๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ Last call: Sign up for AMEX My Travel Insurance and get Accor Plus, Samsonite luggage, Grab vouchers and bonus miles.

Mastercard offering I Prefer Titanium hotel elite status

Mastercard customers can continue enjoying a fast-track up to I Prefer Titanium, but there's now a one-stay requirement before status is upgraded.

You might not have heard of The Preferred Hotels Group, but it has more than 600 hotels and resorts in over 80 countries, including familiar names like The Fullerton Hotel, The Fullerton Bay Hotel, Artyzen Singapore and Royal Plaza on Scotts in Singapore.

I Prefer Hotel Rewards

The groupโ€™s loyalty programme is called I Prefer, and for the past few years, Mastercard customers have enjoyed an instant fast track up to Titanium (the highest published tier in the programme), along with 25,000 bonus points for World Elite Mastercard customers.

This offer was originally set to lapse on 30 June 2025, but has now been renewed till 31 December 2026.

Unfortunately, thereโ€™s also one major change: status is now awarded upon the completion of the first stay, instead of upfront.

I Prefer fast-track for Mastercard customers

I Prefer Offer

From 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2026, Mastercard customers with cards issued in Asia Pacific are eligible for a fast-track to I Prefer elite status, bypassing the usual qualification requirements. 

Mastercard Tier I Prefer Tier
World Elite Titanium + 25,000 points
World Titanium
Platinum/Titanium Gold
Gold/Standard Silver + 1,000 points 

This offer is not valid for existing I Prefer members. You must create a new I Prefer account if you wish to participate. 

While status was previously granted instantly upon registration, cardmembers must now complete one qualifying stay before 31 March 2027 to receive their status upgrade. Once the stay is completed, status will be upgraded and remain valid for one year. 

Do note that there is no qualifying stay requirement for Gold and Standard Mastercard cardholders as they receive Silver status anyway, the lowest tier in the I Prefer programme. 

That said, the only relevant tier is really Titanium, because even the most basic debit and credit cards in Singapore belong to the World Mastercard tier. 

If you have a World Elite Mastercard, however, youโ€™ll receive an extra 25,000 points after completing your first booking.  I Prefer reward nights start from 15,000 points, or you can redeem them for cash certificates at a value of 1 point = 0.2 US cents (so 25,000 points would be worth US$50).

As a reminder, the following Mastercards belong to the World Elite tier.

Card Annual Fee Qualification Req.
Citi Prestige Card S$651.82 Income โ‰ฅ S$120K
Citi Private Client Debit Card N/A Min. AUM S$1.5M
Citi ULTIMA Card S$4,238 Income โ‰ฅ S$500K
DCS Imperium Card S$3,584 Unknown
HSBC Premier Mastercard
N/A*
Min. AUM S$200K
HSBC Prive Card S$5,328 HSBC Global Private Banking relationship
OCBC Premier Debit Card N/A Min. AUM S$350K
OCBC PPC Debit Card N/A Min. AUM S$1.5M
StanChart Beyond Card S$1,635 Income โ‰ฅ S$200K
UOB Ladyโ€™s Solitaire Metal Card S$599 Spend S$45K in 3-month period on UOB Ladyโ€™s Solitaire Card
*Waived if min. AUM is maintained, otherwise S$490.50

How do you register?

I Preferโ€™s verification process used to be somewhat lacking, to put it mildly, as registration codes werenโ€™t unique. Therefore, all it took was one person with a World Elite Mastercard to share their code, and presto- everyoneโ€™s Titanium!

Thatโ€™s now been rectified, and youโ€™ll need to generate a unique code via the Mastercard Redemption Portal.

  1. Visit the Mastercard Redemption Portal and look for the I Prefer banner. 

2. Generate your registration code and use it to sign up for an I Prefer membership via this link

What perks do members enjoy?

Hereโ€™s a summary of the perks enjoy by the various tiers of I Prefer membership.

To be frank, the perks arenโ€™t great. Titanium members do enjoy early check-in, late check-out, and enhanced room upgrades, but all these are subject to availability. Moreover, the same benefits are available to Gold and Silver, though presumably Titanium has higher priority.

Thereโ€™s no complimentary breakfast nor lounge access, and in any case I Prefer is not so much a chain as it is a marketing alliance. Consequently, there isnโ€™t a lot of consistency or enforcement of I Prefer elite benefits. 

The Fullerton Sydney didnโ€™t offer any real I Prefer elite benefits

In my experiences so far (at the Fullertobn Hotel Sydney, Hotel Munchen Palace and Hotel Maximilian) I got nothing more than a drinks voucher- no upgrades, no late check-out, no welcome amenity. The check-in staff seemed altogether unfamiliar with the programme. Perhaps things have changed in the years since, but I donโ€™t have the best impression based on my stays.

According to the I Prefer terms and conditions, youโ€™ll need to book through the following channels to enjoy points and benefits: 

  • IPrefer.com, PreferredHotels.com, PreferredGolf.com, StayBeyondGreen.com
  • Preferred Hotel Group call centers
  • Travel agent bookings (other than online travel agents including, but not limited to Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, and Hotels.com)
  • Hotel website
  • Hotel direct bookings, e.g. phone bookings

However, Iโ€™ve been told by hotels that you need to book through I Prefer to receive benefits, so there seems to be some inconsistency there. 

What other hotel status do Mastercard customers enjoy?

Mastercard has been busy striking deals with smaller hotel loyalty programmes, and cardholders can enjoy the following fast-track offers.

Programme World World Elite
Brilliant by Langham Sapphire Ruby
CentaraThe1 Gold Platinum
GHA DISCOVERY Platinum Titanium
I Prefer Titanium Titanium
(+ 25K bonus points)
My Millennium Silver Prestige
ONYX Rewards Gold Platinum
Swiss Belexecutive Gold Influencer Platinum Connoisseur
Wyndham Rewards Platinum Diamond

While some of these chains are relatively obscure, GHA DISCOVERY and Wyndham Rewards are noteworthy enough.

In any case, if your travel plans happen to bring you to one of these hotels, then Iโ€™m sure youโ€™d rather have some status than none at all.

Conclusion

The Sanchaya, Bintan

Mastercard has extended its partnership with I Prefer till 31 December 2026, offering eligible cardholders up to Titanium status. 

However, status is no longer granted upfront. Instead, youโ€™ll be required to complete one qualifying stay before getting upgraded, which will serve as a disincentive to trying out the programme.

Still, the 25,000 points you earn from a single stay (as a World Elite Mastercard customer) are enough for one free night at the chainโ€™s lower-tier properties, so thatโ€™s still a deal worth taking.

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

Similar Articles

Comments

20 COMMENTS

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

20 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
EliteStatus

The titanium seems to be fairly uselesss. Thereโ€™s no free breakfast or anything. The pseudo early/late checkout is subjected to availabiluty. you donโ€™t really get anything.

Gonzo

I stayed at Royal Scotts as a Titanium and i received zilch of zilch!

Jun

I was at Hotel Metropolitan in Taiwan last year, got free breakfast for 2, room upgrade and lounge access.

Skye

with which tier?

Jim

Authority

Lifshitz

If 1pt = 0.02 USD then 25k would be 500 not 50 โ€“ somewhere your math is off

Gordon

Iโ€™ve not been able to register for this. Keep getting a timeout reply. Anyone has been able to sign up?

Steve

Any idea by when after completing the eligible stay would the 25k points be credited?

CY Cheng

Did you eventually managed to get the 25k bonus points? Recently completed an eligible booking and paid with world elite card but only received points for the stay itself.

chk

Having registered with the link above for World Elite, and having just received the Welcome email, I can confirm itโ€™s just Titanium but my account show zero points.
Free titanium but no 25,000 points. Aaron should amend this post.

chk

Okay. Will know after mid-October. Musy I pay hotel stay using the MC Elite credit card?

chk

I received 3409 points on my day of check in to Lancaster Bangkok. More than 1 week after checking out, Iโ€™ve been seeing the 3409 points in multiple emails but no 25,000 World Elite MC points. Anyone can share how long after stay before it gets credited?

chk

2 months after my stay, there is no 25,000 points. I registered with the correct link. Since no joining or membership fee paid, guess canโ€™t complain.
For Lancaster Bangkok, no acknowledgement of I Prefer Titanium status. Asked what is the benefit on check in, no one had a clue in mid October 2024. But otherwise, I enjoyed my stay at Lancaster Bangkok though; the room, the breakfast, the bar cocktails were nice.

Pete

Is your Authority Status still active?
Support tells me that it has been erased and is no longer available.

Then again i do not understand why they renamed the tiers as it basically is the same program then before just without Authority Status and with new tier names.

Cky

are you guys able to sign up for the I prefer account? it keeps giving me an error message of *Terms & Conditions must be accepted when activating a Profile. when signing up, but there is no option to accept any T&Cs on the registration page itself.

Mark

I have exactly the same problem โ€“ can pls advise?

Robert

Can the upgrade be applied to existing account?
Thinking of booking my stay first, then start the upgrade nearer to the date.

CREDIT CARD SIGN UP BONUSES

Advertisment

Featured Deals

Advertisment

Follow us

7,110FansLike
14,106FollowersFollow

TAGS