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How to earn points when eating out

Reward yourself when you wine and dine

Sally McMullen
Sally McMullen

Updated

Fact checked

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Did you know you can reward yourself every time you eat out? No, we’re not talking about dessert. In this guide we’ll show you how you can earn frequent flyer points, restaurant vouchers and free bottles of wines on everything from restaurant reservations to food delivery.

1. Earn Qantas Points at Quandoo restaurants

You can earn 100 Qantas Points per person, per booking at your choice of 18,000 Quandoo restaurant partners in more than 12 countries. Quandoo is one of the largest online restaurant booking platforms in the world and you can earn points when you book reservations through the Qantas Restaurants portal on Qantas.com or through the Qantas app.

2. Use a credit card that earns more points at restaurants

While you can earn points on all of your restaurant bookings with a rewards or frequent flyer credit card, some products offer higher earn rates just for using your card at a restaurant.

A bunch of American Express and Citi cards currently offer higher earn rates for restaurant bookings. You can compare some of them below:

CardNumber of points earned at restaurants
American Express Platinum2.25 points per $1 spent
American Express Explorer2 points per $1 spent
Qantas American Express Ultimate1.25 points per $1 spent
Citi Premier Card2 points per $1 spent
Citi Prestige3 points per $1 spent

3. Cover the bill with your credit card and get your friends to pay you back

If you’re going out for dinner with a group of friends, offer to cover the bill with your rewards credit card and get your friends to pay you back later. This way you’ll maximise how many points you’ll earn per $1 on the bill, but without the cost once your pals pay you back.

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4. Free wine every time you dine with Citi

This is a little different to some of the other restaurant loyalty programs in this lineup, but free wine is a reward in itself! If you’re a Citi credit card holder, you’ll enjoy a free bottle of wine every time you dine with the Citibank Dining Program.

There are participating restaurants all around Australia and you can make your booking via the Citi Dining website. Then you just need to mention that you’re a Citibank cardholder at the restaurant, choose your free bottle of wine from the Citibank selection and pay for your meal with your Citibank card.

There is a limit of one bottle of wine per table and the whole bill must be covered by the Citi card, but you can take advantage of this offer as many times as you like.

5. Collect 'Yums' with TheFork

TheFork has a loyalty program which allows members to earn points or 'Yums' as they wine and dine at over 4,000 eateries around Australia.

Every time you make an online booking via TheFork app you’ll earn 150 Yums. You can also collect 500 Yums when you invite a friend to make their first booking. Once you’ve reached 1,000 Yums you’ll receive a $20 discount at participating restaurants, and if you earn 2000 Yums for a $50 discount.

If you don’t belong to a frequent flyer program, this is an easy way to reward yourself every time you eat out!

So next time you go out to eat or order in, make sure to double-check this list to see if there’s a way you can earn points on the bill first!

Pictures: Shutterstock

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Diners Club Business Card

The Diners Club Business Card can be used to earn points per $1 with over 35 million merchants – including Officeworks, Qantas and Woolworths.

Frequent Flyer Diners Club card

Diners Club isn’t as widely accepted as other cards, but you can still earn 1 Qantas Point per $1 at major retailers with this card.

Diners Club Personal Card

Diners Club offers a competitive rewards program, travel and shopping perks and can be used at businesses including Coles, Woolworths and Target.

Supercharge your frequent flyer points with Points Finder

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