Shout out to Jon V. who alerted us to these changes coming to the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard as of November 1st. The changes are both good and bad (mostly good) as WestJet and RBC continually work at evolving the card into a stronger product. The good news is lounge access and concierge service the bad news is increased fees for both the primary and secondary cardholders.
First lets look at the good news
Lounge Access
The cards will come MasterCard Airport Experiences, which is provided by LoungeKey. LoungeKey is a third party company that provides access to Business Class lounges much like Priority Pass except no everyone can get a membership with LoungeKey. They specifically partner with credit card companies to offer the service so you must have a credit card that is partnered with them. To our best knowledge the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard is the first card in Canada to offer the MasterCard Airport Experience provided by LoungeKey. Much like basic Priority Pass memberships there is still a fee to access the lounges, you are simply getting the annual membership fee waived by having the credit card.
Concierge Service
Although we don’t use concierge services very much this is always a good option to have with a credit card when you may be in a bind to get reservations, event tickets etc.
The bad news
Annual fees
It was inevitable but the annual fees on the card are also going up on November 1st. The WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard was a hold out against all the other World Elite cards in Canada when they all raised their annual fees to $150 sometime ago at the request of Mastercard Canada. Still at $119 this is the cheapest World Elite card you can get and it still offers huge value in the sign up bonus, companion ticket offers and free first checked bag benefits! As of November 1st the annual fees are $119 for the primary card and $59 for supplementary cards.
So here is my advice. Get the card now if you don’t have it! Then you’ll only pay the old annual fees of $99/$49 for the first and not have to pay the higher fees until next year.
Overall this is pretty good news for the card although I think it would be nice for them to offer up a couple of free lounge visits to offset the increased annual fees on the cards. That being said, knowing how WestJet and WestJet Rewards works I wouldn’t be surprised if they are keeping that type of offer for limited time promotions in the near future.
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WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard
$250 WestJet dollars Bonus + Annual $99/$299/$399 Companion Flight
when you sign up for and receive the WestJet RBC World Elite
Mastercard.
– Earn 1.5% back in WestJet dollars on every purchase you make with your card
– Earn 2% back in WestJet dollars when you purchase WestJet
flights or WestJet Vacations packages with your card
– Companion flight vouchers are an annual benefit.
– First bag free for the primary cardholder up to 8 people traveling on the same reservation to anywhere WestJet flies!
