retaining there US value. 🙂