Chipotle Launches New Chiptopia Summer Rewards Loyalty Program

Chipotle is running a new loyalty program where repeat customers can earn free food, but only for the next three months starting today. They're calling it "Chiptopia Summer Rewards" with the objective of "reward[ing their] most loyal customers."

The program runs this month through September and is based on paid visits of $6 or more to Chipotle each month (limited to one visit a day). To take part, you'll need to pick up a Chiptopia card from any U.S. Chipotle location and use it each time you make a purchase. You'll also need to register the card to actually redeem your rewards.

Chiptopia Summer Rewards offers three status levels: Mild, Medium, and Hot. As you achieve each tier, you earn a free entree with less visits required for each tier. Here's how it breaks down.

- You need four paid visits on four different days to reach Mild and earn a free entree.
- You need another four paid visits on different days to reach Medium status and earn your second free entree but you only need to actually pay for three of those visits, as redeeming your first free entree counts one of the visits.
- Finally, you need three paid visits on three different days to hit Hot and earn your third free entree. As before, you can use the free entree from reaching Medium status for one of the three visits.
- You status resets at the end of each month

If you're going for max rewards, you'll need to visit Chipotle on 11 different days in a month but only have to pay for 9 of those days if you use your free entrees. Basically, it's buy nine entrees, get three free, but you'll need to eat at/from Chipotle for almost two weeks in a month. Additionally, the free entrees rewards are good for 30 days so it looks like you might be able to use the third free entree to cover one of the four paid visits to hit Mild for the next month.

Additionally, there are bonus rewards available if you manage to hit any of the status levels for all three months of the promotion:

- If you manage to hit Mild for all three months, you get an additional free entree.
- If you get to Medium for all three months, you get $20 in Chipotle merchandise from store.chipotle.com.
- And if you achieve Hot status for all three months, you get a Chipotle catering package for 20 people (a $240 value). This means for the most dedicated of Chipotle fans (or most determined of value eaters), you can essentially get 56 (12 entrees for three months plus 20 entrees [plus sides] from the catering) entrees for the price of 27 (or 25 if you save the third rewards from July and August to use for the following months). Breaking it down monetarily, if we peg an entree at Chipotle at $7, if you're looking to stretch your buck as much as possible, you can pay $175 to get $492 worth of food.

The bonus rewards aren't cumulative so if you hit Hot status for all three months, you won't get the bonus rewards for Mild or Medium in addition to the catering package. While the regular rewards only last 30 days after they're earned, you have a bit more time to redeem the bonus rewards. The Mild and Medium bonus rewards are good through December 31, 2016 and the Hot bonus rewards is good through March 31, 2017.

Finally, if you register for the promotion this month, you'll get a reward good for free chips and guacamole with your first entree purchase.

You can find more details and fine print on how Chiptopia Summer Rewards works on the Chipotle website here.

While the program is only running for three month, the chain has indicated that they're using it as a test bed for a possible more permanent rewards program in the future.

Image via Chipotle.