Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard®

Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard® Review

The Priority Destinations World Elite Card from First Hawaiian Bank is this financial institution’s most premier credit card. It offers cardholders Priority Miles for every purchase they make. This card rewards frequent travelers the most with every dollar spent on travel purchases earning them five miles. However, this perk is only valid for up to $6,000 in travel purchases a year. After you reach that spending maximum, you’ll only earn two miles for every dollar you spend on travel purchases. That’s the same number of points you’ll earn every time you purchase everyday essentials with this card, like gas, groceries, and utilities. For every other type of purchase, you’ll earn one mile for each dollar you spend. You can redeem your miles for travel, cash back, or gift cards. New cardholders can also take advantage of a low introductory interest rate for eight months on balance transfers. What’s more, you don’t have to pay the annual fee your first year. Keep reading to learn more about the features of this card.

Earn 5X Points on Travel

The Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard® lets you earn five points for ever dollar you spend on travel purchases. This feature sets this card apart from many other rewards cards that may appear to offer extra points on travel purchases. With those other cards, you only earn points for purchases you make directly through an airline. The First Hawaiian Bank Priority Destinations card, however, earns you points for airfare regardless of where you purchased it. This means you can book your travel through an agency or on a booking website, like Expedia or Travelocity. Furthermore, you can earn points for booking train or bus travel, renting cars, and making hotel reservations. In short, a single vacation can earn you a lot of points. The one downside to this feature, however, is that you won’t really earn 5X points on all your purchases. This is because this earning rate only applies to the first $6,000 you spend in a year on travel. After you’ve spent that amount on travel in a year, you’ll only earn 2X points per dollar on your travel purchases. This is still more than the lowest earning rate with this card, but it does limit your earning potential. Frequent travelers and luxury travelers, for instance, may max out that spending maximum within several months. If you consider that an economy long-haul flight costs about $1,000, that’s only six flights a year. And that doesn’t even include accommodations and other expenses. If you’re a frequent traveler, you may want to consider other travel credit cards that let you earn more points for your purchases.

Earning Points Elsewhere

The First Hawaiian Bank Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard® also earns you points on other purchases, albeit at a lower rate. Nevertheless, you’ll earn more points for items that you may spend the most money on in a month. Cardholders earn 2 points for every dollar they spend on everyday essentials. These include groceries, gas, and utilities. Utilities can include cable TV subscriptions, cell phone bills, water, and electricity. What’s great about this credit card is that you’re not limited to making these purchases at certain categories of merchants. Many rewards cards that offer increased points for certain types of purchases require that you make purchases at businesses that meet specific qualifications. For instance, you must purchase gas only at a gas station to earn extra points. That’s not the case with this World Elite Mastercard®. As long as the purchase classifies as gas, you’ll still earn 2X points on it. The earnings don’t stop there, though. You’ll earn one point for every dollar you spend on everything else. First Hawaiian Bank does implement some rules on certain types of transactions that will not earn you points, however. These transactions include the usual balance transfers and cash advances. However, you should know that you will not earn points for transferring funds. This may be of concern if you’re purchasing something from an informal business by transferring funds through PayPal or an app like Venmo. Your card must go through a POS (Point of Sale) system in order to qualify for points. Additionally, you cannot earn points for making lease, loan, or tax payments. The same restriction applies to purchases made at truck stops and any type of gambling transaction, including the purchase of lottery tickets. This makes First Hawaiian’s credit card one of the most restrictive when it comes to earning points.

Redeeming Your Points

One of the great features of the Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard® from First Hawaiian Bank is that there’s no limit to how many points you earn. What’s more, your points never expire. The only requirement to keep your points is making sure that you use your credit card at least once within a 24-month period. Although First Hawaiian brands this as a travel card, you actually have some flexibility in what you can redeem your Priority Miles for. However, your points have more value when you redeem them for travel rewards on First Hawaiian Bank’s Priority Destinations website. If you redeem your points for travel, each point has an approximate value of $0.01 (one cent). If you spend $6,000 on travel in a year, that comes out to $300 in travel credits. Redeeming your points for gift cards reduces the value of what you’ve earned. A $100 gift card, for instance, will cost you 14,000 points. This gives each point a value of $0.007, which is under one cent. The exchange rate is a little better if you opt for cash back. You would need only 12,500 points to earn $100. This puts the value at $0.008 per point.

Low Intro APR on Balance Transfers

Another attractive feature of the Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard® is its introductory APR on balance transfers for eight months. One of the details that sets this feature apart from competing introductory APR offers is that there is no time limit for when you can transfer a balance. The eight-month promotional period begins on the date that you transfer a balance and not just when you open an account. One of the negative points about this offer, however, is that it’s not very generous. Many banks that offer a promotional balance transfer APR offer 0% interest. This enables cardholders to pay off reduce their debt without having to pay anything extra. While this First Hawaiian Mastercard’s promotional APR is over one-third less than the regular interest rate, it’s still more than 0%.

Extra Perks for Travelers

The Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard® from First Hawaiian truly is a traveler’s credit card. If earning 5X points on travel purchases isn’t enough, this card offers a couple of additional benefits for travelers. For starters, there are no foreign transaction fees associated with this card. Couple this with Mastercard’s global purchasing power, and you have a credit card you can use almost freely no matter where you are in the world. In addition, cardholders automatically get free access to Mastercard Airport Experiences Provided by LoungeKey. With this benefit, you receive two complimentary airport lounge visits per year. Every subsequent visit is only $27, which is a significant savings.

Should You Apply for the Priority Destinations World Elite Mastercard®?

First Hawaiian Bank primarily serves residents of Hawaii. As such, applying for this card may only be beneficial to you if you live in the state. This rewards card offers a slew of benefits that make the relatively low annual fee worth the cost. However, frequent travelers may find some of the rules to be restrictive. $6,000 is a low spend maximum for frequent travelers, especially those who book business- or first-class tickets. Earning 2X points on travel after reaching $6,000 in purchases is very low for a travel rewards card. The good thing, though, is that your points never expire and there is no limit to how many points you can earn. That means that your 30,000 points (worth $300 in travel credits) can roll over almost indefinitely.