Mastercard has extended its offer for instant GHA DISCOVERY elite status, with cardholders getting fast tracked up to Titanium, the highest (published) tier in the programme.
GHA Discovery Offer |
The offer originally expired on 6 December 2021, but it looks like the pause was just to give GHA time to relaunch DISCOVERY on 7 December. It’s now back, with a validity date till 30 November 2022.
What’s different is that they’ve removed the opportunity to upgrade to the next tier by making a certain number of stays. For example, World Mastercard members could previously get instant DISCOVERY Platinum, and upgrade to Black if they completed at least three eligible nights by 6 December 2021.
The offer is now a straight match, plain and simple.
Get instant DISCOVERY status with Mastercard
Mastercard cardholders in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam can enjoy the following offer:
- World Elite Mastercard: GHA Discovery Titanium
- World Mastercard: GHA DISCOVERY Platinum
- Platinum & Titanium Mastercard: GHA DISCOVERY Gold
Virtually every Mastercard I can think of in Singapore is at least a World tier, so there’s no reason why you should even be looking at the Platinum/Titanium offer.
Obviously the World Elite offer is the best, but unfortunately there’s precious few such cards in Singapore:
- Citi Prestige
- UOB Lady’s Solitaire Metal Card
- OCBC Premier World Elite Debit Card
If you hold a World Elite Mastercard, follow the steps below to get your Titanium status.
For New Sign-Ups
For Existing DISCOVERY members
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If you hold a World, Platinum or Titanium Mastercard, follow the steps below to get your Platinum/Gold status.
For New Sign-Ups (World, Platinum & Titanium)
For Existing DISCOVERY members (World, Platinum & Titanium)
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It’s not specified how long status is valid for, but I think it might be worth waiting until January 2022 to do this.
Based on past practice, GHA complimentary status is valid for the remainder of the year it was granted, plus the following 12 months. Therefore, a newly-minted Titanium member who received status in December 2021 would enjoy it till 31 December 2022, while someone who waited till January 2022 would enjoy it till 31 December 2023.
In the absence of clear T&Cs that’s just speculation on my part, but it makes sense to me.
What perks do DISCOVERY elites get?
I highly recommend having a read of my article on the new DISCOVERY programme which was unveiled yesterday, because GHA’s been busy with the tweaks.
To summarise, however, here’s what you can expect.
Silver | Gold | Platinum | Titanium | |
Earn D$ | 4% | 5% | 6% | 7% |
D$ Validity | 6 mo. | 18 mo. | 24 mo. | 24 mo. |
Room Upgrade | – | – | Single | Double |
Early Check-in | – | – | – | From 11 a.m |
Late Check-out | – | – | Till 3 p.m | Till 4 p.m |
Welcome Amenity | – | – | Yes | Yes |
Share Status | – | – | – | Yes |
These perks are valid at more than 570 participating hotels under the DISCOVERY umbrella, which contains heavyweights like Anantara, Avani, Capella, Kempinski, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL, and Tivoli.
Titanium benefits sound enticing on paper (who wouldn’t want 2-category upgrades and 11 a.m check-in), but I’m deeply concerned about how they’ll be provided in practice. In addition to status giveaways like this, GHA has also reduced the qualification/requalification for Titanium as follows:
Tier | Nights | Brands | Spend |
Silver | – | – | – |
Gold | 2 stays | – | US$1,000 |
Platinum | 10 nights | 2 brands | US$5,000 |
Titanium | 30 nights | 3 brands | US$15,000 |
Yes, you can earn Titanium status by staying just three nights (assuming three different brands). That’s the lowest hurdle to top tier status of any hotel loyalty programme out there.
As if that wasn’t enough, Titanium members can share their status with another member, effectively giving him/her a supplementary card with all the benefits of Titanium.
What this means is that hotels will soon be flooded with Titanium members, and it’s that old chestnut about nobody being super when everyone is.
Conclusion
World Elite Mastercard cardholders can get instant top-tier Titanium status with DISCOVERY Loyalty, which would be awesome if not for the uncertainty surrounding benefits going forward.
If you hold a World Mastercard, you can get instant Platinum status, which I suppose is better than nothing.
Will the 12 months validity start from Nov, or Dec if I do the conversion now? i.e. do they go by date of status or calendar month for example?
Hi Aaron, can this be incorporated against an existing account. It seems like a new account needs to be created to redeem.
yea how to incorporate into an existing account? no where to fill in existing discovery loyalty #
Found the solution, just key in the same details of your existing account, ie username. If there are duplicate it will prompt you to either select the duplicate or create another acc using a different name.
hmm, I did the exact some thing, but they told me the username already exist and asks me to choose another
I did try same way with JW19 and it works. You may try just different username first but other information must be the same.
Agree with Nat Nat, just use a different account name with everything else the same. Afterwards it will ask you to merge, once all is done you can login with the old ID and PW and card is upgraded
Anyone able to use an existing account to upgrade their tier?
I am an existing Discovery member, they asked for my membership number. I was awarded with the Black status, with the OCBC World Elite debit card, but with a new membership number.
good to know world elite debit card is also ok!
I registered for a membership (was not a member prior), called the number above and got upgraded to black. Expiry Dec 22.
Do you need to have a registered membership first? Or will they create one for you if you don’t have one?
Thank you Aaron !
OCBC World Elite Master Card Debit works for the upgrade too. Have just done it. Providing Datapoint to all
thank you!
My newly issued OCBC World Elite Master Card Debit (starting with 557556) card got rejected by the mastercard travel. Emailed them to ask, and they said the card isn’t in their database. Does your older card have the same starting digits?
Heard from Flyertalk, apparently one of the new perks would be to have access to GHA hotel facilities even if not staying at the hotel. Not sure if this is only available to Black/Titanium or also Platinum members.
This could be a gamechanger
I read the same thing but struggle to see how they could possibly implement it, especially with so many newly minted titaniums
I’m currently overseas, is there an overseas number that I could call instead of the 1800 number?
Call +6564075212. 1800 xxx xxxx maps to +65 6 xxx xxxx.
Link is dead! “Offer does not exist”
Thanks for the tip Aaron! Do you know if we must book the 3 nights required for status upgrade via the Discover Loyalty app/website to be eligible? Or can this be done via the hotel’s own website (which might have a better rate) and then quoting your Discover Loyalty number?
Apply for a Mastercard | Priceless Specials
Hi, just to check. For GHA membership benefits, do we need to book direct? Or you can book from any website will do?
I ask because I see this https://www.panpacific.com/en/members.html
Inside the chart, it mentions Direct Booking Benefits for gold member only,
Exclusive only when booking direct, enjoy complimentary upgrade to next room category*** and late check-out privilege until 3pm.***
So I assume the rest of the benefits are applicable for non-direct booking?
The link is down? Got the message – access denied.
updated the link. use: https://specials.priceless.com/en-sg/offers/DISCOVERY_Loyalty?Oid=202111090004&issuerId=201810190021&productId=201810200191
This link doesn’t work. Do you have an updated link, by any chance?
What number did everybody call for citi prestige? The number on the site 188004075212 has been disconnected
use the number in the post.
Stay 3 nights for black card – I suppose it is new bookings?
Just weighing in – I managed to get Black status with my OCBC World Elite Debit card
is there a way to get through on the line? I was on hold for so long, yet to get a human on the line, and exactly at 30 mins the system hangs up on you
yep same problem `
Did any other fellow Mastercard World holders manage to get their fast-track to Black (now Titanium) while the promo lasted? I completed my 3 nights within the indicated time but I’m still Platinum weeks later. Wrote in but no response later.
If the only verification they ask for is the first 6 digits of the card number why can’t you just use the world elite bin numbers available everywhere online?
Can get?
As per the update instructions to email GHA, I got this reply:
“We understand that you are looking to elevate your current tier status at DISCOVERY through MasterCard, and we wish to inform you that for this you will have to contact MasterCard directly as the offer was extended by them and they require to validate and process it through.”
So whom are we meant to contact at MasterCard please?
Same reply they gave to me. Any suggestions?
The link is no longer working. I submitted a request but didn’t get any response so seems like the offer no longer exist.
I managed to follow the instructions today (Oct 24 2022) and get the system to auto extend my Titanium status till Dec 2023. I’m an existing GHA Discovery Titanium member. I clicked thru the link to the Priceless website https://specials.priceless.com/en-sg/offers/DISCOVERY_Loyalty?Oid=202111090004&issuerId=201810190021&productId=201810200191 and followed the instructions