If you’re not able to earn elite hotel status through frequent travel or status challenges, it is possible to get status by virtue of holding a high-end credit card. AMEX Platinum Charge cardholders, for example, get elite status with Marriott, Radisson Rewards, Shangri-La and Hilton. Once upon a time, holders of the UOB Reserve Visa Infinite card received complimentary Hilton Diamond.
Thanks to Shaun in the Milelion’s Telegram Group, we now know that holders of a World Elite Mastercard can register for free GHA Black status. You’ll need to call the Mastercard Concierge at the back of your World Elite Mastercard to register. More details can be found here.
[Update: 19 Jan 2019- the landing page is no more, but you can still get the concierge to upgrade your account…for now]
This offer is available for registrations made until 31 December 2019. Once you register, your status will be valid until 31 December of the following year. So it may make sense to wait until January 2019 to register, so your status lasts till December 2020.
What is GHA and what does Black status give me?
GHA stands for the Global Hotels Alliance, which is a collection of 33 smaller hotel chains across the world. Smaller doesn’t mean B-list, though, because you have some well-known brands like Park Royal, Pan Pacific, Anantara, Viceroy and Tivoli hotels inside.
With 550 properties in 77 countries, their footprint isn’t as big as the majors like Hilton or Marriott, but you’re still going to find some pretty aspirational properties inside.
What’s interesting about GHA’s loyalty program is that it doesn’t work like a conventional hotel rewards program where you earn points towards future stays. Instead, you earn “local experience awards”. Members receive one Platinum/Black Local Experience award upon reaching Platinum/Black status, and another each year their status is renewed. Platinum and Black members earn subsequent Local Experience awards each time they stay at a new DISCOVERY hotel brand.
What do these awards look like? Here are some examples from Singapore:
Most of these take the form of a dining or spa credit, but there are also some less conventional options like a gourmet picnic at Botanic Gardens (although you could arguably pack your own basket and better off) or a vintage sidecar heritage tour. Note that some experiences may have a stay requirement- that is, you can’t redeem the award unless you stay at the hotel too.
One important point to mention: if you get GHA Black status through the World Elite Mastercard route, you will not get a Local Experience straight away. You will however be able to earn one by either staying in a new brand for the first time (which means you’ll earn one after your second stay, assuming it’s at a different brand from the first), or after doing 30 nights at DISCOVERY hotels in one year.
In addition to supposedly better Local Experiences, GHA Black status also grants you some additional benefits during your stay such as room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out. 
Which Singapore-issued cards are World Elite Mastercards?
Citi Prestige
The Citi Prestige card is an obvious candidate here, with its $120,000 annual income requirement and $535 annual fee. You can read a detailed listing of the card’s benefits here.
Applying for a Citi Prestige card via the links on this landing page will get you $50 of Grab/Taka/NTUC vouchers if you’re an existing Citi customer, and $200 of vouchers if you’re not.
UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card
The UOB Lady’s Solitaire metal card has an income requirement of $120,000 and an annual fee of $588. Unlike the gender egalitarian DBS Woman’s World card, the UOB Lady’s Solitaire is ladies only. Don’t sweat it though, the benefits aren’t anything to shout about.
Conclusion
Even if you think you’ll have no value for GHA Black status because you don’t stay at affiliated hotels, you should still consider getting membership because you can match it to a program you will value. I’ve seen some data points on the Telegram Group of people getting GHA Black matched to a Hilton Diamond status challenge, so that’s definitely worth a shot.
We’ve going to cover hotel tips and hacks like this in more detail during this Wednesday and Thursday’s Hotel Hacks webinar. If you’ve not signed up yet, here are the links to register for Part 1 and Part 2.
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There is no concierge number printed on the back of the OCBC Premier debit card. How do we contact them to get this activated?
Try this E: o enjoy these privileges, contact your 24hrs Personal World Concierge today. Toll free telephone numbers:
Indonesia: 001803657972
Malaysia: 1800806429
Singapore: 8001860077
Thanks! So I called the number and the representative over the line said that for OCBC Premier Banking Debit cardholders, we do not get access to the World Elite Mastercard concierge services. The only form of concierge service would have to be provided by the bank. Since you can only enrol into this programme by calling up Mastercard concierge, does this mean that OCBC Premier Banking does not qualify for this?
Anyone else has better luck?
Interesting. I just assumed all world elite would qualify as long as you had that symbol. Will add a note on this tmr
Called the number yesterday (it’s the same Concierge provided by TEN Group, linked to your Voyage card). They took down my details (card number) and Discovery number and said they’ll submit it for me. Takes 4-5 weeks.
No email confirmation , just need to wait.
How did it go? Any update?
The only number on the citi prestige is the citi concierge. call them?
This is what GHA informed me: Dear Mr. Lee, I do have some additional information regarding MasterCard World Elite. The previous contract that we had with them expired on July 31 2018. DISCOVERY has not renewed the contract for 2019 as of yet. You may check back with us in a few weeks to see if this has been updated. Thank you for choosing DISCOVERY Brand Hotels. We will look forward to your next visit. It was my pleasure to assist you today. If there is anything else I can assist you with, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely,… Read more »
Well the website for both world elite mc and gha seems to outright contradict what he’s saying…
Sadly, this happens.. lots of people downstream aren’t aware of decisions, tie-ups and such, that are made upstream.. Case in point.. Maybank World Mastercard.. 4mpd at Imperial Treasure restaurants and Club21 boutiques.. yeah, that’s TWO cases in point.. But when asked at a few Imperial Treasure outlets as well as Club21 ones, none of the individual managers had heard of such a thing.. and calls to “office” also came back with “don’t know/ not aware” But phoned Maybank and got assurance that 4mpd would be given and they indeed were.. I’m not saying it’s exactly the same here.. but could… Read more »
I mean, if the offer were only advertised on the Mastercard website maybe there’s some mixup somewhere between the partners, but since it’s also listed on the GHA website, I think you can just reply to the email with a link to their own website for clarification…
Unable to register for this benefit. Called Citibank, they pushed to MasterCard. Called MasterCard, atrocious customer service. No one is aware of this programme or its free registration.