DJI Select membership: is it worth the price?

You just bought a DJI drone, Osmo or other product. Then, you’re offered membership into DJI’s club, DJI Select. It’s $49 a year, and it promises you VIP treatment like coupons, expedited repairs and even birthday gifts. But you have just two weeks after you bought your DJI gear to decide if you want to join the club. Is DJI Select membership worth the price?

What is DJI Select?

DJI Select is an annual, renewable membership program that offers benefits like coupons, prioritized shipping for new products, a birthday surprise, 30-day returns and replacements, faster repair service, and more.

The program launched in 2018 to mixed reviews. It seems to be most worthwhile for frequent drone shoppers and/or people who would otherwise buy DJI Care Refresh — DJI’s extended warranty plan.

What you get with DJI Select — and what it’s worth

Currently, DJI Select entails seven advertised benefits. They are:

1. 20% Off Accessories

You’ll will receive five coupons that offer a 20% discount on DJI consumer product accessories.

The coupons cover purchases of accessories for lot of DJI products, but not all of them. You can use the coupons to apply toward the cost of accessories for the following products:

• Osmo line: Osmo Pocket, Osmo Action, Osmo Mobile, Osmo Mobile 2
• Ronin line: Ronin-S, Ronin-SC,
• Mavic line: Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic Air, Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro Platinum
• Spark
• Entire Phantom series
• DJI Goggles and DJI Goggles Racing Edition.

But if you’re the kind of uber-committed DJI customer who is always buying the newest products (and presumably want all the accessories too), you may find that the 20% off coupon won’t cover it.

Sadly, the coupon does not apply to accessories for the Mavic Air 2, Mavic Mini, DJI Smart Controller, Osmo Mobile 3, DJI Digital FPV System, and “other newly launched products,” according to DJI.

In that case, the coupons would be worth a sad $0.

If you can use the coupons, 20% off could be huge savings. Buy the Mavic 2 Fly More Kit ($399), and you’d save $80 — far more than the cost of Select membership. Say you have an awesome Pocket, too, and you want the $109 Osmo Pocket Expansion Kit. That’s another $22 in savings.

We do like that the coupons are fairly flexible in that they last a whole year (unlike the birthday coupon which has a quick expiration date).

Value: varies based on if/what you buy (from $0 to potentially many hundreds of dollars)

2. 50% Off DJI Care Refresh and OSMO Shield

You’re eligible for a 50% discount of DJI Care Refresh and OSMO Shield for most DJI products. You must purchase DJI Care Refresh/OSMO Shield on the same order as the actual product you bought.

DJI Care Refresh is an extended warranty plan that you add on when buying your product. The cost varies by product.

However, the DJI Care Refresh doesn’t apply to all DJI products. For example, Inspire 2 Care Refresh costs $340, which would mean DJI Select would provide $170 savings. If that seems too good to be true — it is.

DJI Select’s 50% discount on Care Refresh only covers the following products:

• Mavic line: Mavic Air 2, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic Air, Mavic Pro Platinum
• Ronin line: Ronin-S, Ronin-SC
• Osmo line: Osmo Action, Osmo Pocket, Osmo Mobile 2
• Spark

For some of these products, DJI Select is still a moneymaker on the price of Care Refresh alone. For example, the Mavic Pro Platinum’s Care Refresh plan is $129, so a 50% discount would mean $64.50 — making the $49 DJI Select worth it right there. But if you apply it to Care Refresh for something like the Ronin, which costs just $49, then the $25 savings is not bad, but not eye-popping either.

Value: range from $0 to $65.

3. Shipping Priority

DJI Select members receive what DJI calls “the highest shipping priority.” Actual delivery time depends on conditions such as availability, time of order, and delivery address.

It’s hard to put a value on this one, as DJI is pretty vague about what “shipping priority” means. With other online retailer membership programs, it’s more clear. Amazon standard shipping is 4 to 14 business days, but Amazon Prime members (who pay $119 for their membership) know to expect 2-day shipping. DJI doesn’t provide insight on how long their products take to ship before you make the order.

“Shipment times for each product vary depending on availability,” according to DJI. You won’t otherwise find out when it will arrive until you get an estimated shipping time when you place your order.

Value: no dollar figure assigned

4. Birthday Surprise

A coupon will be sent to your account within 24 hours of your birthday. DJI doesn’t outright specify what the value of the coupon is — and it could vary based on the customer’s loyalty, but most reports indicate the coupon ranges from 5% to 12% off your next purchase.

The coupon has a limited window for when you can redeem it — just 14 days. If you receiving the coupon coincides exactly with when you want to buy a new DJI Mavic Air 2, then a 12% off coupon would be worth nearly $100 right there — twice as much as membership alone. But if it expires before you can use it, then it’s worth a whopping $0.

Value: varies based on what you buy (from $0 to potentially $100+)

5. 30-Day Returns and Replacements

DJI Select members have 30-days after receiving their purchase to make a return or request a replacement. That more than doubles the length of DJI’s usual return policy — which is a meager 14 days.

Value: no dollar figure assigned

6. Faster Repair Service

DJI Select members also have priority during the repair process. While repair times vary based on a number of factors including number of other customers seeking repair, extent of the damage, etc., DJI said that on average, damage assessments take place 1-2 business days faster for Select members vs. the general public.

If you’re using your drone for your business, then 1-2 days could be the difference between being able to take a job or not. Charging $1,000 for a day-long drone photography session is not unheard of, so losing 1-2 days could mean losing $1,000. Expedited repairs could be worth it.

Value: no dollar figure assigned, but potentially hundreds of dollars if you’re running a drone business

7. Exclusive Discounts

DJI said it also offers occasional extra discounts to DJI Select members.

Is DJI Select worth the price?

DJI claims that its customers saved $294 annually on purchases in 2018, based on their number crunching of DJI Select members’ average savings in 2018. Of course, it’s unclear what data went into those calculations. But if they’re accurate, a $49 savings for a $294 savings is a 500% return on investment. Not too shabby.

As far as our calculations go, we think $300 is a bit optimistic. But still, we don’t hate it.

Let’s say you’re buying the Mavic 2. You’d likely want to ultimately get the Fly More Kit ($399), which means the 20% off coupon could save you save $80. You also want Care Refresh ($149), so you save $75 with the 50% discount. We’ll value the other various extras like expediting shipping or faster repairs (ideally you’d never need to use the repairs anyway) at $50. In that case, you’re looking at a value of $200 for a $50 membership fee.

That’s a 300% return on investment.

If you’re buying DJI’s more expensive consumer products, DJI Select is clearly worth it.

But if you’re buying lower-cost products, like the Mavic Mini, you may have a harder time stretching the value.

Plus, given the limitations on what types of products you can use the discounts on (new products, in particular), you might find you can’t actually use the coupons. The coupon limitations are pretty annoying, so just read the fine print and make sure it covers what you actually want to buy. If it covers what you do want to buy, you could see big savings. But many users have been annoyed to find out — after not reading the fine print — that the discounts don’t cover their intended purchases.

How do I join DJI Select?

Here’s the kicker: not just anyone can join DJI Select. It’s only open to a select group of people. To be invited to join DJI Select, you must have purchased a product directly from DJI (not another site like Amazon or an authorized dealer).

Within 15 days after your new DJI product is delivered, you’ll be eligible to join (you’ll likely have received an email invitation with your order, or you can sign up directly through the DJI Select site here).

Are you a DJI Select member? Is it worth it? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!