Is it still impossible to get something for nothing? Perhaps, as the Cards here do have some pretty hefty annual fees. That said, having a delicious meal for two, and the next day having pending statement credits for the full purchase price is pretty sweet. Let me break it down.
Firstly, what is Resy?
Resy is an online (web + app) based reservation system for mid-high tier restaurants. Pick a time slot, choose the restaurant, book a reservation. I’m sure they’d argue there’s more to it than that, but it’s quite literally that simple. In our neighborhood alone there are three great restaurants (Grisette, Alewife, & Roosevelt) that are each amazing and worth an experience. Many cities have a similar, pretty wide selection (they claim over 20,000 restaurants across their network, with over 10,000 in the US).
Enter AMEX partnership
Partnerships. AMEX drives traffic to Resy restaurants. There’s some sort of kickback. While I don’t know the details here, I do know that it’s resulted in two core benefits across a range of AMEX cards: 1) AMEX Platinum gets $100 credit every quarter, 2) AMEX Gold gets $50 credit every six months, 3) AMEX Delta Platinum/Reserve cards get $10/20 a month credit.
The credits are easy. If the restaurant is Resy, the credit is automatically applied, generally within days. There’s no complexity in redemption beyond enrollment in the benefit on AMEX’s site directly.
The credits can add up big. Take AMEX Platinum, $100 credit/quarter is $400/year. Assuming you would be dining out and spending that money anyway (which for me is true, for others it may not be). That’s almost half of the now-$895 annual fee. Pretty big value from one benefit alone. At a minimum, a major offset to the often-major annual fees for the product.
So lay it on me, what’s the scheme?
There’s two variants.
Variant one is the obvious. Enroll in benefit, dine out at the Resy restaurant, get a substantial credit. That’s easy. Done.
Variant two is the slightly more obnoxious, but also slightly better. I have two products with Resy credits. Product one is the AMEX Platinum card. That $100/quarter credit is very easy to use, and can cover a whole meal (and change) at many of the Resy restaurants. Product two is the AMEX Delta Platinum card. That $10/month credit is also easy to use, but doesn’t typically cover more than a small portion of the meal. Basically the scheme here is to split the transaction to take advantage of the $10 credit, while filling the rest of the transaction with the $100 credit. Make that tip a little nicer for the hassle, but no reason to (quite literally) leave money on the table!
Just look at how sweet this can be, for you, too (the brunch burger from Alewife is so outrageously good!)
