Subway brings back a customer favorite offer | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Subway is reviving a name many customers haven’t heard in more than 20 years.

The sandwich chain just relaunched Sub Club, a well-known and popular fast-food loyalty program from the 1990s and early 2000s. Sub Club ended in 2005.

The original concept was simple: Buy three footlong sandwiches and get one free. Unfortunately, the paper cards were easy to counterfeit, which is one reason the company shut down the program.

This time there are no punch cards; the new program was designed for the digital era.

The restaurant chain is looking for ways to lure back longtime customers after a tumultuous couple of years, and playing on the nostalgia of the Sub Club is one tactic.

In 2024 alone, Subway shuttered 631 U.S. locations, marking the eighth straight year of net closures, according to an April 2025 report in QSR.

The new program launched on December 1, 2025, and it’s virtually identical to the old program. Customers who join Subway’s new Sub Club will get a free footlong sandwich after purchasing three footlongs (or six 6-inch subs).

The brand describes the offer in a news release as its most generous loyalty incentive ever, since it effectively amounts to a 25% reward rate for regular customers.

Subway is bringing back a popular loyalty program.

Subway

Subway counting on nostalgia to entice longtime customers

The relaunch is part of a broader strategy to strengthen customer retention and win back value-driven diners using the brand’s popular loyalty program.

“Our top priority as we rebuilt Sub Club was to reduce the number of visits needed to earn something of real value,” Subway’s Chief Marketing Officer for North America Dave Skena told Restaurant Dive.

The company also confirmed that current Subway loyalty club members who are part of its MVP Rewards program will be automatically transitioned into the revived Sub Club.

To get free sandwiches, customers sign up through the Subway app, website, or in-store, and their purchases are tracked automatically — no more lost cards or stamp sheets falling apart in wallets. From the company’s perspective, counterfeiting is next to impossible.

Members also earn points on every purchase that can be converted into “Subway Cash” for future discounts. The company is layering standard loyalty perks on top of the new footlong reward structure, including a free birthday cookie and exclusive promotional access.

The relaunch comes during a turbulent time in the budget lunch segment. Fast-food customers are increasingly price sensitive. Several major restaurant chains have leaned heavily into loyalty systems and deals — including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell — as consumers trade down or shift between brands based on perceived value.

Fast-food menu prices have outpaced national inflation every year since 2014. This is according to research from Crews Bank & Trust, whose Fast Food Inflation Chart tags the McDonald’s McChicken sandwich for its particularly fast-growing price, which has increased around 200% over 10 years.

Subway’s position is more complicated. It has more than 20,000 U.S. locations, but its traffic patterns have been inconsistent in recent years as the chain attempted a menu overhaul, store remodels, and a rebranding effort.

A four-visit freebie is unusually aggressive for a national chain, a fact not lost on franchisees. Some Subway operators have raised concerns that the reward structure may cut into already tight margins, especially in high-cost markets, according to Restaurant Business.

In fact, nearly 100% of comments on the program on the company’s internal website expressed frustration with the benefits of the program, arguing that as designed, the program is financially unstable, according to the report.

“Buy 3 get 1 free is financial suicide,” one franchisee wrote.

That tension highlights Subway’s challenge: offering compelling value without eroding unit-level economics.

What the Subway Sub Club could mean for the brand over the next 12-18 months

Sub Club’s return may be nostalgic, but it’s also a strategic bet. Analysts expect it to affect Subway’s performance in the coming year and a half.

Free loyalty programs like Sub Club can increase spending, according to a 2023 report on loyalty programs published by consulting company McKinsey. McKinsey found that visit-based programs can lift purchase frequency by up to 40% among “value-sensitive” customers.

A free-every-fourth-footlong reward is richer than most competitor programs, and the deal structure encourages customers to return quickly. Subway could see a lift in lunch traffic in the first three months as customers test the new system.

Subway hopes customers will order more often

The mechanics of the program encourage habit formation. Customers who might normally visit twice a month may increase frequency to reach the free-footlong threshold. Other QSRs that adopted similar visit-based structures have seen upticks in repeat frequency — exactly what Subway needs to drive sustained growth.

Perhaps the most important metric won’t be sandwich redemptions — it will be app downloads and usage.

Subway’s 20,000-plus U.S. locations mean that even a small shift toward digital ordering could have a significant impact.

Introducing a loyalty program can lead to an 18%-30% increase in spend and visit frequency among program members, according to QSR.

Subway’s struggles: a timeline

2015: Subway peaks at roughly 27,000 U.S. locations. Source: QSR Magazine
2015–2024: Subway loses around 7,600 U.S. stores, a drop of nearly 28% from the peak. Source: QSR Magazine
2024: Subway closes 631 U.S. locations, leaving 19,502 stores. It’s the first time in years that the store count is less than 20,000. Source: CNN
2024: Average unit volume rises 1% to $490,000, while menu prices increase around 4%, signaling declining traffic. Source: Restaurant Business Online
2024: U.S. systemwide sales fall 3.8%; rising costs make many franchisees unprofitable. Source: Deep Research Global
December 2025: Subway relaunches Sub Club — free footlong after three purchases — aiming to boost loyalty and repeat visits. Source: Subway