Buffed: HSBC Revolution Revives Travel and Contactless Spending, Increases Monthly Cap From 1st July to 28th February 2026
Update: extended to 28th February 2026
From 1st July to 31st October 2025 28th February 2026, HSBC will bring HSBC Revolution back from the dead, reviving its 4 miles per dollar earn rate on travel expenses and contactless transactions. On top of just restoring the card to its former glory, the bank is also increasing the monthly cap for 4 miles per dollar to S$1,500.
Even though this is a time-limited thing, I feel that there are very compelling reasons why those who don’t have the card (or have stopped using it) should consider using this card.
2024: Revolution devolution
Last year was what can only be described as terribad for HSBC Revolution. It started and ended 2024 getting nerfed, with enough hammering in between for good measure:
| Date of Nerf | Nerf |
|---|---|
| 1st January 2024 | HSBC Revolution to Exclude MCC of Travel Agencies and Hotels |
| 1st May 2024 | HSBC Revolution excludes fast food, food delivery, and groceries |
| 15th July 2024 | HSBC Revolution Loses Bonus Points on Contactless Payments |
| 1st January 2025 | HSBC Revolution Loses Bonus Points on Travel-Related Expenses |
The card went from “4 miles per dollar at most places” to… “where can I get 4 miles per dollar for this again?” in a relatively short span of time.
Make Revolution Great Again (for 4 months)
For a period of 4 months starting immediately, the HSBC Revolution does away with many of the nerfs above. Aside from the removal of travel agencies and the May 2024 nerf on fast food, food delivery, and groceries, the other nerfs have been reversed — at least temporarily.
This means that cardholders can go back to using their HSBC Revolution in-person again across a variety of spend, as long as it’s not on fast food or groceries (groceries bit can be solved with Heymax vouchers). For those of us who head out — yes, even unemployed content creators like us do — an online-only card is very limited in usefulness… just ask Citi Rewards.
Perhaps even more importantly, this temporal version of HSBC Revolution can get 4 miles per dollar on travel-related expense up to a tune of S$1,500 per month. On its own, this is a pretty neat feature. When you consider what is happening to other cards at the moment, the timing is impeccable.
Useful cards for booking flights and hotels include DBS Woman’s World Mastercard which will see its cap cut to just S$1,000 per month from 1st August 2025, and UOB Lady’s Solitaire which is also reducing its monthly cap (article on this soon). HSBC’s sudden decision to reinstate bonus miles on travel-related expenses on the HSBC Revolution couldn’t have come at a better time.
See the full list of eligible transactions here.
Get S$450 or 26,000 Max Miles upsized S$500 or 28,000 Max Miles with HSBC Cards! Limited time only, tap here to see eligible cards
What are HSBC Points useful for?
There is a caveat here — early this year, HSBC devalued its points for KrisFlyer conversions. Instead of the usual 25,000 points to 10,000 miles ratio, it requires 30,000 points for 10,000 miles. The 4 miles per dollar HSBC Revolution is actually a 3.33 miles per dollar card if you are only going to consider transferring miles to KrisFlyer.
If you are a KrisFlyer purist, you could probably move along and try to make it work with the recently nerfed DBS and UOB cards mentioned above instead. But I don’t think you should focus solely on KrisFlyer miles, even if you are really want to fly Singapore Airlines.
You see, over the past few months, I’ve been talking about how to use EVA Air miles to book Singapore Airlines flights for cheaper. I flew to Europe on Singapore Airlines business class at just 160,000 miles per person using EVA Air miles instead of the 207,000 miles KrisFlyer would have required.
The beauty of HSBC Rewards Points is that it is one of the rare few currencies that can be transferred to EVA Air’s Infinity MileageLand Programme in Singapore. Personally, I value such points at a 20% premium because of the ability to book cheaper flights. That makes the HSBC Revolution a “4.8 miles per dollar card” in my books.
Great opportunity to chalk up versatile points
Having a period of 4 months (possible extension notwithstanding) of S$1,500 monthly cap is a maximum of 24,000 miles possible, and having these miles can bolster your points from places like American Express, Citibank, or Heymax for EVA Air miles.
Also, the minimum redemption is just 10,000 miles with HSBC Rewards Programme, and just blocks of 2 miles thereafter. This means that as long as you have enough points for at least 10,000 miles, you don’t have to worry about leftover points like many other banks that require you to transfer in blocks of 10,000 miles. Manage to accumulate 19,580 miles? You can transfer them all out without an issue, while with other banks you may only cash out 10,000 miles with the remaining 9,580 stuck inside.
The conversion fee is also currently waived, so there is really little to lose by switching over to HSBC Revolution for the next 4 months.
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With this buff, HSBC Revolution will be going from my card heap to the front of my card wallet… figuratively speaking of course, because I cut the card up for dramatic effect for a YouTube video.
No matter, nothing a little magic can’t fix:
HSBC Revolution is back, and even if it is for 4 months, it is now one of the best miles cards to use, particularly for travel expenses like flights and hotels. We can only hope that HSBC is just testing waters with this move, and such a buff is extended or made permanent.
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Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.
He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.
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