How many of you use a dining reward service? Are you satisfied?

LTC Stephen F. — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 18:39:40 -0500

Many restaurants offer discounts for selected groups including the over 65, military and veterans, EMT services, young children, etc. Others have rewards programs for frequent diners. How many of you benefitted from a dining reward program?
Alternately how many have been frustrated trying to get credit for a meal that was eaten?

Response by LTC Stephen C. made Feb 18 at 2017 6:47 PM

LTC Stephen C. — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 18:47:27 -0500

LTC Stephen F., I don't participate in any such programs nor do I seek senior/military discounts.

Response by LTC Stephen F. made Feb 18 at 2017 6:47 PM

LTC Stephen F. — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 18:47:53 -0500

Over the past decade I have been involved with some frequent dining reward program. In my experience the local programs where somebody stamps a card work best.
I have spent a frustrating afternoon trying to upload a meal receipt to a site for Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba's Italian Grill.
I sent a couple specific complaining emails to this program after I scanned in the receipt to upload first as a pdf format file and then as a tiff format file. In both cases the file size was roughly 20kb since I have an efficient scanning system.
the system is strangely programmed not to accept file sizes smaller than 100kb. I was waiting for Allen Funt to show up with the candid camera crew.

Response by SGT Matthew S. made Feb 18 at 2017 8:32 PM

SGT Matthew S. — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 20:32:51 -0500

There was a restaurant in the town we used to live in with a frequent diner reward program, and my wife & I were quite satisfied with it. We got a free meal with X amount of accumulated purchases; free meal coupons for birthdays & anniversary; and random ones from time, especially if we hadn't been in for a while.

It scaled back quite a bit when the economy went downhill, but still was the best restaurant reward program I had seen before or since. Haven't found one that holds a candle to that one, and now we live in a small enough town that we don't travel enough to make use of anyone's rewards deal.

Response by SFC George Smith made Feb 19 at 2017 12:35 AM

SFC George Smith — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 00:35:10 -0500

we use a couple of Places in Raleigh and they are Not bad and the discounts are Ok...

Response by SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA made Feb 19 at 2017 2:23 PM

SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 14:23:51 -0500

I use OpenTable, which allows me to reserve spots at a variety of restaurants and collect points for doing so. Points can eventually be redeemed for a gift card, I believe. I generally use it once or twice per year, for special occasions. It's a good service.