7 ways to reward yourself when you wine and dine.
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. Collect Velocity Points through OpenTable
If you’re a Velocity Frequent Flyer you can use OpenTable to earn points when you make a booking at your choice of hundreds of restaurants around Australia. You’ll earn 300 Velocity Points per honoured reservation and there are no booking fees involved.
If you happen to be in London, Velocity members can also earn points at the infamous Babylon Restaurant at The Roof Gardens. Located in Kensington High Street in central London, you can earn 6 points per £1 spent up to £1,000 and 1 point per £1.50 spent thereafter.
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:
| Card | Number of points earned at restaurants |
|---|---|
| American Express Platinum | 2.25 points per $1 spent |
| American Express Explorer | 2 points per $1 spent |
| Qantas American Express Ultimate | 1.25 points per $1 spent |
| Citi Signature Visa | 2 points per $1 spent |
| Citi Prestige Visa | 3 points per $1 spent |
| Citi Qantas Signature Visa | 1 point 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.
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. Earn Qantas Points with Deliveroo
You can even earn frequent flyer points on your next meal without having to leave the house. If you make an order via the Deliveroo website or app, you can earn 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent on all of your delivered orders. Just make sure you’ve linked your Deliveroo account with your Qantas Frequent Flyer account before you submit your order to get the points. To do this, visit the Deliveroo website and click on "My Account". You can then enter your Qantas Frequent Flyer details into the Qantas tab.
6. Earn Qantas Points at Rockpool Restaurants
If you dine at any of the 60 Rockpool Dining Group restaurants and bars across Australia, you'll have the choice of earning Qantas Points or redeeming them to cover your bill.
You'll earn 2 Qantas Points per $1 spent on premium and casual dining or 1 Qantas Point per $1 spent on fast casual dining at participating Rockpool Dining venues.
You can also cover the cost of your bill with points. If you don't want to pay for the entire bill with points, you can opt to pay 4,000 Qantas Points per $20 of the transaction you wish to cover.
7. Sign up to Dimmi Rewards
TripAdvisor’s Dimmi Rewards allows members to earn points as they wine and dine at over 4,000 eateries around Australia.
Every time you make an online booking via the Dimmi app you’ll earn 1,000 points. You can also collect 1,000 points when you review your dining experience. Once you’ve reached 10,000 points you’ll receive a $20 voucher to spend at one of Dimmi’s partnered restaurants.
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
