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My wife and I have hit our £6k spending targets on our plat amex and so we want to cancel, but I’ve not used the £150 dining credit yet. Plenty of restaurants sell gift cards both in the restaurant and online. Does anyone know if I can trigger the £150 dining credit by buying a £150 gift card? If so, does it have to be done in the restaurant, or can will it work if I buy gift cards online? I suspect the answer is “it depends”, but any insight is welcome. We are looking at using both credits at Sketch…
Yes you can. The Ivy GC is very useful if you live near a selection of them. That’s our 1st choice GC. And yes, buy it in the restaurant, not online. Others may suggest different restaurant options too. Then you can enjoy at your leisure. They have a great lunch menu they serve til 9pm mon to wed, which doesn’t break the bank.
Thanks. I’ll drop in to Sketch soon and see if they can stick a gift card through their normal restaurant till but good to know the Ivy works like this.
Actually on a similar note, I see that the Hofbraeuhaus in Munich is also on there. That’s somewhere I normally visit once a year, and they sell gift cards online…. Does anyone know if I stand a chance of getting a dining credit to cover that purchase?
Hmm. Looking at the T&Cs, it says:
“You’ll not receive a statement credit for the following charges or transactions: booking fees, deposits
paid towards your meal, any upfront charges made by the restaurant, non-sterling transaction fees,
cancellation fees, no-show charges made by the restaurant, purchases of gift cards, e-codes or
vouchers and any transactions that are cancelled or refunded before the statement credit is
awarded.”The fact that they take out payments via payment facilitators probably kills the idea of buying gift cards online, but I wonder how they differentiate between me walking into a restaurant and paying for a meal I’ve just eaten vs buying a £150 gift card?!
I wonder how they differentiate between me walking into a restaurant and paying for a meal I’ve just eaten vs buying a £150 gift card?!
If it’s fun through the normal till (like they do at The Ivy) they can’t differentiate.
They generally can’t. But they are more likely to be able to tell an online purchase of a gift card vs an in person/over the phone. So unless someone knows otherwise:
– ring them and check and/or
– do a test online purchase and see how that appears on the statementDid this work for you in the end @Bluebirdnick?
Slightly off topic, but thought might be of interest to others, the Ivy have an offer running at the moment, purchase a £100 gift card and you will receive a complimentary bottle of Ivy Champagne when you spend it between the 2nd January – 31 March, purchased this today in Oxford, when spending last year’s credit on a gift card, though there is no mention of the offer, when I queried this they realised they gave me the wrong gift card, the offer gift card has a different design, but still no mention of actual the offer, hopefully not going to be an issue when redeeming, wondered if anyone else has taken this offer and received anything different, does seem a bit odd.
Did this work for you in the end @Bluebirdnick?
Worked for me…
For another data point on this – I tried this at the Ivy on the Square (Edinburgh).
Bought a £150 GC on Wednesday 13th Dec – still waiting for the credit to be applied… beginning to suspect that might not happen.
I asked for it at the Front of House and the lady brought out a card reader that they used in the main restaurant – I was also asked to use a specific table number when it popped it up on the screen – nothing about the transaction, other than the specific table number, stood out as being atypical from having a meal there.
Hoping the credit is still on it’s way, but in-case it’s not here’s what I’d recommend doing differently in hindsight:
1. Don’t spend exactly £150 – it would be very easy for Amex to filter out those transactions for manual review and they’d likely ask for a copy of your receipt to prove you didn’t just go in for a gift card – I suspect that could be what’s happened to me.
2. Use a different table number, i.e. have a drink or some food first – it could be related to the table number which the bill was settled against. Possibly a flag in their merchant/POS system which can identify these transactions?
I will update this thread if the credit ends up being applied to my account.
@Scroop I think you’re over analysing. Purchases in store in the Ivy have AFAIK always worked. It’ll just be a matter of time. Done this numerous times myself (granted not in Edinburgh).
Worked for us every time. Just buy the £150 GC at the till inside the restaurant, no table no required in Cobham or Guildford. The credit should appear.agree with @SteveJ
Is there any way to tell how much credit you have left?!
Have a feeling I used GBP50 earlier in the year…@Michael C
They tell you when you pay your bill, and write the balance manually on the receipt. There might be an online checker, have never used it tho.
Is there any way to tell how much credit you have left?!
Have a feeling I used GBP50 earlier in the year…Why don’t you just check your account?
Is there any way to tell how much credit you have left?!
Have a feeling I used GBP50 earlier in the year…Log in via the browser (not the app). Go to the offers section and there is a tab or something that tells you all the offer credits paid out to you. It will likely be the name of the restaurant thou, not the name of the offer.
Cheers, all! May well pop into Ivy Winchester tomorrow, via the Christmas market!
Is there any way to tell how much credit you have left?!
Have a feeling I used GBP50 earlier in the year…Log in via the browser (not the app). Go to the offers section and there is a tab or something that tells you all the offer credits paid out to you. It will likely be the name of the restaurant thou, not the name of the offer.
Brilliant! under “savings”!
For another data point on this – I tried this at the Ivy on the Square (Edinburgh).
Bought a £150 GC on Wednesday 13th Dec – still waiting for the credit to be applied… beginning to suspect that might not happen.
I asked for it at the Front of House and the lady brought out a card reader that they used in the main restaurant – I was also asked to use a specific table number when it popped it up on the screen – nothing about the transaction, other than the specific table number, stood out as being atypical from having a meal there.
Hoping the credit is still on it’s way, but in-case it’s not here’s what I’d recommend doing differently in hindsight:
1. Don’t spend exactly £150 – it would be very easy for Amex to filter out those transactions for manual review and they’d likely ask for a copy of your receipt to prove you didn’t just go in for a gift card – I suspect that could be what’s happened to me.
2. Use a different table number, i.e. have a drink or some food first – it could be related to the table number which the bill was settled against. Possibly a flag in their merchant/POS system which can identify these transactions?
I will update this thread if the credit ends up being applied to my account.
The credit was posted to my account earlier this morning – happy days!
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