Amex Adds Panera “Unlimited Sip Club” Perks

Four months of free drinks are available for those with an American Express card. It is nice to see it return, though the details are a bit different than last time.

Get free Panera drinks with an Amex card

Eligible American Express card members will receive a free four-month subscription to the unlimited sip club.

• This is available to all US American Express consumer and corporate card members
• You must sign-up between September 27 and December 31, 2022, and then the membership is valid for four months
• This benefit is available to first-time Unlimited Sip Club subscribers and resubscribers only; card members who enrolled in the benefit last year, and are still enrolled, are not eligible (so it sounds to me like you can enroll if you took advantage of the free trial last year but canceled your membership)
• After the four-month trial concludes, you’ll be charged $11.99 plus tax per month for a subscription until you cancel, so make sure you cancel your subscription if you don’t want to pay that

You can get unlimited hot coffee, iced coffee, hot tea, iced tea, fountain beverages, or lemonade at the cafe if you are a member of the unlimited sip club. This is similar to a $ 48 value, given the standard price of $11.98 per month.

How do the economics of this work?

Credit card issuers are increasingly partnering with companies to give them limited time perks. I think there is not any money changing hands here.

I think Amex benefits include a new perk for card members, while Panera benefits in a number of ways.

• The drinks Panera is offering here cost very little, and once people are in a Panera store getting a “free” drink, they’re much more likely to also buy something else
• Panera hopes that people will keep their subscription beyond the free four-month trial period
• Generally credit card issuers offer access to an affluent consumer base, at least compared to the population average, especially with premium cards, so the hope is that this brings more customers to Panera

These arrangements seem to work out well. They're great for consumers, they're great for credit card issuers, and they're great for businesses being promoted.

Bottom line

If you have an American Express card in the U.S., you can get a four-month membership to the unlimited sip club. You can get unlimited free hot or iced coffee, hot or iced tea, fountain beverages, and lemonade at any Panera location in the US. It's a nice perk when you consider that this works with no annual fee Amex cards.

Are you going to take advantage of this perk?