Many Eye of the Flyer readers have CLEAR memberships to get through security faster at many airports. Just the past week, CLEAR sent out an offer for users to get a Founders Card basic membership for free. While the code “VIPCLEAR12X” seems targeted for only members who hold CLEAR it may work even if you don’t have CLEAR membership (this offer LINK HERE is only good through the end of June 2024).
Is this offer worth going for? For most people, I would say no as the perks are very limited with the “standard” or basic membership. In fact, as soon as you sign up you are bombarded with ads to upgrade for $295 to unlock the real benefits of Founders Card as you see from the list above.
Looking at the full list of perks there, even at the Elite membership level, they are not that impressive but there are a few gems like Dell discounts are useful for those of us with The Business Platinum Card® from American Express that comes with up to $400 in Dell statement credits each year. But for that extra $295 upgrade price with the Founder Card to Elite level you do get Caesars Diamond membership and that can unlock a shot at many free cruise offers.
For those of you not aware, once you hold Caesars Diamond, you can submit your card to a number of cruise lines and see what kind of free cruise they will give you. For example:
Now, neither of the above were truly 100% free. They could have been close to free (other than daily gratuities per person and port taxes) but I paid for several upgrades to both sailings. Still, I saved a ton of money compared to booking the cruises without the offers.
Personally, I would not go this route as the much cheaper option to get Caesars Diamond status is to apply for and be approved for the Wyndham Earner Business Card that has just a $95 fee andcomes with Wyndham Diamond that you can then match to Caesars Diamond – but some may not want to mess with all that! In that case, or if you are maybe lifetime banned by Barclays, this could be a reasonable cost for a shot at many free cruises (see the FM post from Nick for more info. All information about the Wyndham Earner Business Card was collected independently by Eye of the Flyer. It was not provided by or reviewed by the card issuer.)
Overall this is an offer not for everyone to jump on but for some spending under $300 for a shot at many nearly free nights at sea is worth seriously considering! – René
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Thank you for being honest about the card. I feel like it is a complete BAIT and SWITCH type of method, where they lure you into the lower end card with all these promos, but in reality, you need the “Elite” version for significantly more. Then if you forget to renew, you’re SOL.
Appreciate the transparency here.
Hard pass.
Agreed – based on other things I’ve read about the card in general – this “free” membership is an even lower tier than the basic paid membership. It’s really more of a preview of the website and offers – it gives you nearly nothing most people don’t already get. Many of the “discounts” they’re offering me are worse than discounts I get from AmEx Platinum and similar statuses I have. Really misleading also the way they marketed the trial.
One note – if you go to manage membership – it will offer you a 3 month trial of the Elite membership where you can get 2 of the elite benefits (Caesars, Hertz President Circle, etc.). Did that – will redeem and see if any value and then almost certainly cancel pretty immediately.
Please keep up posted, David!
@David – Hate to tell you this but I tested the 3 month trial Elite and it does NOT unlock Caesars Diamond – they still want you to pay the $295!
Yes but if you set yourself a reminder you can cancel the fee before it renews. That’s what I always do with offers like these.
I had the Founders Card for a few years. *Some* might find the business discounts of value — I didn’t. *Some* might find the travel discounts of value — I didn’t. For the most part, I was able to secure these by other means. So, for me, that left the various tier statuses granted. For an infrequent traveler, that might be nice, but I earn them organically. In the end, I found no meaningful value and cancelled my card.