Gilt has also partnered with airlines and hotels to offer members of their loyalty programs bonus points or miles when signing up for a new account and making a purchase within a certain amount of time. Joining the ranks of airline partners is Delta, which just launched the following promo for its SkyMiles members.
When you sign up for Gilt here, you can earn the following bonuses:
- New Gilt customers earn 1,000 bonus miles for your first purchase of $50 or more
- Earn 2 miles per dollar spent on designer deals from Gilt.com
- Until January 12, 2014, earn an additional 500 bonus miles per transaction of $50 or more
- Exclusive members-only access to local deals at your city's best restaurants, spas and concerts with Gilt City
So that's at least 1,500 bonus miles if you hit the spending requirement, just in time for the holidays.
If Delta doesn't interest you, here are the other partners now offering sign-up bonuses with Gilt.
Hilton: Earn 2,000 HHonors bonus points for joining Gilt and making a purchase of $50 or more, then earn 6 HHonors points per $1 spent at Gilt during the first six months after they join.
JetBlue: Earn 1,000 JetBlue TrueBlue points with a first purchase of $50 or more, and 5 TrueBlue points for each additional $1 spent through the first six months of membership.
United: Earn 1500 United award miles with a first purchase of $50 or more, and 5 miles for every $1 spent during the first 6 months of membership.
Gift card purchases are excluded.
Double Dipping
Now, unfortunately, you can't double dip on these bonuses by signing up then going through a shopping portal, but if you're already a Gilt member, you're not left out in the cold. As with all online shopping bonuses, before you shop, check EVReward.com to find current Gilt bonuses through the various online shopping portals including the four partner ones:
So even if you do sign up through one of the bonuses, you still have a choice of how to do your shopping after that first $50 bonus-qualifying purchase. For instance, the regular Hilton portal is only offering 2X points per $1 at Gilt, but with the sign-up special, you earn 6X points for the first 6 months, so I would definitely shop through there instead before switching over.
However, if you're looking to stock up your miles, even if you sign up through another partner like Hilton, you might want to score that initial bonus then go through the American Airlines portal subsequently to earn 2X miles per $1 instead of 6X Hilton points, or 2X Ultimate Rewards points through the Ultimate Rewards portal.
Also remember that Gilt has its own loyalty program called Gilt Insider where you earn 5X points per $1 spent, which can then be redeemed for perks such as early sales access or free online shipping, certain percent-off discounts, plus VIP access to insider only sales. Currently, only one discount or offer can be used at a time - so you can't get 10% off an item and then expect free shipping as well. To sign up and register for the new program, click here.
Insider points are collected for numerous activities on Gilt.com, including purchases, visiting the site (you must be logged in to your account) and connecting to Facebook timeline.
The program has four different tiers - General, Select, Premier and Noir. Once you have achieved enough points to reach a new tier, you will receive a "Welcome Discount" that is good for two weeks - of 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively. Then your status is good for the remainder of the year you qualify and through the next calendar year. You will lose your status and drop back to “general membership” a full year after any calendar year in which you fail to maintain the minimum tier requirements.
You can keep your Gilt Insider status active by visiting the site - for which you will earn 1 Insider point but points disappear after 6 months of earning them, so be sure to use them. Once you secure membership to an Insider Tier, the status is independent of the balance of points in your account.
So whether you're signing up for a new Gilt account or are already a member, there are plenty of ways to double dip on your holiday shopping and earn thousands of bonus miles and a plethora of other perks as well. Happy shopping!
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