Eating out

[debuskb]

I am new to Upromise, but I really expected to see more restaurants listed in my area...as a matter of fact, ANY restaurants in my area! There are none listed! Then I checked a bigger city (Gainesville, FL) and found only two! I can't believe that Outback and Applebee's are not participants.

Also, I thought there would be more gas stations. These were also limited in my area.

Making the minimum $ amount SHOULD NOT have to be a problem for ANY UPROMISE MEMBER if enough gas stations and restaurants are participating. We all use gas every week and we all dine out. The price of dining out can add up quickly since the more you spend, the bigger return you will receive.

Also, are all chains included when a chain participates? For example, if The Melting Pot restaurant is a participant, can we be assured that this restaurant is participating in every location and the same for gas stations?

Brenda

[DispDave]

All Mobil and Exxon participate everywhere. Chain restaurants do NOT all participate, you have to check each one and it can be a pain especially with the new search page.

[Terrieltw]

I agree with you! We live in College Station, Texas. It's not a huge town but we are the home to Texas A&M. We have many restaurants - chains and local places - but only two appear on the list. One of them is really a bar - not a place to take a family with kids!

We eat out at least once per week. I use Upromise vendors all the time and would use the retaurants too.

[Coleysmom]

I live on the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and have only found two places that are participants. My family and I eat out a few times a week mostly at chains such as Chilli's, Bugaboo Creek, Denny's, TGI Friday's, The Ninety-nine restaurant none of which are listed. Ironically when we went on vacation in February to Las Vegas we ate at The Harley Davidson restaurant and we received funds since they are a participant. It was a nice surprise, but it would be nice if there were participants closer to home.

[wbylead]

Well, then we need to get to work.  UPromise DOES NOT recruit the restaurants.  Rewards Network is an organization which works with the airlines & hotels (plus UPromise) to return money to us when we dine.  So, in order for more restaurants to be affiliated, we as patrons need to communicate with the establishments and ask them to join the network.  Only then will we reap what we sow.

[joyce_upromise]

Hi everyone,

Joyce from Upromise here. We hear you - we're working with one of our restaurant partners, Rewards Network, to add some chains to the program. It's difficult because a lot of chains are franchises and they have to recruit them one by one. However, we are working on this! If you do have restaurants near you that you'd like to recruit for the Upromise Dining program, please fill out this form - http://www.upromise.com/welcome/corporate/partner-network#rest and we'll get the information over to Rewards Network.

There are also some other options:

1) If you live near a college campus, check out upromise.com/campusfood

2) Giftcertificates.com is a Upromise online shopping partner that offers 3% back on gift certificates to select chain restaurants, including Chilis, Panera, and Jack in the Box. Just click on the link on this page to start your shopping: http://mall.upromise.com/me____.htm?keywords=giftcertificates.com&mids=142

3) Restaurant.com is a Upromise partner that offers 17% back (thru 9/30, the standard is 15% back) on gift certificates to their network of restaurants. They also sell the gift certificates at a big discount. It's usually $10 or less for a $25 gift certificate. You can find a link to their site on our restaurants page: upromise.com/earn/dining

Hope this helps and keep the comments coming. It helps us improve our program for all members.