Applebee’s has come up with a bit of a mea culpa for angry fans threatening to boycott the casual dining chain after its Date Night Pass subscription sold out in less than 1 minute. The company announced Monday it is offering 1,000 additional Date Night Passes.
There’s a caveat, however. Those 1,000 passes will be made available for purchase via a random drawing. Guests are now able to register to participate in this drawing for the chance to purchase a pass now through Feb. 9 at Applebees.com/DateNightPass. The winning fans will be notified with details to purchase on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.
“The Applebee's Date Night Pass showed us that our guests are hungry for date night at Applebee’s with the passes selling out in less a minute to guests in more than 40 states. We know our loyal guests were craving more of the exclusive passes. So we wanted to show them the love by offering 1,000 additional Date Night Passes which will be made available for purchase via a random drawing,” a company spokesperson said.
Applebee’s first announced its Date Night Pass promotion Jan. 17. The $200 pass was created to provide cardholders with 52 date nights, starting Feb. 1 through Jan. 31, 2025, with up to $30 on food and non-alcoholic beverages per use whether dine-in or to-go. That would typically equate to more than $1,500 in value. The company said the objective was to make date nights “more accessible and flexible,” as dating costs have increased by 40% throughout the past 10 years.
When the passes sold out in less than a minute, Applebee’s acknowledged the promotion “far exceeded expectations.” Time will tell if the company’s 1,000 additional – and random – card giveaway will be enough to appease the masses of angry social media users.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]