American Express has long differentiated itself with upscale travel services, like concierges or special pricing at luxury hotels. Now, MasterCard is making a push to offer competitive travel services for their high-end World and World Elite credit cards, including a travel concierge to assist with problems at hotels as well as a best-price guarantee! These services are part of the benefits for any holder of eligible cards, at no extra fee. Find out more below!
Credit card companies have muscled into the travel space over the years, yet many credit card holders don’t even know all the benefits that come with the cards they have. MasterCard offers a long list of benefits for their top World Elite cards, including rental car insurance or trip cancellation or interruption insurance.
Now, MasterCard is adding even more features to lure in travel-focused customers and World and World Elite card holders (like the Citibank Prestige) can take advantage of the following services:
Hotel Stay Guarantee: If you book a 3-star (or better) hotel through MasterCard Travel Services (provided by Ten Lifestyle Group) with your MasterCard and experience problems during your stay, like ongoing construction, a closed water park or missing amenities, you can contact one of their LifeStyle Managers to assist in fixing the issue. If the issue can’t be fixed, the LifeStyle Manager will find alternative accommodations and MasterCard will carry the additional cost of the stay up to $1,000.
Best Price Guarantee: If you have booked any hotel through Ten Lifestyle Group with your MasterCard and find a lower price up to 72h prior to check-in on another website for the exact type of room, MasterCard will refund the difference in price.
These services are designed to provide peace of mind and I’d consider them for a special trip that just has to go right. I’d consider the Hotel Stay Guarantee especially valuable when booking a stay far in advance – a lot can change in a year!
The Price Guarantee will greatly depend on how MasterCard handles claims. Some companies, like Best Western have made a mockery of price guarantees, turning them essentially into a scam, but I’d expect a credit card company like MasterCard to do much better!
Overall, I think these services are most valuable when you are planning a special trip long in advance that just has to go right and you want the peace of mind of an agent to help with any problems that occur. Booking through MasterCard will have the least downside when booking independent hotels as you don’t have elite benefits to loose!
So, while these additional benefits are not for everybody, they can be valuable and useful when things go wrong. I applaud MasterCard for offering them. I’ll give the Lifestyle Service a try!
You have to register here to be able to utilize the service.
You can find all the details, terms and conditions here!
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