Canadian issued World Elite Mastercard and World Mastercard card’s will be losing their much advertised free global Wi-Fi benefit from Boingo at the end of this month. As of September 30th the benefit which was key to bringing free Wi-Fi on WestJet flights will no longer be available on the roughly two dozen or so World Elite and World card options here in Canada.
The ongoing changes with Boingo and Mastercard
It’s been a little over a year since the Boingo Wi-Fi benefit was curtailed for cardholders from unlimited Wi-Fi access to 12 – 90 minute sessions annually and now even that is being taken away.
Personally I have not seen any news of this yet and became aware of it by registering a new card for the service – hence the “Congratulations” in the screenshot above. There is no notice of this on several of the issuers websites I quickly checked and the Mastercard Canada website only has a small footnote about it, even though they are still touting the benefit.
Where have all the touted Mastercard benefits gone?
Mastercard Canada does seem to struggle in keeping partnerships afloat for their customers! Several years ago they revamped their offerings for all World and World Elite cards to include airport lounge access membership, Boingo Wi-Fi, benefits with Ritual and Foodora – all of which are gone or will be gone save for the lounge access membership. Granted, Foodora left Canada so that wasn’t Mastercard’s doing but in general the issuer can’t seem to bring the extra value to their cardholders like we see American Express and Visa doing with dining benefits, travel benefits, golf benefits and more.
Wrapping it up
The free Boingo Wi-Fi partnership was one that was unique to Mastercard and it is unfortunate to see it go. At least for those flying with WestJet, the airline will be adding free inflight Wi-Fi starting late this year. However, full implementation is going to take almost two years (Although majority will be done by the end of 2025) so the loss of Boingo Wi-Fi will mean people will have to pay for Wi-Fi (if they want it) on WestJet flights that don’t have the Starlink technology installed yet.
And then you have the 25 other airlines that eligible Mastercard cardholders have been able to get free Wi-Fi on thanks to Boingo not to mention at over 1 million of hotspots on the ground around the World. All gone.
I do hope Mastercard can turn things around and bring some extras to their cardholders that provide excellent value like the Boingo partnership. I mean when you go to the Mastercard Canada World and World Elite Mastercard benefits page it’s pretty lacking compared to Visa’s offer pages for Infinite and Infinite Privilege cards. Mastercard has a 7% off Booking.com discount (on pre-paid stays nonetheless!) and a McAfee discount that also ends on September 30th. That’s isn’t much to write home about.
Images via Boingo & Mastercard