HSBC Star Alliance Credit Card

Much better after having it for a year – 10 May 2023: A few months ago I applied for a Star Alliance credit card. One of the benefits of the card is 6 months interest free on airfares purchased directly with a Star Alliance airline. I booked an airfare with Air New Zealand and phoned HSBC to ask that it be put onto the 6 months interest free plan. I was asked if I booked it directly… Read more

with Air New Zealand and I confirmed that I had. The transaction actually says Air New Zealand, so I thought it was pretty obvious. The person I spoke to said she would contact the relevant team to have the transaction put onto the interest free plan. A week later I got a phone call asking me if the airfare was booked directly with the airline. Again, I thought it was quite obvious that it was. The transaction didn't say Flight Centre or Webjet etc, but said Air New Zealand. After all, they are a bank. Surely they know what organisation charged my card. But a week later, I got another phone call asking what URL I used to do the booking. I then had to email the Air New Zealand web address to the bank. Finally, after more than 3 weeks, the transaction was put onto the interest free plan.

Then I received an email from HSBC Safeguard saying I needed to provide photo ID for my account. I wasn't sure if the email was genuine, so I ignored it. A few weeks later I got another email saying I hadn't provided photo ID yet, and to either phone or go into a branch. I thought it would be better to physically go into a branch with my ID, and did so. I had to wait 45 minutes before I got to talk to someone. They took a copy of my licence, but weren't sure where to send it, as there was no indication on my file as to who had requested the ID. But she said she would send it to the relevant team. I thought it was all done, but a few weeks later I received another email saying I hadn't yet provided photo ID and need to call or go into a branch. Since going into a branch didn't work, I thought I would call. I phoned in my lunch break, but was on hold waiting to talk to someone for 40 minutes so gave up. After work I tried again, but after being on hold for 3 hours, I gave up again. It's still unresolved and I have no idea how to get my photo ID to the bank. Going into a branch didn't work and contacting them by phone is nearly impossible.

The Star Alliance credit card sounded good on paper, but dealing with HSBC is an absolute pain. Their customer service is appalling. If you don't mind wasting many hours trying to get simple issues resolved, go ahead and get a HSBC product.

7 March 2024:

The above was my initial review of the HSBC Star Alliance credit card, a few months after I got it, and I wasn't impressed. But after using the credit card for more than a year, my opinion has changed somewhat.

When I first got the credit card, I chose Singapore Airlines as my gold status airline. One of the major reasons for choosing Singapore Airlines is because they are a Virgin Australia partner, so gold status with SA qualifies for entry to Virgin Australia lounges for myself and my wife, which we used quite a bit during my first year with the card. I haven't found too many other credit cards that offer unlimited lounge access. They often only offer a fixed number of lounge visits.

In my second year with the Star Alliance credit card, I stayed with Singapore Airlines for my gold status, as we have a trip booked with them later in the year. A major improvement with the Star Alliance credit card over the time I have had it is that charges for flights booked with participating Star Alliance airlines are now automatically put on the six months interest free plan. The first time I booked Star Alliance flights, a couple of months after acquiring the credit card, it took several interactions with HSBC to have the charges put onto the interest free plan, so that is a very welcome improvement.

If you can endure the initial hassles of obtaining card approval (which took about 2 to 3 weeks for me), the Star Alliance credit card is quite well worth having and offers some worthwhile benefits for travellers. Of course, if you fly business class all the time, there is not much benefit to having gold status, but if flying cheaper classes, the card provides good benefits.