- T-Mobile Tuesdays turns 10 with new freebies and discounts
- Some customers grumble that the perks aren’t as good as they used to be; T-Mobile says the program now delivers 3x more perks than a decade ago
- Newly added items include premium drinks on Delta flights and more savings at Shell gas stations
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since Big Magenta launched its T-Mobile Tuesdays.
It’s almost just as hard to believe how much T-Mobile customers love their chicken, T-Mobile swag and 7-11 roller grill snacks. But they do, so much so that when Wingstop sold out of tasty chicken tenders last year, T-Mobile was forced to issue an apology.
So it goes. This week, T-Mobile is celebrating the 10-year T-Mobile Tuesdays anniversary with a whole new lineup of perks and benefits – it’s biggest array yet, according to the carrier.
Here’s a sample of some of them:
Delta premium in-flight drinks: T-Mobile customers will soon get a free premium in-flight drink on Delta fights. This is in addition to T-Mobile sponsoring in-flight Wi-Fi on Delta. Cheers!
Free DashPass by DoorDash: More than 1.3 million customers are already using DashPass by DoorDash. Eligible customers can once again sign up for a free year of DoorDash, which sounds like a pretty good deal to us.
Shell gas savings: During the week of June 9, T-Mobile customers can get an additional 40 cents off per gallon (up to 20 gallons) at participating Shell stations, which amounts to a total 50 cents off/gallon when you add the usual 10 cents/gallon weekly offer. Who can’t use a discount on gas?
Throughout the month of June, T-Mobile has a bunch of special perks, sweepstakes and experiences planned, including some limited-edition swag the week of June 2. T-Mobile customers can score magenta picnic blankets; Metro by T-Mobile customers can get soccer-inspired trio dip bowls for their watch parties. What’s not to like?
Actually, a trip to Reddit quickly reveals a lot about what customers don’t like about T-Mobile Tuesdays. Some say the perks aren’t as good as they used to be; others don’t partake because they don’t want their personal information sold to marketers.
Still, scores of Reddit threads are centered on trading codes, with Jack in the Box, Little Ceasars and MLB.tv appearing to be among those in high demand.
T-Mobile Tuesdays re-imagined
According to T-Mobile, it delivers 3x more perks than it did a decade ago and it offers benefits that go beyond Tuesdays, with 60 million customers taking advantage of benefits like Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, DoorDash and more.
“This month of June is a celebration of all of our members, starting with a recommitment and a relaunch of T-Mobile Tuesdays, as well as making sure our members know about all of the new and great benefits that they can take advantage of for being with T-Mobile,” T-Mobile VP of Loyalty John Kelly told Fierce.
Fierce asked why he refers to T-Mobile customers as “members,” rather than just calling them customers.
“Everyone who’s with T-Mobile, I call them a member. That really is a commitment that we need to prove our value to them every Tuesday and every day of the week. There’s no action required on their part to earn that. They get that T-Mobile is committed to providing that value on Day One of the relationship that customers have with us,” he told Fierce.
No true copycats
Kelly is relatively new to T-Mobile, moving from his job at marketing behemoth Nike in Portland, Oregon, to Seattle last October. Prior to Nike, he worked at American Express for more than seven years.
Of course, he did his homework on the wireless competition. Over the past 10 years, rivals have tried to copy some of the things T-Mobile offers and they’ve experimented with different models, but nothing really stuck. Certainly, not to the degree that T-Mobile doles out the goods on Tuesdays.
“To see how engaged our members are at the scale that we are, with 25 million monthly active users in our T-Life platform, is an incredibly impressive ecosystem that our members have helped us create,” Kelly said. “That keeps the pressure on us to make sure we’re creating great value every Tuesday and every day of the year.”
The most popular perk categories: gas, fast food, pizza, coffee, movie tickets and T-Mobile swag.
The biggest perk recorded thus far is 2.5 million people taking advantage of a Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich offer in 2020. This past December, its biggest swag give-away of all time occurred when nearly 2.4 million customers picked up a magenta T-Mobile blanket.
Movie ticket discounts are also popular. Partnering directly with studios, T-Mobile offers $5 movie tickets every month to a specific movie; this month, it’s “Masters of the Universe” with Atom Tickets.
Typically, the movie ticket discounts account for “pretty material box office sales for opening weekend for those movies,” Kelly said.
T-Mobile for travel
One area where T-Mobile is increasing its presence is travel – both in terms of helping people book travel as well as take advantage of discounts. It’s partnering with brands like Hilton, Hertz and Dollar.
For example, when a T-Mobile customer books a rental car through Dollar, they don’t have to fill up the tank before they return the car. At Royal Caribbean, they’re testing new benefits, like giving customers access to free Wi-Fi after they book through T-Mobile Travel.
T-Mobile’s venture into travel sounds like it’s catching on. Semi-real question: Should T-Mobile pay the woman who posted this on TikTok or just consider it free advertising?