Bits: Lloyds extends World Elite 0% FX, easyJet reprieves Flight Club, IHG Orlando deal

News in brief:

Lloyds Bank improves the 0% FX benefit on its World Elite Mastercard

As we reviewed here, the Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard is, in our view, a contender for wallet space thanks to two decent travel benefits:

• it is the cheapest way to get a full Priority Pass – including the airport restaurant credits which Amex excludes – for two people
• you pay 0% in FX fees when travelling AND get 0.5% to 1% cashback on top

At the time of our review (May 2025) the 0% FX fees were only offered for your first five years as a Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard holder.

This time limitation has now been removed, and you are guaranteed that there will be no FX fees on your spending for the lifetime of the product.

To find out more about the Lloyds Bank World Elite Mastercard, read our review here.

easyJet reprieves Flight Club (for some? for all?)

The mystery of easyJet and the termination of Flight Club deepens.

A month ago, we reported that easyJet had emailed members of its semi-secret loyalty programme called ‘Flight Club’ to say that their membership had been terminated.

The email was curt and did not give any reason for the membership cancellation. This caused concerns, especially from people who had made complaints about the airline in the past year.

(‘Flight Club’ is no longer open to new members. When it was accepting new members, the key criteria was 20 one-way easyJet flights within 12 months.)

This is all they were told by the airline:

We’re always reviewing our membership schemes and offers. Following our last review, your Flight Club membership has unfortunately come to an end.

[Extra paragraph added for easyJet Plus members about retaining those benefits]

We look forward to welcoming you on board soon,
easyJet

After a bit digging, easyJet said this:

Following a recent internal review of our complimentary Flight Club membership program, we’ve made the difficult decision to place the program on hold. This change is part of a broader effort to reassess and refine the structure and future direction of the program.

Please rest assured that this decision was not based on individual travel patterns, loyalty, or any specific customer interactions. No personal circumstances were considered in this process.

Fair enough. As we have covered in recent months, easyJet appears to be setting up a ‘proper’ loyalty scheme – click here – which we believe will be called Jetsetter. It would make sense to wind up Flight Club as part of this transition.

And yet …. yesterday easyJet sent out another email to members:

You may have received an email recently stating that your Flight Club membership had ended. Upon further review of your account, we realise this email was sent in error, and would like to apologise for any confusion caused.

Please rest assured that your membership is still active, and there’s no action needed on your part. You can continue enjoying all the benefits of Flight Club as usual.

As part of a wider review, we’re currently looking at how we can better recognise our customers in the future.

It’s all very confusing. Has everyone been invited back? Was it a genuine mistake before or is easyJet back-peddling? Why did they include the last line I quoted above in their email?

Good points deals at new IHG hotel in Orlando

IHG has just opened the voco Kissimmee Orlando hotel.

I don’t know anything about the Orlando market so I won’t comment on the hotel or its location. What I do know is that – as often happens with new IHG hotels – there are some good points deals available.

I could see rooms yesterday as low as 12,666 IHG One Rewards points per night. This is for a room which sleeps four.

The majority of nights appear to be 14,000 IHG One Rewards points.

Given that cash rates are over $100 per night for the dates I checked, you’re getting around 50% more than our average 0.4p per point.

The voco Kissimmee Orlando website is here.

Thanks to Daniel for flagging.