I’ve been a proponent for about two decades for the idea of having at least one each of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Entirely apart from a card’s benefits, payment networks often have their own unique benefits and also run promotions in conjunction with travel providers. I always want to be prepared to take advantage of the best offers that come along.

Mastercard has introduced several new benefits to its cards, largely though not exclusively for its premium ‘World Elite’ cards. Fortunately two of the rewards cards I carry are World Elite Mastercards.

• $10 Lyft credit for every five rides taken in a calendar month once per month to be applied to the next ride for World Elite Mastercard holders.
  If you’re using Lyft anyway a $10 ride credit per month is nice but in general I don’t prefer using Mastercards to pay for Uber and Lyft — I’d rather have 3 points per dollar with an Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card or Sapphire Reserve and of course the Platinum Card® from American Express‘s monthly Uber credit doesn’t requiring paying with that card.

• $5 off every Postmates order over $25. for World and World Elite Mastercard holders.

• Fandango double points with World Elite Mastercard, so a $5 credit for every 2 movie tickets purchased through the service.
  I guess this is useful if you buy movie tickets and make your purchases with Fandango. I find I go to the movies less and less often, and when I do go it’s either to an iPic theater (recliner-style seating and upgraded food and beverage) or to a local Alamo Drafthouse for a more niche performance. Their turn off your cell phone video is famous but also NSFW.

• Boxed 5% rebate towards future purchases with World Elite Mastercards.
  Do people shop with them?

• Cell Phone Insurance: for both World and World Elite cards when you charge your monthly bill to the card. Maximum liability is $600 (World) or $800 (World Elite) and “covers stolen or damaged mobile phones as well as cosmetic screen scratches even if they don’t affect the ability to make or take a call.” Annual losses are limited to $1000.
  I have a hard time giving up the 5 points per dollar on my Ink Cash card. Citi Prestige has a $1000 limit. Wells Fargo cards come with cell phone coverage, and so does the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card.

  The interesting thing here is that bundling this even with World Mastercards, cell phone coverage becomes pretty ubiquitous and no longer that much of a differentiator.

• ID Theft Protection personal information monitoring and resolution specialists.
  They don’t seem to promise much here.

For details on benefits of specific cards you may have, Mastercard refers you to the issuing bank, “Applicable banks are beginning to roll out the above benefits; cardholders should contact their issuing bank for additional information.”

Meanwhile Nerdwallet says pice protection and extended warranty from Mastercard get dropped. (HT: Doctor of Credit) Some banks issuing Mastercards may still offer a benefit through another third party.

The challenge is that many of the best rewards cards are from Chase, and Chase has an almost-exclusive relationship with Visa. The only Chase Mastercard I know of is the IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card which currently lets you earn an initial bonus up to 120,000 points: 80,000 after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening and an additional 40,000 bonus points after spending a total of $5,000 on purchases within 6 months of account opening. (Offer expired)

Mastercards, by the way, still work with bill payment service Plastiq for those who want to charge residential mortgage payments to a credit card for the miles (at a 2.5% fee).