iHere in Canada (and in the U.S.), Diners Club has been relatively quiet since the North American franchise of the brand was offered up for sale by Citibank and acquired by BMO. Overall however, the brand Worldwide is seeing some positive changes to the benefits offered to Diners Club cardholders and with the card set to take applications once again in North America sometime this year, the card may regain some traction that it once held with frequent travellers in the U.S. (the card won many Freddie awards in the past) and in Canada (the card was the number 1 hybrid card in Rewards Canada's 2009 rankings). For those of use who were lucky enough to have or get the card before they stopped accepting new applications in 2009, we all understand how good this card has been and are looking forward to when BMO relaunches it later this year.
For now, the current cardholders in Canada and U.S. have seen these recent enhancements to the card:
Airport Lounge Access: One of the great benefits of this card outside of free Priority Pass membership is direct access to business class lounges around the World. Back in 2009, a Diners Club cardholder could access just over 115 lounges, recently this has been extended to over 350 lounges worldwide! A great enhancement which I actually made use of recently when I used my Diners card to enter the KLM Crown Lounge in Toronto's Pearson airport. It made my 5 hour stay at the start of spring break quieter and more relaxing then if I had been in the extremely busy general airport areas. To see all of the lounges that a Diners Club card offers access to please see here.
Diners Club Privileges: Now, I can honestly say that I have never seen this before, perhaps it has been around longer then when stumbled upon it but on the Diners Club International site they have Cardmembers Benefit section which also has a sub section called Diners Club Privileges. The Privileges section lists discounts, benefits etc. that Diners Club cardholders can make use of. When I looked at it today it offered discounts at Macy's stores in the U.S., hotel discounts in Europe and much more. For me, this is a page I will visit way more often to make sure I catch deals for the places I am travelling to. To see the Privileges, click here.
For those Canadians reading this that do not have this card and are interested in it, please keep checking back as we will most definitely provide the news to Canadians when this card is opened up once again for applications.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteTo me, the Diners Club Master Card is the most hassle free of the travel rewards cards. The ability to make my own deal with an airline and charge it to the card, then ask for credit on the next bill beats trying to find that I am paying excess points with Aeroplan or find that I can't get from here to there on the days I want.
Donald