
Charles Lin wanted to celebrate his recent engagement by taking his bride-to-be to a unique, upscale restaurant in Los Angeles. As a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder, he turned to the Chase Dining program for opportunities. On its dedicated site, he was able to browse restaurants and availability to pick the perfect place for this celebration. The fact that he could redeem Ultimate Reward points to keep the cost reasonable was a fantastic added perk.
But something went wrong that ended up costing Lin instead of saving him money.
After cashing in a pile of Ultimate Rewards Points for the reservation, Lin received a $400 credit toward his dinner at Sushi Zo. But at the end of the meal, the restaurant rejected the credit — and Lin got blindsided with a $750 bill.
Now he’s asking TPG if we can get to the bottom of this dining debacle.
Earning and redeeming points through Chase Dining
To understand what went wrong for Lin, it’s important to know how the Chase Dining program is supposed to work. For those unfamiliar, here’s a quick tutorial.
Chase Dining powered by Tock is a reservation system where eligible cardholders can book restaurants, special events and even order take-out or delivery. Cardholders can log into their credit card account to access the Chase Dining portal.
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can earn 10 points per dollar they spend on the Chase Dining site. Note: A reservation must be prepaid via the site to qualify to earn those bonus points.
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points at a rate of 1.5 cents apiece toward reservations made within the Chase Dining site.
That last feature of this program is where things went wrong for Lin.
Booking a special dinner for two through Chase Dining
CHASE DINING
Back in June, Lin decided to give the Chase Dining program a try.
“We hadn’t traveled much during the pandemic, so I had a lot of points,” Lin explained. “I had never used Chase Dining before, so I decided to book dinner for two at Sushi Zo in downtown Los Angeles.”
Lin says he was well aware that the dinner would be pricey, but he never imagined just how expensive it would end up being.
“I cashed in 26,816 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and received a credit for $400 toward our dinner,” Lin said.
Shortly after completing the transaction, he received an email from Tock confirming the July 1 reservation. There was also a message from the restaurant and a notation that the $400 deposit would be deducted from the final bill.
Caption: “Your deposit secures your booking and will be applied to your final bill.”
“That was easy!” Lin thought.
The next day, the couple headed to Sushi Zo. It wasn’t until the very end of the night that Lin discovered nothing else about this Chase Dining experience would be easy.
‘We canceled your reservation’
Lin says that he and his fiancé had a wonderful meal at Sushi Zo.
During their dinner, Lin realized that the $400 deposit would not cover the entire tab. But that was OK by him. After all, this was a very special occasion, and — thanks to his Chase Sapphire Reserve — points would at least cover $400 of the bill.
But what the server quietly explained to him when she brought that giant tab was a shock.
“At the end of the dinner, the waitress brought us our bill,” he said. “She informed me that she had canceled our Chase Dining reservation and that we had to pay the total bill in cash – over $700. I was shocked. But, this was a nice, formal meal, and I didn’t want to spoil the evening. So, I paid.”
With a 20% tip automatically added to the check, the total came to $746.
While he was irritated by this unpleasant end to their excellent dinner, Lin was determined not to let the turn of events ruin the rest of the evening.
“I assumed Chase would take care of this for me on Monday,” he told me.
Unfortunately, that assumption proved to be misguided.
Who’s to blame?
The following week, Lin contacted Chase and explained his unusual experience with its dining program.
By that time, he had received a notification that Sushi Zo had refunded his deposit to Chase. His points had been returned to his account — but that didn’t seem like a satisfactory resolution, since he had wanted to use his points to save money on the dinner. This all seemed to Lin like a bait and switch on the part of the restaurant.
“The Chase representative told me that she also was shocked by what had happened,” Lin explained. “But she recommended that I contact Tock and ask them to correct the problem.”
This began a frustrating circle of customer service finger-pointing, with Lin trapped in the middle. In one message from “Tock Hospitality,” a customer service representative gave him some strange and unsettling news: The Tock team would defer to Sushi Zo – with no explanation as to why. Here are the contents of that email.
“Subject: RE: Fw: Your reservation for Sushi Zo – DTLA on Friday, July 1, 2022, 8:30 PM
Hi Charles,
Thank you for reaching out about this. Each business sets and enforces their own policies regarding deposits, including how they are refunded. While Tock recommends deposited amounts are applied to the final bill, some businesses choose to refund the amount back to the original payment method.
As the technology provider, we do not manage, nor can we take action on behalf of our partners, so we must defer to the Sushi Zo team with any further questions regarding their deposit policies.”
Lin next tried pleading with this Tock representative to look at the facts, replying:
“That makes absolutely no sense at all.
Please look at my booking confirmation. It says that the deposit WILL be applied to the final bill.
Why would anyone book through Chase/Tock if they know there’s a risk, depending on restaurant policy, as you claim, that their points are no good when it comes to paying for their reservation? What is the point of the Chase/Tock partnership?
Please escalate this to your manager.
Thank you.
Charles Lin”
Unswayed by his common-sense approach to the problem, both Tock and Chase customer service let Lin know this case was closed.
That’s when Lin got an idea. He would ask TPG to look at his case and see if we could help.
Asking Chase to take another look
When I read through Lin’s case and the additional paper trail he sent me, I suspected that some of the customer service “agents” he had encountered might be chatbots. We know that many companies have outsourced some of their customer service to artificial intelligence in the past several years because of the pandemic. In Lin’s case, some of the responses he received were so nonsensical that I could only assume A.I. had spun them up.
But the good news is that we have a helpful executive contact at Chase who is most definitely a human and can help solve TPG readers’ problems. (This is a media contact that we can reach out to directly in the rare circumstance that the issuer’s customer service representatives are not able to resolve a claim.)
I relayed Lin’s experience to our Chase executive contact, who immediately asked his team to investigate. Within a few days, they had an answer — and good news — for Lin.
40,000 Chase points and an explanation
The Chase team, in conjunction with the Tock team, determined that someone at Sushi Zo didn’t quite understand the Chase Dining program. Approved vendors in the program can’t simply decide to cancel the Chase Dining reservation after guests book and enjoy their dinner, as appears to have been the case with Lin.
In a phone call with me, our Chase contact assured me that “the experience Charles had at Sushi Zo is an anomaly, and it won’t happen to another Chase customer.”
For the restaurant to remain in the Chase Dining program, it must agree to follow the established policies. Specifically, if it accepts future bookings through the Chase Dining program, it must honor the terms of that reservation which are clearly stated on the confirmation. In Lin’s case, the agreement was for $400 to be deducted from his final bill. Under no circumstances can the restaurant arbitrarily “cancel” the Chase Dining reservation after the customer has completed his or her dinner.
As a goodwill gesture for Lin, Chase issued him an additional 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points. Then, through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature, he was able to redeem those points at a rate of 1 cent per point as a statement credit of $400.
This goodwill gesture is on top of the original refund of the 26,816 Ultimate Rewards points that Chase returned immediately after this dining fiasco.
Lin knows that he could have better maximized those Chase Ultimate Rewards points by redeeming them through other Chase transfer partners with a higher conversion rate, as he had done through the Chase Dining program at 1.5 cents per point. But he was ready to close the door completely on this experience.
“Hi Michelle!
Chase added the 40,000 points to my account for me to use however I’d like and offered to apply it as a statement credit. I said to go ahead and do that.
I understand that even though the 40,000 points could be further maximized through points redemptions, I have enough points right now in my account.
Thank you so much for all of your help on this. It wouldn’t have been resolved without your help!
CHARLES W. LIN”
We’re happy to have helped, and we wish you and your fiancé happy wedding planning, Charles!
Bottom line
The Chase Dining program can be a great way to earn and spend Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Remember, Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders earn 10 points per dollar spent on prepaid dining through the program and can also redeem their points for 1.5 cents apiece toward these reservations through Dec. 31, 2022.
For its part, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card earns 3 points per dollar on dining and cardholders can redeem their points at a rate of 1 cent apiece toward Chase Dining reservations.
Our Chase executive assured us multiple times that Lin’s case was an anomaly. The company, in partnership with Tock, is committed to providing its cardholders with unique, memorable, and positive experiences, he said. And if something goes wrong, he said that his team is committed to making it right.
If you find yourself stuck battling with an airline, hotel, cruise line, car rental agency, or credit card company, send your plight to tips@thepointsguy.com. I’ll be happy to investigate your problem and help you, too.