Rewards Network runs card-linked dining programs for many airlines and hotel programs including American Airlines, United, Marriott, IHG and more. They’ve just added a nationwide chain to the program that’s more of an activity-based company but which also serves food and drink – Topgolf.
I’m not much of a golfer, but Topgolf holds a special place in my heart. I used to live near one of its very first locations in Addlestone, UK which is about 10 miles south of London Heathrow airport. I’d sometimes go there to play by myself, while other times it made for a fun night out with friends.
In case you’re not familiar with Topgolf, it’s a golf driving range, but so much more. All of the golf balls you play with have a microchip inside them to track their location when they land. The “course” has loads of giant holes in the ground that look like large Trivial Pursuit wedge holders. The further you hit the balls into one of these holes and the closer you get to the center of them, the more points you score.
It’s a fun game for people of all skill levels – even those who have no skill. Provided you can simply connect club to ball, you can have fun. In fact, sometimes beginners who can’t hit the ball far can do better than those who can. That’s because there are three large holes closest to where you’re teeing off which makes it easier to score points. More experienced golfers will often go for distance where there are fewer holes, so you could smash the ball nicely but end up with no points.
A fun little tidbit. If you’ve ever played at Topgolf and wondered if there’s any reasoning behind the colors used for holes, there is. The holes closest to your bay are red, then as they get further away they’re yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and then black. That’s based on the colored balls in snooker and the number of points you score for each one (in snooker, red balls earn you one point, yellow earns you two, green is three up to black earning you seven points). Topgolf has a number of optional game settings and in the UK one of those is based on a game of snooker where you have to hit a ball into a red hole, then one of the other colors, then a red hole, then one of the other colors, etc.
Anyway, back to earning points and miles while playing Topgolf. Topgolf can be a fun day or night out, but it can become pricey depending on how long you play, how much you spend on food and drink, etc. Being able to earn additional rewards is therefore a nice option.
That said, in many cases you’d do better not taking advantage of its participation in these dining programs. That’s because Topgolf gift cards are available at large discounts all the time which more than outweigh the value of the points/miles you’d earn by paying with a card linked in one of these dining programs. For example, Costco has Topgolf gift cards for 20% off, while Sam’s Club has $75 cards for $55 right now which is a 26.67% discount. Raise also has Topgolf gift cards for more than 20% off.
There is an exception to this though. At the time of publishing this post there’s a Topgolf Amex Offer giving $20 back when spending $100. That makes it much closer to the value you can get via discounted gift cards, especially if you’re doing this via the American Airlines Dining program as you’ll not only earn AAdvantage miles but Loyalty Points too.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Topgolf now on airline & hotel dining programs – earn miles/points while playing […]