IHG Ditches Grubhub

Tl;dr: No more quadruple bonus for Amex Gold cardholders. Bonus hotel points for restaurant reservations are small consolation. 

I love my Amex Gold card because of the great earning rates at restaurants and supermarkets (4x per $1) and flights (3x), along with solid protections and great customer service. Although the $250 fee is hefty, it offers $240 in annual statement credits and Uber cash that largely offset that, including $10 per month in statement credits that can be used at various restaurants and, as relevant here, Grubhub. 

The Great Grubhub Hack

Grubhub’s extensive network of restaurants makes it fairly easy to get full value from the monthly credit with a simple takeout order or two (delivery, with its expensive fees and tips, rarely makes sense for me). And until recently, it was easy to get even better than full value. I would activate a 1% cash-back (or 1 Amex point per $1 spent) bonus on Grubhub through Rakuten, then navigate back to Grubhub via IHG’s portal for 250 points per order, then place my takeout order. 

If I made two orders of a $5 coffee, I would get 4x points with the Gold card, get $10 back in statement credits, earn 500 IHG points (worth about $3), and get another 1x Amex points via Rakuten. That’s pretty good business. 

Goodbye Grubhub, Hello OpenTable

Sadly, when I tried my usual routine this month, I found that there is no longer a Rakuten offer with Grubhub, and IHG’s Grubhub portal is no longer active. Although it is possible the Rakuten deal might return, the IHG deal seems to be gone permanently.

This is bad news for Amex Gold cardholders, especially those who like point-stacking hacks, but there is a tiny silver lining here. IHG’s Grubhub portal now redirects to its partnership with OpenTable. By booking your table through IHG, you can earn 150 IHG points per reservation. That’s a respectable return on a free service that many of us use regularly anyway. 

Conclusion

Despite this devaluation of the Grubhub credit, the Amex Gold remains a great card. And the OpenTable partnership is a great way to earn IHG points just by using a free service that many people already use fairly regularly.