A new (well, returning) Amex Offer popped up this morning for one of my all-time favorite chain restaurants. It will save you 40% and you will have the potential to stack for even greater savings!
New Amex Offer: Save 40% At Carabbas
Getting the Offer
Log in to your American Express account and scroll down to the bottom. You will see Amex Offers & Benefits. Select and add the offers you want to your card. Make sure you make note of which card you save it to.
To maximize it, add the offer to separate cards, simply login to your American Express account and then choose to duplicate the tab (if using Google Chrome) as many times as you have cards. Once they are all open, select a different Amex card in each tab and select to save the offer to the card.
Make sure you save these offers as soon as you can – using the tip above to maximize – as they are limited enrollment and when they are gone, they are gone! Even if they disappear, as long as you have saved the offer, you are all set.
Carabba’s Italian Grill
- Spend $25, get $10 back
- Expires 5/31/2016
- Valid in-store only
- Not valid at airport locations
I know people’s preferences differ greatly when it comes to restaurants and especially when it comes to Italian restaurants, but Carabba’s is my favorite! It is the first restaurant I look for when I am in town for a new marathon. I know independent Italian restaurants can give a better taste, but when I am traveling, especially for a race, I like to choose someplace where I know what the food is going to taste like. Eating a dish with sauce that is too spicy or acidic the night before a marathon can have some nasty effects – I know this!
You cannot use this offer to buy gift cards online, but you can buy them in-store. My (former) local Carabba’s would let you walk in and purchase gift cards at any time, they did not even need to be “open” to let you buy them. So, just save this across all of your cards and buy gift cards in $25 amounts to maximize this and get a straight 40% back on all dining at Carabba’s!
How To Maximize It
They just finished up a 20% discount but these come around quite often. If you hold your gift cards until it comes around again, you will be able to get a significant savings on your dining! Forget the old Chase Sapphire Preferred 3X promo! 🙂
When you combine the 20% discount with the amount you have received the gift cards for, a $50 dinner will have cost you only $20 out of pocket! That is a real steal!
Best Time To Use?
Fortunately, this offer covers Mother’s Day. Restaurants like Carabba’s almost always offer special deals near Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. How they work is they will let you buy gift cards (normally like $50 in gift cards) to use and then will give you a promo gift card for $10 to use after the upcoming holiday. So, if you hold off until near Mother’s Day, you may be able to take this deal even further – and still be a great son/daughter! 🙂
Summary
Another fantastic Amex Offer and one which I will maximize across all of my cards. These will make great gifts at huge savings and I will keep a couple of cards in my race bag for upcoming marathons – the perfect pre-race pasta meal!
Hi,
Please work on your headlines, it is extremly misleading. If I spend $120 i will NOT get 40% off. Maybe with some tinkering I might get $20 off. Math class maybe?
Not misleading at all if you had read it. By purchasing gift cards, it is 40% off whenever you redeem them. Simply save the offer to all of your cards and buy gift cards. No tinkering necessary. Reading the post next time may help it to be more clear.
You owe Charlie an apology.
And lose the attitude this time.
Hello,
Ok a few things first. Thank you for your quick response. Maybe my last comment was a bit harsh so I apologize to your fans that got offended. Also I did add this to my card after reading the article so thank you for pointing it out.
However, I still think that the headline is deceptive. The article itself is fine but the headline is my problem. Yes, $10 off $25 is 40% but to a reasonable person your headline implies 40% at Carabbas which is not true as you would have to spend exactly a specific amount on food plus tip plus tax. If you have to spend $60 and only have 1 amex card or if you spend $65 and only have 2 cards then you are not getting 40%. Very few people spend exactly those amounts in their visit.
There are coupons that offer a percentage off like Bed bath and beyond so in that case your headline would be completely justified. But this is really just a $10 off your order deal with minimum spend not a 40% of your total order.
Not a big deal and your fans seem to prefer dramatic headlines so go for it. Plus other boardingarea bloggers are following suit. I guess the next $5 off $10 offers will be promoted at %50 off at “X” by everybody.
I really appreciate you coming back to reply. Many times, people leave a comment and don’t come back so I appreciate the dialogue.
To be completely honest, titles are the parts of posts that I spend the most time over and really agonize so as not to be clickbait. If you had seen other posts by me, I think you would agree that I try to be as upfront and unsensational in the titling as possible. Still, it is difficult to try and convey how something has great value while also being detailed. Had I said “Get $10 back on $25”, many would have passed it up because it does not sound like a great deal, especially when you could be spending more than $25 per person at this restaurant. But, it is very simple to scale up and many people that read these blogs have multiple Amex cards (whether it is prepaid subaccounts, authorized user accounts, credit cards, charge cards) just for offers like this. So, it can really be scaled that anything you are buying there is 40% off. In my case, I could scale this that anything up to $250 would be 40%, thanks to how many cards I have and the fact that anyone can purchase the gift cards.
This is why I emphasized the buying of gift cards and did not even really discuss just using a single card to pay a bill. If that is what I was referring to, you are right, the title would have been inappropriate. But based on how I laid it out and what the intention is with the post body, I felt that the title was accurate. I am sorry that you felt it was not accurate. Again, I really try to be as honest and forthright as possible in every part of my blog, but especially with the title. Still, there will be times that some readers will feel that it did not accomplish that and I am sorry that this was one of those titles.
Again, thanks for coming back!
[…] in your profile. A few good ones have popped up recently, like $10 off $25 Carrabba’s (h/t Runningwithmiles). I believe it’s targeted because it’s not showing up on any of my Amex cards. I tried […]