To the point
Mastercard Travel Pass and Boingo Wi-Fi benefits offered to certain Mastercard credit cardholders will change.
Mastercard Travel Pass and Boingo Wi-Fi are benefits offered to World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard credit cardholders. We informed you in December 2022 that changes were coming. Boingo has now announced this to Mastercard cardholders.
Boingo Wi-Fi: changes to come
Until now, World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard cardholders had unlimited access to the Wi-Fi network at many airport hotels and 26 airline partners (representing 1,530 aircraft):
- Aegean Airlines
- Aer Lingus
- Aero Mexico
- Air Belgium
- American Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Biman Bangladesh
- Cathay Pacific
- China Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Etihad
- Eurowings
- EVA Air
- Garuda Indonesia
- Japan Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Middle East Airlines
- SATA
- Scoot
- Singapore Airlines
- Swiss
- Swoop
- TAP Portugal
- Virgin Atlantic
- WestJet
This is a service I regularly use, especially when I travel with Swiss, Etihad or Singapore Airlines.
Although the number of accesses is unlimited, there are unofficial limits applied by Boingo. For example, when seven connections are made per month, or 2,100 Megabytes are reached per month, the account is suspended until the following month.
Beginning March 9, 2023, access will no longer be unlimited: World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard cardholders will have 12 times per annum for 90 minutes each session.
However, the amount of data will no longer be limited.
Once the sessions are exhausted, you will have to wait until January 1 to get 12 new sessions.
Note that these changes only affect Wi-Fi on board aircraft (not Wi-Fi service on the ground).
This is clearly bad news for frequent flyers who will quickly exceed the 12 annual 90-minute sessions (especially on long-haul flights: 2 or 3 trips will be enough to prevent future accesses).
New benefits included with Mastercard Travel Pass
As of now, Mastercard Travel Pass includes:
- Access to priority security lanes called Mastercard Airport Security Fast Track
- Personal transport from/to some international airports called Mastercard Airport Transfer
Mastercard Airport Security Fast Track: priority security lines
Until now, only American Express and Visa offered priority security lines.
On the American Express side, this service is offered at certain airports such as Toronto-Pearson (YYZ) for holders of credit cards such as the American Express Platinum Card® or the Business Platinum Card® from American Express. Since September 2022, obtaining a QR code has been necessary before leaving for the airport.
On the Visa side, this service is available at selected airports such as Montreal-Trudeau (YUL) for all Visa Infinite Privilege* Credit Card holders such as the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Credit Card or the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card.
Mastercard now also offers this service at select airports to World and World Elite Mastercard cardholders.
It is a service offered by its partner, DragonPass, in 70 airports located in 16 countries (mostly in Europe and Asia).
You can book these services via the Mastercard Travel Pass application for your entire party (up to 6 passengers).
Like the airport lounge access provided by DragonPass to Mastercard holders, this service is fee-based. During our tests here at Nice-Côte-d’Azur Airport (NCE), the cost appears to be 12.30 US$ per person!
It seems possible to book your security line access until the last minute. So, it’s up to you to decide, once at the airport, if it’s better to wait in line or to pay that extra fee to benefit from the priority security line!
Mastercard Airport Transfer: transfer service from/to the airport
With Mastercard Airport Transfer, Mastercard now offers, through its partner DragonPass, a transportation service to/from the airport.
Currently, this service is offered in 75 countries at 179 airports, including Montreal-Traudeau (YUL), Toronto-Pearson (YYZ) and Vancouver (YVR).
According to our tests at Montreal-Trudeau, transportation from the airport to downtown for 2 adults, 2 children and their luggage costs $157.37 US!
A prohibitive fare compared to the services offered at Montreal-Trudeau airport (taxis, Uber, etc.)
However, this is an option to keep in mind depending on your destinations.
Bottom Line
The Mastercard credit card network is becoming more and more involved in the traveller’s journey.
After travel insurance, VIP lounge access and in-flight Wi-Fi, Mastercard is now offering its cardholders the possibility to pass through security faster or to use a partner transportation service to/from the airport.
Unfortunately, all this comes at a cost, payable per unit. But it’s also why the annual fee for Mastercard World Elite credit cards is around $150 when competing credit cards from American Express and Visa offering similar benefits “for free” have annual fees of $399 to $699!
This type of service will undoubtedly satisfy occasional travellers.
Come to discuss that topic in our Facebook Group!
