Nothing is a guarantee, of course - but looking at past Chase charges QS and TS did code as dining for me. I’d bet carts in parks could be iffy, but not sure. FWIW, when we stayed at the Swolphin, anything I bought in their food courts also came up as dining.
Of course, I don’t personally have that many dining data points on my credit cards because I tend to use discounted GCs to pay as much as possible. 
Thanks!
That is one more useful set of data points. (Recognizing of course that I’m only playing at the 100 level instead of the GC 200 level… 
)
This is a great feature for teenager’s cards. Capital One allows it as well.
I checked a recent statement from this past June, and pretty much everything coded as Restaurants at 3x points. It showed Skipper Canteen and Art Smith’s Homecomin’ at 3x (table service), Satuuli Canteen and Sleepy Hollow at 3x (quick service), and even bars like Jock Lindsey’s coded as a Restaurant. Places that coded at 1x points were places that were more like stores that sold snacks, such as Erin McKenna’s bakery in Disney Springs, and Big Top Souvenirs in the MK. Hope this helps!
| Received this from National Car Rental today. What happens when you play and are successful at finding the key fob? |
nothing. absolutely nothing.
but, you can plan again as many times as you want.
Feels a little…
wait for it!
Amex card holders alert!
Look on your cards for this Best Buy cash back offer - it showed up on ALL SIX of my Amex cards this round:
| While as per usual the terms exclude various things including gift cards, to date all data points online are that buying THIRD PARTY gift cards (aka NOT a Best Buy GC) either at BB online or in store should trigger the credit.* |  |
So, if you are bulking up on Disney (or other) gift cards, this is an easy 10% cash back on possibly a high amount of spend all at once. 10%-ers have been a bit rarer to find lately without jumping through hoops. (Also, if buying online, don’t forget to click through Rakuten to possibly add a little more cash back or Amex MR sprinkled on top.)
I would stick to physical gift card purchases rather than e-gift cards, just in case. I think e-gift cards probably? work, but I wouldn’t chance it. Less variables = more better.
PRO TIP
REMEMBER: You need to add Amex offers to your card before you make a purchase.
You may remember me talking about this back in the thread somewhere, but worth repeating: technically you can only add Amex offers to ONE card even if they appear on multiple. I found that you can often get it added to two cards if you simultaneously smash to button on a browser and on the phone app.
BUT: There’s a much better way: CardPointers. See links below from previous reply, but TL;DR: CardPointers will add ALL Amex offers to ALL the cards you select at once.
FINAL CAVEAT
*I have seen zero data points online of these credits not working.
I have done it myself several times now, no problems.
But it is always smart to be aware that things could change at any moment or some glitch happens and the cash back doesn’t post. Again, I have not encountered this at all.
 |
I figure: Worst case scenario is that I bought a gift card for full price. |
Ahhhh, this brings me back to double booking LL days. Good times.
Eeeeewwwee.
On “Couponing” for the CSR and Amex Plat:
CSR is catching a lot of hate on reddit for transitioning to a “coupon” based approach where you have to use various credits to get value from the AF. Previously it was more of a no-brainer travel card: just pile any broadly travel-related expense, collect 3% UR points, redeem through portal to get x1.5, or net almost 5%. A lot of griping that Amex Plat is better. Maybe? But Amex Plat requires a lot of couponing too. Anyways, I decided to get an Amex Plat and see for myself. The signup bonus should cover the AF for 1 year and if it doesn’t work out we can scrap it. Or keep it and scrap the CSR. Or keep both!
I find the couponing doesn’t bother me: I even like it, gives my min/max brain something interesting to do that’s travel/dining related, like WDW does. I just took DW to our fave Manhattan restaurant that’s on Resy so qualifies for the $100 dining credit. That got me some points with DW: “Wow, that was spontaneous and fun!” she said. Also booked a 1-night mini vacation in DC at the Park Hyatt with a $300 credit off a room cost of $415. These are things that we already do, or like to do. The other small credits also came in handy: ordered an appetizer from Uber Eats we’d been wanting to try, got DW a cute bag on Lululemon, and made Youtube ads disappear with a Youtube premium subscription.
I like that the coupons provide some regularity/discipline around travel/dining. We’d already been planning more 1-2 night mini-vacations, the Amex/CSR coupons fit well with that. And, DW likes to go out to eat at nice restaurants, the coupons provide a routine around it. She’s already looking forward to going again in Q4.
Is this worth the AF long term? For us, probably yes. We’ll try for 1 year and see how it goes.
Way to take advantage of the Plat!
I think the general consensus is with the new Chase Sapphire Reserve release, Amex wanted to prevent losing people after their own increased annual fee and crowd out the CSR with more stuff to really entice people.
I really think they did that, if you can play the game like you and I enjoy doing.
I’ve got one $75 Lululemon gift card already, about to order another and hand these two quarter credits off to DD. I just gave my DS an Oura ring that he’s enjoying - although I’m not sure if it will be worth his subscribing to use anything beyond the basics, but I guess we’ll see.
I picked up a $100 gift card at a local sushi place for the Resy credit, I just need things to calm down so DW and I have time to go out to eat!
I think even if I discount the value of several of the credits, along with others that do come in at 100% face value to me (streaming, flight credits, …) I easily come out ahead with the Plat.
I have trouble scheduling in the Fine Hotels and Resorts credit, so I’m trying to focus getting that used in this 2nd half year. I dropped the ball on using the $200 before the change - I suspected it would get doubled up with the new higher credit but I just didn’t pull the trigger on a booking, dagnabit.
The Plat credits look decent for me:
The digital credit covers dh’s NYT subscription. Lululemon is right by our Costco/Trader Joes so easy to accumulate gift cards to shop. Our favorite tapas place, less than 10 min away, is on Resy. Saks is annoying but I’ve managed to find sale kitchen items that we’ve needed to replace or that we will use for entertaining.
We have used the FHR credits when traveling (Boston,SF, Sydney, Johannesburg, Munich). The original credit from this year will be used at the Fairmont Orchid in Hawaii this December. I will book a stay in Japan (next June’s trip) this year to use the refreshed $300 FHR credit I have, then in January use the first 2026 $300 for another stay in Japan.
The CSR credits are making me cranky (I can’t use them until after 10/26). None of The Edit hotels work for Japan (FHR is less $$ plus my plan has us relying on the guaranteed 4pm checkouts), so those 2 @ $250/2 night credits will have to be used next Nov/Dec. The closest Sapphire Dining restaurants are an hour away in Philly, but we might be able to use it while in Hawaii.
If anyone has a Cap1 Venture X, their Premier Collection is super easy to use and works like The Edit (free bfast and $100 property credit). My bookings use my annual $300 portal credit so win win.
From listening to the Frequent Miler podcast, that The Edit system sounds like it needs a new… editor. 
FWIW, if it saves you any trips: I ordered my Lululemon gift card online after I saw a couple of positive reports on reddit. My credit for it posted about 3 or 4 days from purchase.
Speaking of platinum credits, we have Clear thanks to them. It came in handy this past weekend as I forgot my wallet at home. Didn’t realize until we were close to the airport. Good news was that you don’t need ID with Clear so I was able to get on both flights no problem.
I do have a picture of my license which came in handy at the hotel when checking in.
That’s great!
After CLEAR had an issue a few years back, they started asking for ID in addition to the biometric, which killed the concept of the whole thing. Glad they are back to normal again.
In NY now we have the state Mobile ID app where you can add your license now, but I’m not sure how many airports beyond JFK and LGA you can use it. I always feel like the TSA agent will give me the stinkeye with a mobile ID, so I haven’t tried mine yet. 
I think they may still ask every 5 or so trips. Thankful this wasn’t one of them haha.
I do wish we could to the mobile id. Had to track my phone but it was actually nice the whole trip not worrying about losing my wallet.
Isn’t appearing on my card. Keeping an eye out tho, our window to book WDW dining is about to open and we’d be more likely to do an extra sit down meal if I can pick up some discounted GCs
I’ve noticed sometimes when these deals get announced in points groups that mine show up a little bit more slowly. Maybe they roll them out over the course of a day or two?
Just a heads up for anyone playing the 2 player game:
Looks like personal Southwest card referrals now include the current elevated 120K Performance Biz bonus (with giant $10K spend.)
You will need to refresh your referral link to get it to appear (old links went dead when this happened.)
If going for this card and the Southwest Companion Pass - I’d give it a few more weeks until applying since the 3 month window from today is cutting it suuuper close to get the final spend done in January, as you need to.
Remember, you can always grab a referral link from a Liner if you are not in 2 player mode!
Today, I have a similar effective offer for Home Depot - which also handily sells gift cards.
It appeared on 4 of my cards: 10% statement credit cash back with a max of $25.
I forgot to capture the offer on my Amex account when I added it and now the Amex site is being glitchy when I try to pull up offers.
Below is the general info from my Cardpointers app:
Does anyone know of a points&miles community that is NOT Facebook based? Maybe one on Discord? I don’t mind paying a few dollars a month to support good discussions.
The churning sub on Reddit used to be pretty good but I haven’t looked there in a while.
