Last week I posted about an amazing American Express promotion where you get $50 back in a statement credit after spending $200 (called the Amex Mix-n-Match promotion). There are more terms to this, but overall can be pretty lucrative! Many of you reached out asking if this can be combined with the current American Express promotion for NYC Restaurant Week and the answer is YES! The reason for this is that many of the ‘Restaurant Week’ restaurants are also participating merchants of the Amex Mix-n-March promo. The two promotions overlap between February 1-10, giving you 10 days to benefit!
Before I dive into the numbers, let me give you a quick recap of the two promotions:
- Amex Mix-n-Match: Between February 1 and February 29, 2012, American Express is offering a $50 statement credit when spending $200 at 2 or more participating New York City merchants (stores/restaurants/museum/broadway shows, etc.) Registration is limited to the first 20,000 people.
- Amex Restaurant Week: Between January 18 and February 10, 2012, dine out three times and receive a $20 statement credit. You must use your registered Amex card to pay for all three transaction. Registration is limited to the first 20,000 people.
Now, let’s run the numbers:
- Each time you dine out at a ‘Restaurant Week’ restaurant, your bill will be $44.19 ($35 for your three-course meal, 8.25% NYC tax, and an assumed 18% tip). Of course drinks will increase this bill amount.
- My assumption is you are eating out with someone else and of course you’ll convince them to give you the cash and you’ll put the entire amount on your credit card! This is necessary since the minimum spend for the Mix-n-Match promotion is $200 (unless of course you are able to meet that minimum spend another way).
- After you enjoy three great meals at some well-known NYC restaurants, the total cost for just your portion will be $132.54.
- You’ll then get a $20 statement credit per the terms of the Amex Restaurant Week promotion, bringing your total cost down to $112.54.
- You’ll then get a $50 statement credit per the terms of the Amex Mix-n-Match promotion, bringing your total cost down to $62.54.
But let’s not stop there. The title of this post is “Three American Express promotions,” and I’ve only gone through two…
If you access the restaurant week mobile site on your smart phone an additional promotion will appear: “Sync your eligible American Express Card with Foursquare and get $5 back when you dine out!” This promotion requires three steps:
- Sync: Sync any eligible American Express Card
- Unlock: Check into participating restaurants using Foursquare to unlock specials
- Save: Use your registered Card to dine and get $5 back
Registering for this promotion will bring your total cost down to $57.54! This means that each dinner out will only cost you $19.18 (tip and tax included!) – a pretty amazing deal for some great NYC restaurants!
While this promotion is not a money making deal like some of the ones we saw in the Fall, it is definitely a great way to take advantage of Restaurant Week, especially if you were going to anyways!
Just some things to remember:
- The three promotions only overlap between February 1 – February 10
- Double-check to make sure that the three ‘Restaurant Week’ restaurants are also participating merchants in the Mix-n-Match promotion
- Not all restaurants accept American Express, so make sure to find this out in advance
- You will be receiving three different statement credits from American Express, so keep a close eye on your American Express bill
- If partaking in the Foursquare promotion, make sure to ‘check-in’ when arriving at the restaurant
- Make sure to use the same registered credit card for all transactions
- Registration is limited so do not delay, but on the flip side, do not register if you 99.9% will not be in NYC to take advantage
Enjoy Restaurant Week!
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AMEX restaurant week is dead. I hate these kind of promotions. They didn’t let you know until you hit submit. It’s so annoying!
Andy,
If you see this, try going back to register. It opens up again on occasion.
But I agree, the promotions are pretty terribly executed on the registration front. (AMEX sent me an email about the NYC promotion. I went to register 2 hours after I got the email and was told it was full).
[…] week I posted about a great way to eat at three participating Restaurant Week restaurants for a total of 57.54 including tip and tax ($19.18 per dine)! If you know NYC at all, you know […]
Actually … you just have to spend a minimum of $24 at each restaurant to get the $20 bonus…
“Minimum qualifying transaction amount at each restaurant is $24.”
Might be more cost effective to eat lunch ($24.07) with 2+ friends or hit the $200 credit with an additional spend elsewhere?
@Sonya – That is correct. You can make this promotion even better with lunch.
I registered for the Restaurant Week promotion, went to three restaurants, used AmEx but did not receive the rebate. What do I do?
I registered for the restaurant week promo, got a registration confirmation email, did the 3 dines (on weekdays as required), spent minimum $24 at each and yeah, 2 billing periods have gone by and still no credit. Have gone through 4 different customer services reps at Amex and bank credit card issuer so far and all say they have no record of the promotion. What gives?
BTW, participated in Mix n Match promo too and got that credit almost immediately.