HSBC TravelOne Credit Card Review
At a Glance
Key features
- Reward points transfer to 15 airline programmes: Air India Maharaja Club, airasia rewards (1:3), Air France-KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club, Etihad Guest, EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Hainan Fortune Wings Club (2:1), JAL Mileage Bank, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Thai Royal Orchid Plus, Turkish Miles&Smiles (2:1), United MileagePlus (2:1), Vietnam Airlines Lotusmiles
- Reward points transfer to 5 hotel programmes: ALL Accor Live Limitless, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Shangri-La Circle (5:1), Wyndham Rewards
- Most airline and hotel partners transfer at 1 reward point to 1 mile or loyalty point
- Reward points valid for 3 years
- 3.5% forex markup plus applicable taxes on all foreign currency transactions
- Purchase protection cover up to USD 20,000 a year
- Golf privileges, plus dining offers through EazyDiner and Zomato
- Instant in-app reward transfers to partner programmes
Rewards
| Category | Rate | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| flights and travel aggregators | 4× | 4 reward points per ₹100 on flights and travel aggregator bookings |
| foreign currency | 4× | 4 reward points per ₹100 on spends billed in a foreign currency; a 3.5% forex markup plus tax still applies |
| Default earn rate | 2× | All other eligible retail spends |
| Welcome bonus: ₹1,000 cashback on spending ₹25,000 within 30 days of card setup, plus a ₹3,000 Postcard voucher and a 3-month EazyDiner Prime membership. Online applications completed with video KYC also receive a ₹250 Amazon eGift voucher. | ||
Fees
| Joining fee | ₹4,999 |
| Annual feeWaived on annual spend above ₹8,00,000 | ₹4,999 |
Lounge access
Eligibility
Editor's Review
Who this card is for
Anyone whose travel planning starts with an airline programme rather than a booking site will read this card differently from the rest of HSBC's range. The TravelOne is built around transfers: reward points move to 20 airline and hotel partners, most of them at a straight one-to-one rate, which suits a cardholder who already knows how to spend Krisflyer miles or Bonvoy points well. Income requirements are moderate for a premium card, ₹6,00,000 a year for salaried applicants and ₹12,00,000 for the self-employed. The ₹4,999 fee, though, asks for roughly ₹8,00,000 of annual spending before it starts to look like a fair trade, and that figure is the real filter on who should apply.
What you earn
The earn structure is unusually flat for a premium travel card. Two reward points per ₹100 apply to everything, with no monthly cap and no published category exclusions, while four points per ₹100 apply to flights, travel aggregators and any spend billed in a foreign currency. A cardholder putting ₹50,000 a month through the card on ordinary spending collects 12,000 points a year before a single travel booking enters the picture. Most premium cards in this bracket cap their accelerated categories hard; HSBC instead keeps the floor uncapped and the ceiling modest.
Redemption is where the card separates itself. HSBC lists 15 airline programmes and 5 hotel groups, and the majority transfer at one point to one mile or one loyalty point. Air India Maharaja Club, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, British Airways Executive Club, Marriott Bonvoy, ALL Accor Live Limitless and IHG One Rewards all sit at that flat rate, and transfers run instantly from the app. A handful are considerably worse: Turkish Miles&Smiles, United MileagePlus and Hainan Fortune Wings take two points per mile, and Shangri-La Circle takes five. AirAsia runs the other way, at three miles per point.
HSBC puts the redemption value of a point somewhere between ₹0.25 and ₹1.00 depending on the route chosen, and the transfer partners are what push it toward the upper end of that band. Cash out into merchandise or the wrong voucher and the same points are worth a quarter as much. Points stay valid for three years, which is long enough to pool toward a specific award rather than redeem reactively. An extra 10,000 points land once annual spending crosses ₹12,00,000, a genuine milestone rather than a rolling one, and it arrives well past the fee waiver threshold.
The cost breakdown
₹4,999 at joining and ₹4,999 every year after, waived only when annual spending crosses ₹8,00,000. That threshold sits high relative to the fee. A cardholder spending ₹8,00,000 a year at the base rate collects 16,000 points, so the waiver arrives at roughly the same point the earn alone starts to justify the cost. HSBC publishes no waiver on the joining fee, so that first ₹4,999 is unavoidable no matter how much a new cardholder puts through the card.
The welcome package softens the first year considerably. ₹1,000 cashback on ₹25,000 of spending inside 30 days, a ₹3,000 Postcard voucher, three months of EazyDiner Prime and a ₹250 Amazon voucher for applications completed online with video KYC together exceed the joining fee outright. Year one is close to free. Year two is where the decision actually gets made.
One charge deserves attention on a card sold partly on foreign spending. HSBC levies a 3.5% forex markup plus applicable taxes on every foreign currency transaction. Four points per ₹100 on those spends does not come close to covering it. Anyone whose main use case is overseas swiping should compare this against a low-markup card before applying. There is also no fuel surcharge waiver here, which HSBC's own eligibility list confirms by omission.
What the welcome offer is actually worth
The card advertises ₹1,000 cashback on spending ₹25,000 within 30 days of card setup, plus a ₹3,000 Postcard voucher and a 3-month EazyDiner Prime membership. Online applications completed with video KYC also receive a ₹250 Amazon eGift voucher.. Translated into rupee value, that lands at roughly ₹3,000 based on the voucher's face value.
Hitting the ₹1,000 spend window inside the qualifying year means routing close to ₹83 a month onto this card.
Where it wins and where it loses
What works
- Reward points transfer to 20 airline and hotel partners, most at a straight 1:1 rate
- Base earn of 2 points per ₹100 carries no monthly cap and no published category exclusions
- First-year welcome package is worth more than the ₹4,999 joining fee
- Reward points stay valid for three years, long enough to pool toward a specific award
What it costs you
- Fee waiver needs ₹8,00,000 of annual spending, high against a ₹4,999 fee
- 3.5% forex markup plus tax undercuts the card's foreign currency positioning
- No fuel surcharge waiver, unlike HSBC's Premier and Platinum cards
- Six domestic lounge visits come from a fixed participating list, not an open network
- Several partners transfer at 2:1 or worse, including United, Turkish and Shangri-La
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is the annual fee on the HSBC TravelOne credit card?
The joining fee is ₹4,999 and the annual fee is ₹4,999. HSBC waives the annual fee when card spending crosses ₹8,00,000 in a year. There is no waiver on the joining fee.
Which airlines and hotels can HSBC TravelOne points transfer to?
Points transfer to 15 airline programmes and 5 hotel groups, including Air India Maharaja Club, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, British Airways Executive Club, Marriott Bonvoy, ALL Accor Live Limitless and IHG One Rewards. Most run at 1 point to 1 mile or loyalty point. Turkish Miles&Smiles, United MileagePlus and Hainan Fortune Wings take 2 points per mile, and Shangri-La Circle takes 5.
Does the HSBC TravelOne charge a forex markup?
Yes. HSBC applies a 3.5% forex markup plus applicable taxes on every foreign currency transaction. The card earns 4 reward points per ₹100 on foreign currency spends, which does not offset the markup, so it is not a low-cost card for overseas swiping.
How many airport lounge visits does the HSBC TravelOne include?
Six domestic and four international complimentary visits a year. International access runs through LoungeKey; domestic access is limited to a fixed list of participating lounges that HSBC publishes, not an open network.
The take
The TravelOne makes sense as a points engine feeding a transfer strategy someone already has. A cardholder who knows they are collecting toward a specific Krisflyer or Bonvoy redemption, and who spends enough to clear ₹8,00,000 a year without straining, gets a deep partner list and an uncapped base rate that quietly compounds. That combination is rarer in the Indian market than the fee suggests, and it is the honest reason to hold this card.
Below the waiver threshold the maths gets uncomfortable. The card charges ₹4,999 for an earn rate that several cheaper cards match, and the 3.5% forex markup contradicts the travel positioning in a way that is hard to argue past. Six domestic lounge visits a year drawn from a fixed participating list, rather than an open network, is thinner than what a number of cards at half the fee provide. Readers who want lounge volume or cheap foreign currency spending are shopping in the wrong aisle. The 10,000-point milestone at ₹12,00,000 of annual spending is worth noting for anyone already spending near that level, though it sits far enough above the waiver threshold that it will rarely change a decision on its own.
The reasonable comparison is against a card offering either better foreign currency economics or a wider lounge programme. If the answer to why this card is the transfer partner list, it holds up well. If the answer is travel benefits in general, it does not. The transfer list is the product here; everything else on the card is ordinary.
We rate it 3.6 out of 5. Strong redemption architecture, an uncapped base earn and a first year that pays for itself, set against a steep waiver threshold, a markup that undercuts the pitch and no fuel surcharge relief. Worth holding for the reader who transfers points with a plan, and worth skipping for the one who simply wants a travel card.
The HSBC TravelOne charges ₹4,999 a year and transfers reward points 1:1 to 20 airline and hotel partners, but levies a 3.5% forex markup.
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