Points, Miles, and Loyalty Programs: AMC Stubs Premiere

This is the first installment in what I hope will be on occasional series on various consumer loyalty and rewards programs. I follow a number of blogs on these topics and while I certainly do not anticipate competing with the folks who cover these programs full time, I hope to offer my own narratives as part of the conversation on these valuable consumer tools.

Naomi and I go to movies fairly frequently, probably our most frequent date option beyond a restaurant. I have been a fairly lackluster AMC Stubs Insider member for (as my account history tells me) three years, quite often not even bothering to scan my digital membership card to earn points, but only just two days ago, in advance of our latest movie date, decide to give AMC Stubs Premiere membership try.

There are four main benefits I see to the Premiere level over the Insider level, which are as follows in ascending order of their value to us:

1. Free size upgrades on popcorn and soda. Literally zero value to us, we hard pass on the salt and sugar overload and sneak in our own snacks!

2. Waived online ticketing fees. We almost always simply purchase tickets on arrival, but if we ever go to a highly popular movie at a highly popular showtime, it is nice to know we can get tickets advance, online, for no surcharge. Speaking of purchasing on arrival...

3. Priority lanes at box office (and concessions, but see #1). This would probably be the second most valuable benefit, simply for time saving at the theater. Not that either of us like getting into our seats to watch the pre-preview commercials, but I always prefer to get the "standing in line" part of the date behind me! Though of course, the first time we went after I upgraded to Premiere membership, this priority lane was unused...

My first time at an AMC after upgrading to Premiere membership and I was not able to experience the priority lane benefit...

4. Earn 100 points per dollar spent (not including taxes and fees), compared to 20 points per dollar. This is the most valuable benefit to Naomi and me as we will get to $5 rewards (earned every 5000 points) now five times faster. Over the course of a year we probably see about six movies, and with the ticket price at our closest AMC at $10.49, we will now get to two of those $5 rewards each year and halfway to the next one (compared to just halfway to one reward in a year).

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find when I purchased the first tickets after upgrading my membership that I had a $5 reward posted to my account, so we already have brought our net cost of membership to $10.

Are you an AMC Stubs member at any level? There is also the A-List tier, have you experienced that and what do you think, of that or any other level?