This thread is for those who have taken up HSBC Star Alliance Credit Card and have chosen Singapore Airlines as your chosen Star Alliance Status Conferral Airline.
I got this Credit Card back on 25/11/2022 and chose Singapore Airlines as the Star Alliance Gold Status Conferral Airline.
Obviously it has been a year and the whole experience with this credit card has been… experimental at best. With three parties involved in this, there will bound to be f**k-ups and as many of you have experienced dealing with international (Asian) helpdesk can be quite… scripted and indifferent at best even if the flaw has been demonstrated crystal clear.
And so this is what happened.
25/11/2023 - Credit Card statement arrived. Confirmed requalification for Star Alliance Gold Status for another year.
28/11/2023 - Email from Star Alliance arrived. Saying I am eligible for Gold Status Star Alliance. Choose your airline by 12 December 2023 (14 days). After this, Star Alliance will request for the Status to be conferred to you (the Star Alliance Gold Status in the form of the KrisFlyer Gold Elite)
02/12/2023 - Received email from Krisflyer saying I have been downgraded from Gold to Silver because of lack of miles. This is the WTF moment.
02/12/2023 - Emailed Star Alliance which said I have to wait until 12/12/2023 (see above) and then the request will be sent to SQ which then will take somewhere between 1-14 days to confer the status. Last year, I nominated on 17/12/2022 and was conferred on 29/12/22, so a horrifying 12 days. So in total, from 28/11/23, up to 28 days between your eligibility and conferral of status.
17/12/2023 - Travelling overseas while the status is yet to be conferred. Big red flag!
So the blind spot is, as you can now see, is that despite requalification, they won't re-confer it to you for up to 28 days. If you are flying within these 28 days, you are screwed (for reasons including having already paid the whole airfares with free seat selection due to status and now suddenly you lost that status - will they stop me at the airport?)
So the lessons learned here (if you have this card and want to be with SQ and want to make the full use of it) are:
1. If you haven't applied for this card and wants to apply, DON'T DO IT CLOSER to your normal holiday flying schedule (eg: Christmas). Leave a space up to 2 mths prior. OR
1. You do not travel so close to your requalification month (in my case, I would never be able to travel as Gold in Christmas). Leave a space of up to 2 months. OR
2. You do not choose SQ as your Star Alliance Status Conferral airline (They take up 14 days to confer the status) OR
3. You do not get this card at all because they are being run by quite frankly, sub-par officials and for $450 per annum, hardly worth it.
There is another way to perhaps go around it, open up a new FF with Air Canada and change the Status Conferral airline to Air Canada Aeroplan at Star Alliance website because it only takes 3 days for Air Canada to confer you the Star Alliance Gold Status and you will still get the benefit of Gold Status at Singapore Airlines.
Currently showing the helpdesk of a clause for Singapore Airline that says for requalifying member (not Welcome Offer member), Status Conferral starts at anniversary date even though it hasn't been officially conferred yet but I doubt I will get far.
I thought you needed to spend $60k to keep the status after the first year.