topic Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast? in Credit Cards

gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 05:37:58 GMT

Now it is almost the end of the month and I'm curious about how did folks not on the east coast spend their first $10 dining credit on the new gold card?

For me, short story: I did not use it, so ~$10 for AMEX and $0 for me

Longer story:

Cheesecake Factory is the closest to me but I didn't find driving for an hour and then wait for another 30min or more for a table in order to get a $10 credit worth it.

Other restaurants on the list are much further away.

Grubhub&seamless are the same and both try to charge close to $10 in service fees, delivery fees, this fee, that fee and on top of which there's no way I'm gonna not tip the driver who would be doing the actual delivery, so no go at the end of the day (what's more ironic is that if I were to use uber eats to order the same thing from the same restaurant, I'd be paying uber eats the same or less than grubhub/seamless, this is after taking the $10 credit into account for grubhub/seamless).

Maybe for me this card is just an especially suitable one to get rid of after 1 year (to avoid clawing back of points).

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 05:56:45 GMT

On the West Coast. I got $28 worth of food for $3 from Grubhub by stacking Grubhub promo code with Amex Gold credit. A bunch of places offer free delivery or pickup where I live. Grubhub doesn't charge any service fee.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Schmoopy — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 07:55:41 GMT

I went to cheesecake :/

I hope they will add more places soon the list isn't a big one!

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

MrDisco99 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 12:16:38 GMT

I didn’t get it.

GrubHub and Seamless are the only options where I live and they don’t have very good coverage here. So yeah the dining credit is not very useful here. They need to work on that, along with just not offering such restrictive credits like this and the airline one. I’ll probably just buy southwest gift cards (again) next year and get less than $100 for them. Also someone needs to tell AMEX marketing that not everybody lives in New York.

Card is still worth it though just for the points earning. At least it is for me.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

redpat — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 12:25:11 GMT

@MrDisco99 wrote:
I didn’t get it.

GrubHub and Seamless are the only options where I live and they don’t have very good coverage here. So yeah the dining credit is not very useful here. They need to work on that, along with just not offering such restrictive credits like this and the airline one. I’ll probably just buy southwest gift cards (again) next year and get less than $100 for them. Also someone needs to tell AMEX marketing that not everybody lives in New York.

Card is still worth it though just for the points earning. At least it is for me.

Lol! At least I get something for living in the northeast, because I know my vote doesn't count........

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

MrDisco99 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 12:31:06 GMT

I live in the Deep South so I know exactly what you mean.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

patoot10 — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:03:15 GMT

I live on the west coast and it was very easy to use.

Don't do delivery (avoid tip and delivery charges) just order and pickup. Grubhub didn't charge an extra dollar on the food price. I ordered something for 9.99 and with tax it came out to 10.xx and that was that. Free delicious meal. Will do it every month.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

CramEiko — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:08:40 GMT

I'm waiting to see if my Shake Shack purchase in LAX (last week) worked. They gave me the 4x bonus? How do I find out?

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:19:39 GMT

@CramEiko wrote:
I'm waiting to see if my Shake Shack purchase in LAX (last week) worked. They gave me the 4x bonus? How do I find out?

To see the bonus multiplier, log into your Amex account. Go to "Statements & Activity." Change the drop box from "Recent Activity" to "Year to Date" and you will see the bonus multiplier next to your purchases. Give it about 3-4 business days after your purchase post to see it.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

staticvoidmain — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:41:38 GMT

This is what's preventing me from getting the gold card. It was fine when the AF was $195, waived for first year, but the increase means to get good value, one would have to use the dining credit. Being in the Pacific Northwest, I am so out of luck. I'd have to drive maybe an hour just to get to someplace I could use it. I was thinking maybe I should just wait it out. Maybe Amex would be less restrictive. But seeing how their airline credit is still too restrtictive (compared to say, Chase's travel credit), I am not too optimistic.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:51:15 GMT

I live in California and I just used GrubHub yesterday and instantly got an email from AMEX saying I had used my credit. It really doesn't seem that hard to use. Just add your card to your profile and order as you would with any other app.

There are also Cheesecake Factories everywhere over here as well, but I prefer to pamper myself with food being delivered to me

@Anonymous wrote:
Now it is almost the end of the month and I'm curious about how did folks not on the east coast spend their first $10 dining credit on the new gold card?

For me, short story: I did not use it, so ~$10 for AMEX and $0 for me

Longer story:
Cheesecake Factory is the closest to me but I didn't find driving for an hour and then wait for another 30min or more for a table in order to get a $10 credit worth it.
Other restaurants on the list are much further away.
Grubhub&seamless are the same and both try to charge close to $10 in service fees, delivery fees, this fee, that fee and on top of which there's no way I'm gonna not tip the driver who would be doing the actual delivery, so no go at the end of the day (what's more ironic is that if I were to use uber eats to order the same thing from the same restaurant, I'd be paying uber eats the same or less than grubhub/seamless, this is after taking the $10 credit into account for grubhub/seamless).

Maybe for me this card is just an especially suitable one to get rid of after 1 year (to avoid clawing back of points).

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Shadowfactor — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 15:31:05 GMT

I’m from the Midwest.

No shake shacks yet, but there’s 2 being opened in the 2 largest cities in my state sometime soon.

Couple cheesecake factories and of course grubhub which has a decent selection but not quite as big as Uber Eats.
I do like the idea of the pickup option with grubhub though although it’s not a deal breaker.
Plenty of restaurants on UberEats offer no delivery charge or a very modest $1.99-2.99.
My fiancée used Uber eats all the time before we had the platinum anyway.

Kinda surprised Amex went with grubhub instead of Uber eats seeing that platinum gets Uber credits but grubhub probably gave them a better deal

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Schmoopy — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 00:14:48 GMT

@patoot10 wrote:
I live on the west coast and it was very easy to use.

Don't do delivery (avoid tip and delivery charges) just order and pickup. Grubhub didn't charge an extra dollar on the food price. I ordered something for 9.99 and with tax it came out to 10.xx and that was that. Free delicious meal. Will do it every month.

**bleep**, you're right. Sounds good. Time to download Grabhub, then.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

wingennis — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:17:33 GMT

I'm not on the East Coast but I am in Northern Arizona. I would have to drive +/- 4 hours round-trip to get to a Shake Shack or Cheesecake Factory. None of the services deliver in my aread-no Grubhub, Seamless, or even Uber Eats. This credit is very disappointing for me.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

redpat — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:26:26 GMT

@wingennis wrote:
I'm not on the East Coast but I am in Northern Arizona. I would have to drive +/- 4 hours round-trip to get to a Shake Shack or Cheesecake Factory. None of the services deliver in my aread-no Grubhub, Seamless, or even Uber Eats. This credit is very disappointing for me.

Move! JK.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

iced — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:47:23 GMT

This isn't an east coast issue; it's an urban/rural issue. Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, and Ruth's Chris are all nationwide chains - they're just the types of places that don't have franchises in small cities or remote areas.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 20:44:57 GMT

@iced wrote:
This isn't an east coast issue; it's an urban/rural issue. Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, and Ruth's Chris are all nationwide chains - they're just the types of places that don't have franchises in small cities or remote areas.

That's a good point and there's truth in the 'remote area' idea for sure.

From their coverage maps, Cheesecake Factory and Ruth's Chris are both heavily concentrated on the east side while Shake Shack is almost non existent outside of a few north eastern states.

Opening one or a few location(s) in other part of the country may get a chain to be able to claim the 'nationwide chain' title, but that is far different from actually reaching most people not on the east coast.

In fact, quite a few people in this very thread mentioned that they are having trouble using the credit at these 'nationwide chain' while located on the west coast where some of the biggest and most populated urban areas in this country are located.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

blindambition — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 20:44:42 GMT

@wingennis wrote:
I'm not on the East Coast but I am in Northern Arizona. I would have to drive +/- 4 hours round-trip to get to a Shake Shack or Cheesecake Factory. None of the services deliver in my aread-no Grubhub, Seamless, or even Uber Eats. This credit is very disappointing for me.

A good reason to visit Vegas. We have all of those.

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 20:55:22 GMT

@Shadowfactor wrote:
I’m from the Midwest.

No shake shacks yet, but there’s 2 being opened in the 2 largest cities in my state sometime soon.

Couple cheesecake factories and of course grubhub which has a decent selection but not quite as big as Uber Eats.
I do like the idea of the pickup option with grubhub though although it’s not a deal breaker.
Plenty of restaurants on UberEats offer no delivery charge or a very modest $1.99-2.99.
My fiancée used Uber eats all the time before we had the platinum anyway.

Kinda surprised Amex went with grubhub instead of Uber eats seeing that platinum gets Uber credits but grubhub probably gave them a better deal

My guess is Grubhub footed $9 while Amex added another $1 on top of that to make it $10 a month

I should try the pickup option, although it feels a bit like "UPS, the most innovative package delivery company, now introduces 'you pickup service', where you can drive to the warehouse of the shipper and pick up the package there yourself while UPS charges the shipper a 'small delivery fee'".

Re: gold card dining credit for folks not on the east coast?

UncleB — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:03:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Shadowfactor wrote:
I’m from the Midwest.

No shake shacks yet, but there’s 2 being opened in the 2 largest cities in my state sometime soon.

Couple cheesecake factories and of course grubhub which has a decent selection but not quite as big as Uber Eats.
I do like the idea of the pickup option with grubhub though although it’s not a deal breaker.
Plenty of restaurants on UberEats offer no delivery charge or a very modest $1.99-2.99.
My fiancée used Uber eats all the time before we had the platinum anyway.

Kinda surprised Amex went with grubhub instead of Uber eats seeing that platinum gets Uber credits but grubhub probably gave them a better deal
My guess is Grubhub footed $9 while Amex added another $1 on top of that to make it $10 a month

I should try the pickup option, although it feels a bit like "UPS, the most innovative package delivery company, now introduces 'you pickup service', where you can drive to the warehouse of the shipper and pick up the package there yourself while UPS charges the shipper a 'small delivery fee'".

I've not used Grubhub yet, but according to DoC there's no fee if you pickup the order yourself: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-grubhub-american-express-gold-120-dining-benefit/

Of course I have no idea how well things work in practice; I admit I prefer to pay the "normal" way to minimize friction points, but as long as the restaurant staff isn't confused when I arrive to pickup my order I'll use it once a month. In my case Subway is the restaurant I'll most likely try it out with.