Entertainer App with HSBC: 1-for-1 dining deals

Above Image source: HSBC credit cards

How to Get Great Dining Deals

“How do you always get such great deals at restaurants?” – It’s the number one question I get when eating out with friends.

My response: a combination of the Amex Love Dining Programme, and the Entertainer App.

To get Amex Love Dining – all that’s needed is ownership of a qualifying American Express Card – and the Platinum Charge Card is my favourite one, due to its extensive lifestyle benefits (read more here!).

However, while the Amex Love Dining programme gives one up to 50% off when dining at selected establishments, that option isn’t available if you (i) don’t have a participating American Express credit card, and (ii) many are unwilling to pay the high annual fees that come with owning one.

The Entertainer App however, is much more accessible.

1-for-1 mains at Jamie’s Italian, anyone?

Entertainer App: the basics

The Entertainer is a 1-for-1 dining, leisure, wellness, and entertainment deals phone app.

Recommended by foodies in Singapore, this app is one of the best things you can get if you enjoy eating out. 

Entertainer App – Login screen

I love the interface of this app. Upon login in, by selecting ‘Food and Drinks’ – the entire list of participating restaurants appear in alphabetical order. Scroll down for the entire list.

Going through the list, you will find that most Dining offers give a 1-for-1 mains. This means ordering any qualifying food items (two mains), and the cheaper item would be free of charge. For an example of how I saved money with 1-for-1 mains offer, check out my dining experience at the Drunken Poet, an Irish bar at Orchard Road.

However, Dining Deals are not limited to main dishes; it really depends on the location. In the Entertainer App, I have seen 1-for-1 buffets, such as this 1-for-1 high tea from Lobby Lounge at Marriott Hotel:

There are also moments that the Dining deal is simply a 25% off the total bill. Such as in this offer from Hoshino Coffee:

Do note that the app isn’t just for food – it does feature deals for fun and entertainment. Check out some of the possibilities here.

I really like this one, from Bounce 🙂

Bonus – there’s hotel or staycation deals too! For this – it is possible to search by country. An attempt to search for a hotel deal in Kuala Lumpur resulted in this find: 

Using a Deal: the Process 

At the time of ordering, always tell the server upfront that you’re using the Entertainer App, and ask for the qualifying items in the menu. I sometimes show them the specific deal I wish to use – this is especially important if the place has multiple types of discounts, for example – at the Coffee Academics:

Upon payment, present the app again to the server, and the restaurant will key in their merchant pin so you can use the Deal. This is quite ingeneous – it means that you will never tap a Deal as ‘used’ by accident, since only merchants can indicate that a Deal was consumed.

Note: when a deal gets utilized, it will be marked as ‘Redeemed’ by the Entertainer App.

If you wish to repurchase used Deals, you may do so with coins. The Entertainer App has built-in a kind of gamification to the whole process – the more you spend, the more coins you get, and the more Deals you can repurchase again.

Recommendation: Save your ‘Favourites’ 

With so many Deals to choose from, my personal recommendation is to go through the list, and save the ones you really love to your ‘Favourites’

For example: let’s say that I am eyeing this 1-for-1 Deal from Hard Rock Cafe.

On the top right side, there is a little grey star. Tap on it and it becomes yellow – and this automatically saves Hard Rock Cafe to my ‘Favourites’ list.

If scrolling through a long endless list of places is daunting, another feature I recommend using is the filter – apart from choosing the cuisine type, one  can search for places with certain specific qualities. Child-friendly and wheelchair accessible places, anyone?

How Do I get the Entertainer App?

Usually, this app has to be purchased from the Entertainer App website – a quick check in February 2020 shows that the app costs $95.

However, the Entertainer App has partnered with HSBC – so users of any HSBC credit card are able to get the Entertainer App for FREE. Given that entry-level HSBC credit cards have a low annual salary requirement (SGD 30, 000 per annum) and that many cards waive the annual fees (for the first year or two at least). The condition is that any payment for Deals made via the Entertainer App has to be made with a HSBC credit card.

Another key difference – the free version by HSBC has about 1000+ Deals, versus the paid version that comes with 7600+.

Although, really, 1000+ deals is more than many people would need.

Did you find this guide useful? Are you a user of the Entertainer App? Let me know in the comments below!

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