A few days ago I wrote a brief activation checklist for the American Express new metal (Rose) Gold card. In that post I mention a few steps that all new card members should go through when getting their new card. This list includes registering for the annual dining and annual airfare credits, singing up for shoprunner, and registering for Amex Offers. That list was fairly straightforward and most of those items should be second nature to longstanding American Express customers. However, in that checklist I failed to mention one item that all new metal (Rose) Gold card members should do immediately.
Link Your Card To Your Airline Dining Program
Yep, it’s a fairly easy thing that I can’t believe I forgot to mention in my previous post. See, given that this card offers 4X points on dining at US restaurants I suspect it will become your primary card to pay for dining. Because of this you want to make sure that you link your card to your dining rewards program to make sure that you double dip on all qualifying purchases at participating restaurants.
Linking your card to your airline dining program should take just a few moments, but will yield fantastic returns. To link your card simply log-in to your dining rewards account and visit the “My Account” tab.
After clicking on “my account” you should find a listing of your linked credit cards along the right hand side of the page.
At the bottom of the list of linked credit cards you should find a hyperlink to “add a card.” After clicking on that link you’ll reach a page to add your card. All you have to do is enter your card number and expiration date to save your card. From then on any qualifying purchases at participating establishments will earn miles with your participating rewards network dining program.
Should I Register For An Airline/Hotel Dining Program?
Yes. Next question.
Seriously though, if you haven’t already I highly recommend registering for an airline dining program. Some people take it to the extreme and only dine out at participating establishments. I however simply register my cards to the program and carry on with my life. Every now and then I get an email from the American Airlines AAdvantage Dining program telling me that I’ve made a purchase at a participating location.
If you sign up for emails (which aren’t that annoying) and make 12 qualifying purchases a year you reach “VIP” status. Once you reach VIP status you’ll earn 5 miles per dollar spent at each qualifying establishment. That means if you link your American Express new metal Gold card to your airline dining program that you’ll earn 4X Amex points and 5X air miles per qualifying purchase. That’s a 9X points for making a single qualifying purchase. Since I value both at approximately $0.015 each that results in about a 13.5% return.
So, if you haven’t already registered for an airline dining program I’d recommend doing so today. Most of the major airlines and hotel chains offer some kind of dining program and of course they are all free to sign-up for.
Final Thoughts
One thing I love about these dining programs is that you can link all of your credit and debit cards to them for free. All you have to do is add each card and then carry on with your life. If you happen to dine at a qualifying establishment the points automatically post to your airline/hotel loyalty account. Like I said, I haven’t gone out of my way to dine at participating restaurants/bars, but somehow I’ve racked up nearly 2,000 miles this year by doing this. Sure, that’s not a lot, but it’s about $30 of points that I wouldn’t have earned had I not registered.
So, if you do decide to open the American Express metal Rose Gold card make sure when you get the new card that you add it to your airline rewards dining program. Doing so is free and takes just a few moments. From there, browse the list of participating establishments to see if there are any participating establishments nearby.
For example, the Freshii near my office does not participate, but the one a few blocks away does. So, if I’m getting Freshii for lunch I walk a bit further to earn the miles. You could also use the list of participating establishments to pick a restaurant for date night. Your partner doesn’t have to know your earning extra miles for dinner.
