I recently heard from the lovely folks who issue my Banana Republic credit card. They wanted me to know that a new card and new benefits are on the way. I could care less about the look of the new card, but I always perk up when folks start talking about new benefits.
Here’s a page describing the new changes. What caught my eye was this:
Upgrading to Luxe has never been easier.
- 5,000 base points qualifies you for Luxe
- For Visa Cardmembers, your spend in and out of our brands counts towards you based points
Now up to this point you could only get Luxe status by spending $800 at the Banana Republic / Gap family of stores. But if I’m reading this correctly, you can now get Luxe status by spending $5,000 anywhere you want, since you get 1 point per dollar spent outside of the stores.
I checked the T&C’s for clarification and it said this:
Cardholders must earn 5,000 points (excluding bonus points) to upgrade to Luxe, Silver or Navyist status. Visa cardholders will qualify for status by making purchases outside of Gap, Inc. locations.
So yes, it seems you can get Luxe via spending outside of the Gap, Inc. family. I also noticed this bullet point:
Gap Silver, Banana Republic Luxe and Navyist by Old Navy accounts will earn a 20% rewards bonus each calendar quarter.
…Which makes this card 1.2% on everything, and 6% back at the stores. And today I received a promotion in the mail: 3X back on everything next month, which would be 3.6% back on everything with Luxe status. I may need to think about putting some spending on this thing. As far as I can tell, Luxe/Silver/Navyist status isn’t all that great. Here are the benefits as per the website:
- FREE shipping on all online purchases7
- 15% off Choose Your Own Sale Day offer8
- FREE basic alterations on all Banana Republic purchases9
- Luxe-only offers and shopping events like Triple Points Days
- Exclusive toll-free Luxe priority line
If there are some good coupons / discounts, then $5K of spending at 3.6% looks a little more enticing. Anybody have any experience with status at the Gap brands? (MilesAbound, I’m looking at you.)
can you buy GCs to reach the $800? 😉
Luxe is the only status that I know has less benefits than Delta Silver
Just got a promotion in the mail for my BR card offering 10x on gas this month. Any ideas for maximizing this opportunity?
Capped or uncapped?
Sorry for my delayed response… It appears to be uncapped!
I’m a Luxe member. Not receiving my 3x on all purchasers as they advertised directly to me – getting 1x on all purchases instead. They also offered $10 rewards on any purchase with the new Luxe card. Never received that either. I returned something I purchased with rewards points about 6 months ago and never received points reimbursement like they promised. Sounds like a class action waiting to happen …
They also stopped letting you combine Rewards with sales. If you want that jacket during a sitewide 30% sale, forget it, you will be paying FULL price.