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Take a look at your MasterCards. If one of them has “World” or “World Elite” written beside the MasterCard symbol, you’re eligible for MasterCard’s range of “luxury travel benefits”.

We’ve previously covered the master PRICELESS benefits, which are open to all UK MasterCard holders regardless of the issuing bank. That article hinted at other benefits for MasterCards  that bear the designations “World” or “World Elite”.

The MasterCard website provides a special portal, access to which requires entering the first 6 digits of an eligible card. Both my Santander credit card and my IHG MasterCard have the “World” designation, and the portal recognises them both. Various other MasterCards that I hold, such as the Supercard, are deemed invalid. Assuming you have an eligible card, you see this:-

Even though both my cards are “MasterCard World”, the portal recognises me as “World Elite”. You’ll find the private jet (!) benefits rather thin on the ground, and some of the offers are hardly startling, but others do provide some worthwhile benefits. Here is a brief summation.

• Abercrombie & Kent – 5% off bookings
• Fairmont hotels – upgrade, breakfast, $25 credit, and Late checkout (participating properties)
• SPG – Book 2 get 3 (limited list of properties)
• Raffles hotels – Upgrade, Breakfast, Late Checkout, complimentary welcome drink
• Swissotels – Upgrade (confirmed for weekend stays), Breakfast, Late Checkout (not at weekends)
• Small Luxury Hotels –  Upgrade, Breakfast, Late Checkout
• Hertz – 15% discount, one car upgrade
• Sixt –  15% discount

The fact that Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotels are all featured is hardly surprising as they are all part of the same group (recently acquired by Accor). A quick check on the SPG promo shows there are 9 properties in the UK participating, and all of them also offer a book 4 get 6 promo.

The Hertz offer might be useful, although many will have better options if they hold the American Express platinum card.

Wrapping up

These benefits are unlikely to change your booking habits, but something is better than nothing, and in fairness to MasterCard, they don’t exactly shout about these or use them to encourage sign-ups.  They are definitely worth knowing about in case they happen to fall within your existing plans or intentions. The only committment is that you need to use your MasterCard for payment.  So if any of these look like they might be useful to you, take a quick peek at your Mastercards, there’s a fair chance that at least one of them will be MasterCard World. I’ll certainly be checking out the offers from time to time, and will report if anything appealing shows up.