Founderscard Membership Special & JetSmarter Perk
I have really been enjoying my Founderscard membership, primarily because of the Total Rewards Diamond status it has given me. You may remember that I found the status to be much better than I had originally anticipated after I received a free comp night at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas with almost no play.
Since then I have gone on to enjoy a:
- $100 meal voucher
- A free night at Caesar’s in Atlantic City (~$150)
- VIP check-in
- Diamond lounge access
- VIP Valet parking
and much more. As of now, my comps have dried up a bit, but on most nights I can get free rooms at all but the very high-end Strip properties for free. We also get two free show tickets per month to select venues or other entertainment experiences. For example, the other night we just redeemed this benefit for two free tickets to the High Roller Wheel. It was during peak time and others were paying $37 each to ride.
Other Founderscard Benefits
Of course Founderscard has about 100 other benefits as well and to be honest most of them don’t interest me, but I think each person will see them differently. With that said, I have found a few interesting ones to take advantage of. I consider these icing on the TR Diamond cake.
- 2,500 Monkey Rewards credits from Mailchimp – This is basically $2,500 worth of credits for the newsletter service I already use to send out the daily mailers to you guys!
- $18 Dollar Shave Club credit – They simply give you a code good for $18. I had been thinking of trying them for awhile and found that I really like their razors. They also have hair products as well.
- Trip It Pro – My free membership from the Arrival Plus (I think) ran out but I was able to get another year for free.
I do want to mention that Founderscard has a number of elite status benefits such as Hilton HHonors Gold, Cathay Pacific Silver, etc. I assume most of you won’t need those. They did run a Platinum AAdvantage challenge for members earlier this year, but it has expired. Who knows if it will come back. They also have some decent discounts at high-end hotels if that is your sort of thing.
Need more info? Click here to read our full FoundersCard Review!
A Cool New Benefit
So, I want to be clear that the Total Rewards Diamond is what sold me on Founderscard and without it I don’t think the value is there. But I also like cool things and thus I think their newest benefit is worth mentioning! As of last week, private jet membership club JetSmarter is giving Founderscard members a complimentary 3 month JetSmarter Membership.
Of course it isn’t a full membership, but here are the details:
FoundersCard Members receive a complimentary 3-month trial membership to JetSmarter, a FC Preferred Partner. Trial includes a single complimentary seat on JetDeals™ and ability to purchase JetCharter™ and JetShuttle™ services for the trial duration.
In case you are wondering, JetDeals are offered when they are trying to relocate a plane for a charter. For example, here are two flights I looked up last week after they announced this new benefit. (Note: You only get one seat whereas full members can get more.)
If you want to look at what types of JetDeals flights they have for your location, you don’t need an actual membership. You can download the app, register for a free account and view the deals.
My Overall Thoughts
I think this new JetSmarter membership is more icing for me. While I still think the primary value of Founderscard membership is Total Rewards Diamond status, I’ll gladly hop around the country on private jets for three months to try out the service. I’m not sure I am ready to pay $15,000 for a membership, but I’ll give it a try. For now, I am going to be strategic about when I activate my membership so I can make sure to take advantage of it!
Founderscard Membership Special
After receiving the email about this new benefit, I reached out to Founderscard to find out the very best discounts for joining. The recent best deal has been $295 per year if you pay 2 years in advance, but that has ended. Right now they informed me that their best offer is $395 per year plus a $95 initiation fee.
After a back and forth, I was able to get them to agree to waive the $95 initiation fee for Miles to Memories readers. Here is how it works:
- Sign up via this link with the code FCSHAWN593. (Also put “Shawn Coomer” in the “How you heard about Founderscard” field.)
- Email me at shawn at milestomemories dot com to let me know the exact name on the membership.
- I then have to email Founderscard to let them know you are a reader and they will waive the $95 fee.
After all of that, the annual fee is just $395 per year with no initiation. I want to be clear that I am not an affiliate of Founderscard and this is just my personal referral (every member has one) and thus I am not receiving anything over and above a normal referral for doing this. While I do think the $295 offer was better, they would not give me any indication if/when it will come back.
Conclusion
I have already received outsized value from my Founderscard membership due to the Total Rewards Diamond status, but I am excited any time a new benefit comes available that I will be able to use. The aviation geek in me is excited for this JetSmarter membership and I’ll do my best to utilize it.
If you have any questions about Founderscard or about any of the benefits, I am more than happy to answer them via email or in the comments if I can.
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[…] of the biggest, if not biggest, perks of the FoundersCard was Total Rewards Diamond status. With this you got a $100 Diamond dinner voucher and free access […]
When will we know if they are renewing the Total Rewards diamond benefit through January 2018?
Was this a renewing benefit? Thought it was ongoing as a FC member
Why wouldn’t the $2,500 Mailchimp benefit alone be enough for you to get value from the card (at least for the first year)? $395 for $2,500 seems like a no-brainer unless there are conditions to the credit.
It would be – I was more just curious as to whether it’d be worth holding for more than a year.
How do you go about getting comped stays?
Is the 2,500 MailChimp credit something you get each year, or just a one-time offer when initially signing up for FoudersCard?
It is one time but they basically load $2,500 in credit into your account which is great.
Great – thank you!
Are resort fees waived when rooms are comped?
Yes with Total Rewards Diamond resort fees are waived on both paid and comped stays.
Charge is $5 for tourist fees. Other fees comped
I signed up for the diamond benefit. AC is close to me and I use it twice per month. Valet park is $20 a pop but free with diamond. VIP lines are a nice perk. The $100 credit towards dinner will be used. Rooms comped. Was worth it for me. I was a 7 star but this comes out a lot less expensive for diamond