HSBC has refreshed the welcome offer for its TravelOne card, with up to 20,000 bonus miles plus a Samsonite ZELTUS 69cm Spinner Exp with built-in scale now available for applications submitted by 30th September 2026, provided you have S$1,000+ of spend to make in the first full calendar month of card approval.

That’s a sizeable cut from the 33,600 miles on offer until 30th June (13,600 miles fewer, no less) with the suitcase effectively taking their place. Whether that’s an improvement or a downgrade comes down to one question… do you even want the luggage?

There’s also no longer a lower spend tier this time round. The previous promotion paid a reduced bonus for those spending S$500 to S$999, this one is S$1,000 or nothing.

Remember, too, that in late 2024 HSBC devalued KrisFlyer transfers, increasing the points required per mile awarded by 20%.

That means the sign-up bonus converts to only 16,667 KrisFlyer miles. To unlock the full 20,000 miles, you’ll need to transfer into one of HSBC’s ‘2.5:1 partners’ such as British Airways Avios, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, or Air France-KLM Flying Blue.

New to HSBC: 20,000 miles + Samsonite luggage

The latest HSBC T1 card sign-up bonus for those new to HSBC is worth 20,000 bonus miles, plus the Samsonite case.

The promotion is valid for applications between 1st July 2026 and 30th September 2026. Your card must be approved by 14th October 2026.

If you’re new to HSBC, the bonus is:

• 20,000 miles (awarded as 50,000 Reward points); and
• a Samsonite ZELTUS 69cm Spinner Exp with built-in scale

both requiring a minimum spend of S$1,000.

  APPLY HERE

Existing HSBC customers: 10,000 miles + Samsonite luggage

HSBC is also offering bonus miles to its existing customers, with 10,000 miles on the table, and the same suitcase.

The promotion is also valid for applications between 1st July 2026 and 30th September 2026, with card approval required by 14th October 2026.

If you’re existing to HSBC, the bonus is:

• 10,000 miles (awarded as 25,000 Reward points); and
• a Samsonite ZELTUS 69cm Spinner Exp with built-in scale

again requiring a minimum spend of S$1,000.

Do also note that if you have taken out an HSBC credit card as primary cardholder within the last year, you don’t qualify for either the existing customer or the new customer bonus.

About the Samsonite ZELTUS

The luggage gift is a Samsonite ZELTUS 69cm Spinner Exp, a large expandable four-wheel check-in case with a built-in scale in the handle, which HSBC values at S$680.

It comes in two colours, Wine Red or Latte, though the terms make clear this is “subject to availability at the point of redemption”, so leaving your application until September may mean taking whatever’s left.

Fulfilment, as usual, isn’t automatic.

Once HSBC is satisfied you’ve met the conditions, you’ll receive an SMS containing a redemption code, a redemption period and a collection location, so this is a case you go and pick up, not one that arrives at your door.

HSBC also reserves the right to substitute the case for an item of “equal or similar value” without prior notice.

So what’s it actually worth? S$680 is the figure HSBC quotes, but there’s a more revealing number hiding in the bank’s own paperwork. On the parallel sign-up promotion running for HSBC’s Advance and Live+ cards, applicants can choose between a Samsonite VOYA 68cm Spinner – a comparable case, also quoted at S$680 – or S$200 cashback.

In other words, HSBC itself prices this class of suitcase at S$200 when it offers you the choice (though it sadly doesn’t for this card).

That’s an almost perfect match for the TravelOne card’s S$196.20 annual fee. By the bank’s own reckoning, the luggage pays for the card, and the 20,000 miles are free.

One caveat if you’re planning to sell the case. HSBC is running Samsonite offers on three of its cards this quarter, so expect plenty of these hitting the second-hand market at once. Treat S$200 as a ceiling, rather than a floor, in our opinion!

Annual fee payment is a must

For both new and existing cardholders, the bonus is subject to:

• payment of the card’s first year annual fee of S$196.20, which will be charged even if you don’t meet the spend threshold, and
• you consenting to receive marketing or promotional materials from the bank during your application, and retaining this consent at least until the bonus miles are credited.

Don’t forget the latter step, which is essential, otherwise no bonus will be coming your way.

Qualifying spend period

Whether you’re a new or existing HSBC cardholder, the qualifying spend period is based on the date your card account is opened, as follows:

Card opening date	Qualifying spend period	Bonus miles credit
1 – 31 Jul 2026	1 Jul – 31 Aug 2026	by 28 Nov 2026
1 – 31 Aug 2026	1 Aug – 30 Sep 2026	by 29 Dec 2026
1 – 30 Sep 2026	1 Sep – 31 Oct 2026	by 28 Jan 2027
1 – 14 Oct 2026*	1 Oct – 30 Nov 2026	by 11 Feb 2027

* Applies to applications submitted by 30th September 2026, where the card account is then opened in early October 2026.

If you open your card account towards the beginning of a calendar month, you’ll have nearly two full months to meet the minimum spend requirement, though do note the bonus miles take a further three months to credit.

One small detail worth noting is that your “Card Account Opening Date” is defined as the calendar month printed on the letter that arrives with your card, not your approval date.

Base miles earning is on top

The sign-up bonus is awarded in addition to the base miles you earn on the qualifying spend itself. Assuming transfers to the bank’s “2.5:1 partners”, these are:

• 1.2 mpd for local currency spending; and
• 2.4 mpd for foreign currency transactions.

So S$1,000 of local spend adds 1,200 base miles, taking a new cardholder to 21,200 miles in total.

Pleasingly, HSBC has also stopped padding its headline figure with base miles included, as it did with the previous “up to 36,000 miles” claim. This time the advertised 20,000 miles is the actual bonus.

Cost per mile

Since this sign-up bonus requires payment of the card’s S$196.20 annual fee, here’s how the cost per mile stacks up.

Note that these figures treat the fee as though it buys nothing but miles, ignoring the four complimentary lounge visits per calendar year – and because that allowance resets on 1st January, a card approved now yields eight visits in your first membership year. If that’s worth anything to you, the real numbers are better than these.

First, treating the suitcase as worthless, the most pessimistic reading:

	Bonus	Cost per mile
New cardholder	20,000 miles	0.98 cents
New cardholder (KrisFlyer addict)	16,667 miles	1.18 cents
Existing cardholder	10,000 miles	1.96 cents
Existing cardholder (KrisFlyer addict)	8,333 miles	2.35 cents

Those are noticeably worse numbers than the 0.58 cents new cardholders were paying under the previous promotion, a 69% increase in the cost of each mile.

But that ignores the suitcase, and the suitcase is the whole point of this promotion. Here’s the same calculation with a value assigned to it:

Value you place on the luggage	New cardholder	Existing cardholder
S$0 (you don’t want it)	0.98 cents	1.96 cents
S$200 (HSBC’s alternative for other cards)	Miles are free	Miles are free
S$680 (HSBC’s quoted value)	Miles are free + you’re in profit	Miles are free + you’re in profit

The break-even point is almost exactly the annual fee. If the case is worth S$200 to you – whether because you’ll use it, or because that’s what you’d get selling it on – the miles then cost you nothing at all.

Whether that beats the old promotion depends entirely on what you think a mile is worth. Existing cardholders are giving up 11,600 miles for the suitcase; new-to-bank applicants are giving up 13,600.

Value the case at S$200 and the trade only works if you value a mile below roughly 1.7 cents (1.5 cents if you’re new-to-bank). Above that, the old promotion was the better deal, and for anyone redeeming in premium cabins – where miles comfortably clear 2 cents – it was no contest.

What is fair to say is that the downgrade lands more softly on existing cardholders. The suitcase is worth the same to everyone, and they had less to lose.

The 12-month catch

Before you start pricing up suitcases on Carousell, there’s a clause in the terms that deserves some attention.

If you close, cancel or terminate the card within 12 months of opening it, HSBC reserves the right to forfeit or recover the equivalent value of the whole or any part of the gift, at its sole discretion.

Under previous promotions that meant clawing back Reward points. This time it means the bank can bill you for a suitcase you may already have sold. So the sign-up-and-cancel approach doesn’t work here, you’re committing to holding this card for a full year.

There’s a second trap waiting at the other end of that year. Under HSBC’s Rewards Programme terms, terminating your card account automatically cancels any unused Reward points, and they can’t be moved to another HSBC card account.

So if you do decide to close the card after 12 months, transfer your points out to a frequent flyer or hotel programme before you cancel, not after. Transfers are instant for most partners and free of charge, so there’s no reason to leave them sitting there.

Year two is a fairer deal, at least. Pay the S$196.20 again for 30,000 Reward points (up to 12,000 miles), a reasonable 1.64 cents each, or spend S$25,000 for an automatic waiver with no points.

What counts as qualifying spend

Your S$1,000 minimum spend has to be made up of ordinary retail purchases. The sign-up promotion’s terms rule out the following:

• Foreign exchange transactions
• Quasi-cash, gambling and lottery transactions
• Payments to financial institutions, brokerages and dealers, including securities, investments and cryptocurrency
• Money transfer services, including PayPal, CardUp, ipaymy, SmoovPay and Skrill
• Top-ups or purchases of credits for prepaid cards, vouchers, stored-value cards and e-wallets, including EZ-Link, Transitlink, NETS FlashPay and YouTrip
• AXS and ATM transactions
• Instalment plan amounts, whether monthly instalments or the total purchase under HSBC’s 0% Card Instalment and PayLater plans
• Balance transfers, fund transfers, cash advances, finance and late charges, and any fees charged by HSBC
• Court costs, fines, bail and bond payments
• Anything unposted, cancelled, disputed or refunded

Separately, HSBC’s Rewards Programme has its own, considerably longer list of transactions that earn no Reward points at all:

These are two different documents, doing two different jobs.

The list in the red box governs whether a transaction earns you points; the bulleted list further up governs whether it counts toward your S$1,000 spend or not.

Categories like insurance premiums, school fees, utilities, tax payments and hospital bills appear in the Rewards Programme list but not in the sign-up promotion’s – so on a plain reading they do count toward your S$1,000 spend, but earn you no base miles for the privilege.

We believe that reading is right, but there’s a difference between being right and getting your bonus.

If HSBC’s systems apply the same exclusions to both calculations, which would be the simpler way to build them, an insurance premium (for example) may never register against your threshold at all, whatever the terms say.

Our advice, therefore, is to play it safe on both counts. Hit the S$1,000 with ordinary retail spending, and treat anything on the Rewards Programme list as excluded.

Terms and conditions

Full terms and conditions for this sign-up promotion are available here:

 HSBC T1 Sign-Up Promo T&C

HSBC transfer partner options

HSBC added a raft of new transfer partners to its repertoire with the advent of the TravelOne card back in 2023. These options were later extended to all HSBC miles cards in mid-2024.

Unfortunately transfers to KrisFlyer miles were devalued into a “3:1” ratio partner for the bank’s miles earning cards in Singapore back in late 2024.

= Good transfer ratio
= Lousy transfer ratio

HSBC FFP Transfer Partners

FFP			Transfer Ratio
			35,000 10,000 35,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			30,000 10,000 30,000 10,000
			30,000 10,000 30,000 10,000
			35,000 10,000 35,000 10,000
			35,000 10,000 35,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			50,000 10,000 50,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			35,000 10,000 35,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			25,000 20,000 25,000 20,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			35,000 10,000 35,000 10,000

As you can see some of these options fall into our ‘lousy’ category – as KrisFlyer now do – due to their adverse transfer ratios, which effectively reduce the ‘advertised’ miles per dollar earn rate of your card compared to a 2.5:1 partner – like Asia Miles.

Nonetheless there are still some great options to consider here – including the British Airways Avios programme.

That one lets you boost your Avios balance from an HSBC transfer from 1.53 cents each, and Avios move instantly and fee-free to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, so ignore HSBC’s lousy direct transfer to Qatar Avios.

On the hotel side, HSBC cardholders can make transfers to four different loyalty programmes.

HSBC Hotel Transfer Partners

FFP			Transfer Ratio
			25,000 5,000 25,000 5,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			25,000 10,000 25,000 10,000
			30,000 10,000 30,000 10,000

In all cases the transfer ratios shown in the tables above represent the minimum transfer of HSBC Reward points to loyalty programme miles or points – after that you can transfer in increments as small as two miles, which is handy for clearing out an awkward points balance.

Almost all transfers complete within one working day, with two exceptions – Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club takes up to five working days, and JAL Mileage Bank up to ten.

HSBC has reshaped its TravelOne welcome offer this month, and how you feel about that depends almost entirely on whether you have a use for (or put a value on) a large check-in bag.

On ‘buying’ miles alone it’s a clear step backwards, at 0.98 cents each for new-to-bank applicants against 0.58 cents previously.

Existing cardholders get off comparatively lightly, since the suitcase is worth the same to them as to anyone else, and they were getting fewer miles to begin with.

Add the suitcase back in at the S$200 HSBC’s own alternative offers imply, and the annual fee is covered outright with 20,000 miles thrown in for nothing. If you value a mile above 1.5 cents, though, you’d still have done better under the old promotion.

The catches, though, are that you’re committing to 12 months or risking a bill for the luggage, there’s no lower spend tier, and the gift is awarded by SMS and collection, not delivered to your door.

As ever, the card is at its best for those willing to look beyond KrisFlyer, for the best transfer ratios.

If you’re taking the plunge, remember to consent to receive marketing materials during your application to be eligible, and apply by 30th September 2026.

  APPLY HERE

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)