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Welcome to a regular feature on the Renés Points blog. This blog series covers in a “rookie” way either a Delta or travel related theme and attempts to break down to a basic level each topic. You can read up on all the previous posts HERE. Now on to this featured topic.
It is really crazy how many points you can now earn when dining out. And earning these points can become as simple as just paying your bill with the right travel card. One of my favorites is the one above.
The key to these mega flood of points is setting everything up ahead of time so that you have little to do other than harvest the rewards. In fact, depending on the place you dine, you could score either 4 or even 5x rewards each visit. Let me show you.
- 1x Dip – Get the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. I will hold this card till the day I die as long as Chase does not mess this card up. It is one of my goto cards and 100% each time I dine. I love getting 3x Ultimate Rewards points that yields me at least a 4.5% back value in travel.
- 2x Dip – Dosh <-LINK to APP . I was slow to understand the value of Dosh but I get it now. This has to be the simplest ever reward program where you enter your cards and just use them to harvest cash back. Just love it so much.
- 3x Dip – iDine is much like Dosh in that you simply enter the cards you use for dining and harvest the rewards of 5-10% each year (you do need to complete the surveys but that is not hard).
- 4x Dip – Uber Visa Local Offers. Again, this is just one of these simple things that once the Visa card is in your Uber account, and you use it, you get credit. Nothing to register for. Simple is good! The steps are: Enter at least one Visa card as a payment method on your Uber account, join Visa Local Offers in your Uber app i.e. 1) Open the Uber app and tap the bottom of the screen to see your messages. 2) Enroll in the program and scroll down to the ‘Visa Local Offers’ message, tap ‘Get Started’, then tap ‘Count Me In’. 3) Start earning Uber credits by using your enrolled Visa card(s) at featured merchants nearby.
- 5x Dip – Yelp cash back! This one is much like DO$H and many times you can stack this with Uber rewards as well. Make sure you add your credit card before you go shopping.
- 6x Dip – Local rewards. This one you have to pay attention to but if there are local (or chain) programs that have a loyalty program – just join them.
Now clearly, before someone comments below, 5x Dip will NOT be possible everywhere. But the point is even if you get 2x dip, 3x dip or more you are simply #winning and once you set things up there is little left for you to do but enjoy the rewards!
But in my example above with my visit to the Brazilian steak restaurant, I got $18 in UR value, $20 in Uber credits, $20 in Dosh credit and $20 in iDine credits = over $78 back in rewards. Not too shabby if you ask me. If only they had their own rewards program I could maybe push the all-in rewards near $100! 🙂
Are you mega dipping on all your dining rewards? – René
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And why don’t you enroll in United dining or other airline dining programs?
That will give you another 3 miles if the restaurant participates
@Marc – Good tip! There is the Delta one as well i.e. SkyMilesDining.
This is great info. I had not signed for Dosh so this was a nice extra push for me. I’ve signed up for Yelp cashback and AAdvantage Dining in the past. I have noticed sometimes that I get denied for yelp cashback not paying because of the Aadvantage dining. Have you experienced that at all with Dosh or iDine?
Well, you missed a big one — Groupon + Restaurant Discounts which offer a specific discount on participating restaurants, and the offers are all Free!!!
Thanks, Rene
I was going to suggest Skymiles Dining as well. Getting my 4x AmEx Gold Card MR points, and Skymiles Dining offers 1x, 3x and 5x tiers, depending on reviews one provides, and dining frequency. I am at the 5x points/dollar spent through 2019.
OTOH, compared to your strategies, i’m still a bit of a noob! 🙂
i’m enrolled in delta but most of the places i frequent are not in the program!!