A Buffet of Rewards – What Makes Saving on Dining So Fun

Saving on Dining

I’ve historically stated that I’m into rewards more rather than travel rewards.  While travel augments my life, I’m not defined by it.  So then, why be se myopic on a narrow set of travel rewards, something I’d only benefit from a few days or weeks per year?  I’d rather focus on realizing solid, not-as-sexy savings on an everyday basis while living my best life.  Indeed, leveraging all the perks around town often keeps me busy enough without travel entering the equation.  I enjoy saving on dining perhaps more than any other everyday rewards angle.

The Fun of Saving on Dining

Loyalty Programs

A variety of restaurants – national brands, regional chains, and even single locations – have created loyalty programs to spur customer engagement.  Actually, it’s harder to find a chain these days which doesn’t have some sort of loyalty program.  My favorite’s still Del Taco’s Del Yeah! Rewards, followed by Jersey Mike’s Shore Points scheme.

With airline, hotel, and even bank programs, I’ve found the major players are very similar to their competitors.  Meanwhile, I’ve noticed dining loyalty programs still vary widely, which often benefits customers.  Chain restaurant programs do things in their own way, which are often drastically different than other ones.  It seems individual programs innovate to draw in a wider base of customers, rather than trying to look more like every other one.  In this way, dining loyalty programs aren’t in a devaluation race to the bottom like many travel programs are.

And even when programs devalue, there’s often still something figuratively and literally redeeming about them.  Perhaps Starbucks is the most prominent example here.  It seems like the chain’s Star Rewards program is always being retooled and devalued, yet I’m somehow able to still get a free drink on points a few times each year.

Birthday Bonus

Many restaurants offer a birthday perk whether they have a loyalty program or not.  Chili’s offers a free dessert, while Jersey Mike’s provides enough points for a free regular sub (as long as a sub was purchased in the last year).  But generally, I’ve noticed that restaurants liberally offer birthday freebies.  Loyalty isn’t an actual requirement.  Customers can often obtain a birthday benefit on their first visit.

Credit Card Benefits

Card issuers are increasingly adding dining-related benefits to their products.  Amex is probably the leader here, with Resy, Uber Eats, and other options available across Gold and Platinum cards, plus a few possibilities on cobranded products.  The widely-useful $25 monthly dining credit on the Bonvoy Brilliant card is my favorite for the latter.

Chase’s partnership with DoorDash creates some other solid options, even if they’re not as useful.   The Exclusive Tables perk on the Sapphire Reserve cards isn’t at the Resy level but is improving.

Citi gets in on the act in an unsurprisingly-wacky way with 6x dining earning during “Citi Nights” – every Friday and Saturday from 6 pm to 6 am eastern time.

Plus, with a bit of creativity, certain cards’ travel credits are useful for saving on dining.

Discounted/”Free” Gift Cards

We have so many methods to obtain discounted or “free” gift cards these days, many with dining options.  I’ve primarily focused on obtaining these via fuel point programs and wholesale clubs, but so many other opportunities are out there.  Paze has been quite the rage here recently, too.  All this, and I’m only now mentioning inKind, which I’ve just never gotten around to.

Elite Status

Many restaurants’ loyalty programs involve elite status levels.  I still chuckle at the concept of elite status with a restaurant chain, but it definitely is a thing.  And it works on people, including this guy.  I catch myself genuinely caring about my Del Yeah! Rewards elite status.  I had a good run at top-tier Epic status, but I’m currently down one level to Inferno.  Fortunately, I have a few months to plot my Epic return.

Stacking

Perhaps some of you knew I would end up here.  Similar to various angles with travel rewards, diners can combine some or all of the above methods to optimize their savings.  And I feel opportunities here are wider-spanning than with travel rewards.

Within and beyond stacking, though, saving on dining has a level of possibility that I don’t see with other rewards angles.  The variety of options above are still in their relative infancy.  It seems dining programs haven’t fleshed out the rules and terms as much as their travel loyalty counterparts have.

Curious, aggressive, and creative hobbyists can still do big things here in remarkable ways.

Conclusion

To underscore what I alluded to with everyday rewards in the intro, I’m dining out anyway.  Layering on methods for saving on dining is a no-brainer.  Simply incorporating a strategy to save money on an expense I already incur is some of the sweetest juice there is.  After virtually zeroing out my travel costs for many years, I’ve increasingly focused the past ten on doing so in other life aspects.

Bigger picture, I encourage you to adopt loyalty programs and other strategies to save on your everyday expenses, including saving on dining.  What are your favorite methods these days?