Many credit card issuers are building out their slates of unique and exclusive cardholder experiences as they duke it out for the most premium customers.
The formula seems to be: Top-tier access equals top-tier customers willing to shell out top dollar in annual fees for perks-rich cards.
Lately, we’ve seen card issuers offer their top customers presale tickets to world-class sporting events, sold-out concert series and more.
While Mastercard has fielded its Priceless platform of curated experiences since — wait for it — 1997, the program keeps evolving and introducing new and exciting partnerships and even more rarefied offerings available through The Mastercard Collection for those with World Mastercard, World Elite Mastercard and the relatively new range of World Legend Mastercard products, which includes the Citi Strata Elite℠Card (see rates and fees).
This past weekend in Los Angeles, Mastercard invited me to the 2026 Grammy Awards to try out some of these perks myself and get a sneak peek at a concert sweepstakes Mastercard has just announced today.
Noah Kahan sweepstakes and tour
Why the Grammys? Well, Mastercard coproduced and premiered the music video for two-time Grammy nominee and multiplatinum artist Noah Kahan’s latest anthem, “The Great Divide,” during one of the commercial breaks at the 68th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles last night.
And today, Mastercard has launched a fun, new sweepstakes to bring Kahan’s live music to cardholders across the country.
The sweepstakes
Mastercard holders can watch “The Great Divide” music video and try to find Easter eggs in it for a chance to win several prizes:
- One grand-prize winner and a guest will be invited to a listening party with Kahan himself before his new album debuts.
- Three first-prize winners plus a guest each will enjoy specific Priceless Experiences from The Mastercard Collection involving Kahan and his tour.
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Once you watch the music video, create your own video or photo pertaining to the clues you find and post it on your Instagram or TikTok accounts with the hashtag “#MastercardNoahSweepstakes” in the caption.
Each cardholder only gets one submission, and there is no purchase necessary. The sweepstakes ends Feb. 11.
Preferred and VIP tickets
As a sponsor of Kahan’s “The Great Divide” tour of the U.S. and Canada this summer, Mastercard will also give World Elite and World Legend Mastercard holders access to exclusive tickets to his shows starting Feb. 12.
The tour kicks off in Orlando on June 11, traveling westward across the country and hitting major cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Dallas before wrapping up in Seattle on Aug. 30.
Preferred tickets will be premium seating around an auxiliary stage closer to the action during key moments of the show. VIP tickets, meanwhile, will include those auxiliary stage tickets and a dedicated VIP entrance at venues.
So, if you like Kahan’s music and were thinking about following along on his tour, it’s time to open up your wallet and see if you have an eligible card that can get you access to these exclusive offerings.
The Mastercard Collection benefits
Over the course of a few days preceding the Grammys, I also got to take advantage of a few other Mastercard Collection perks that, I admit, I’ve been letting lie fallow lately among my own portfolio of credit cards.
One night, I met some fellow media members and influencers for dinner at Mother Wolf, one of the city’s buzziest and celebrity-frequented restaurants (seriously, the last time I was there, I saw Melissa McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, dining with Octavia Spencer!).
The Italian eatery is a Priceless dining partner of The Mastercard Collection for World, World Elite and World Legend cards, with priority access to reservations for hard-to-score tables. And, trust me, you want to get a table here if only to enjoy the bubbly crusted pizzas and handmade pastas, like the earthy wild boar ragu fusilli.
Another day, I was treated to a Priceless Experience available to all Mastercard holders at Hume. It’s a chic wellness center in Venice, California, with several floors filled with fitness equipment; a hot yoga studio; expansive locker rooms with saunas, steam rooms and gorgeous cold plunge baths; and even a rooftop cafe where members can unwind after a fitness session. Most LA of all? It even has its own valet stand.
The package I participated in included:
- All-day access to the facility, including the fitness equipment and the recovery lounge, complete with Theragun massagers and leg compression boots
- A full tour with Hume’s director of wellness and a personalized consultation
- A complimentary beverage from the cafe
- A dedicated locker with water and electrolyte pouches
- A 50-minute movement session or recovery treatment, including yoga, Pilates, a sound bath, a deep-tissue massage and use of a full-body compression suit or hyperbaric oxygen chamber
I spent the afternoon there and enjoyed a quick workout followed by a relaxing steam and shower with Osea seaweed-based spa products (Hume’s current skin care partner) and then settled in for a restorative hyperbaric oxygen session that left me feeling relaxed and refreshed for the Grammys the following day.
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The cost of the package was $130, which might seem steep, but when you consider it included a fitness class that could cost $30 to $50 at other gyms, plus a spa treatment worth hundreds of dollars, it seemed like a great deal. It was all the more so since you just have to be a Mastercard holder to take advantage of it — you don’t even need a premium Mastercard.
Bottom line
Competition for premium cardholders is fierce these days, with issuers vying for the highest-net-worth customers with flashy perks like lounge access and a plethora of value-added statement credits.
But even those with mid-tier cards can still unlock benefits like Mastercard’s Priceless offerings that get you access to events and experiences you might not otherwise be able to enjoy.
My own time zipping around my hometown of Los Angeles taking advantage of Mastercard’s Priceless and The Mastercard Collection benefits has me taking a second look at the cards in my wallet and the perks they confer so I can maximize them even more than I already have.
