Trying Out T.GI. Friday’s New Rewards Program

TGI Fridays
Photo by navets

Yesterday I met up with a few friends for drinks at the local T.G.I. Fridays, and for the first time since they ended their GoldPoints program earlier this year, I was able to make use of their new loyalty program — Give Me More Stripes.

The Loyalty Program

Just like its predecessor, the Give Me More Stripes program rewards you primarily based on the amount of money you spend at T.G.I. Fridays. In a nutshell:

  • Earn one point per dollar, simply presenting your card at the time of the bill.
  • Get a free $8 coupon every one hundred points. Nice and simple — every time the counter passes a hundred, you get a free coupon. No limits to the number of times you can do this.
  • When you earn the free $8 coupon, you will receive the coupon via email, and have to print it out and bring it. This is one area where the new program is not as nice as the old one; with the old Goldpoints program, you could simply present your card and they could deduct rewards from it.
  • When you sign-up, you get two goodies: a “skip to the front of the line” certificate, and a one-time coupon for a free appetizer. Both of these perks are one-time sign-up gifts.
  • You also get to choose a personalized card when you sign-up, that not only has your name on it, but also your choice from several card designs. This may seem like a silly perk, but its kind of fun to pick your own.
  • Supposedly, access to other promotions and offers as they come up, although in the months since I signed up, as far as I know, I have not received any of these offers.
  • Best of all, of course, it is free.

Like most customer loyalty programs, there really is little reason not to sign-up, unless you have no reason to expect you’ll ever go back.

Fair warning, though: they don’t make this particularly obvious on their website, but your points will expire if you do not have any activity for more than twelve months. Fair warning.

That being said, if you make use of the program properly, it can be pretty rewarding, since the $8 coupon effectively gives you a chance to have an 8% discount. Combine that with a credit card that earns 5% back at restaurants, and all of the sudden those T.G.I. Fridays meals are looking about 13% cheaper.

The Issue of Alcohol

Of course, T.G.I. Fridays is not simply a restaurant  — they are also a bar, and you may be wondering if that large bar tab will earn you rewards as well. Here are the rules concerning alcohol:

  • If your tab only contains alcohol, it cannot get credit. The FAQ makes this sound like it has to do with some laws concerning rewarding alcohol consumption. Makes sense, I suppose.
  • However, If your tab contains any food, it can get credit. So if you spend $50 on mixed drinks at the bar, no points. If you spend $50 on mixed drinks and a $4 appetizer, points for everything.
  • Similarly to the “alcohol only” rule for earning, you cannot use your $8 reward on alcoholic purchases. It is a little unclear as to whether or not that rule refers to purchases that include a food item, though.

All-in-all, those rules concerning alcohol seem pretty fair to me.

The Downside

The only major downside to the T.G.I. Fridays program, though, is similar to the downside with the Best Buy Rewards Zone — time limits on the rewards. When you cross 100 points, you will receive the $8 coupon via email, and you will have to use it within thirty days. The sign-up perks (cut-in-line, free appetizer) have similar time limits. One month is simply not a long time, and I can see that many people are likely to forget to use their certificates in time. I think this is a poor call on T.G.I. Friday’s part, as it almost seems like they’re designing the rules for people to fail.

At least for now, there may be a trick around this — if you do not have your card with you, you can go online at a later date and submit a request for credit (you’ll need a bunch of information on the receipt, but the one time I have done it, it was an instant credit — no manual verification required). I am not quite sure how long you have to request credit, but if you are close to 100 points but don’t want the reward yet, you may be able to hold off on crediting the points that put you over until you are ready to get the certificate.

All-in-all, for a restaurant I was likely to go to anyway, I am fairly happy with their loyalty program. Anyone else have any experiences?

August 22, 2008 • Filed Under Rewards Programs  • Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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