Blackbird: VIP Dining Rewards

We are big fans of InKind which is incredibly easy to use (for both the customer and restaurant) as just enter a check number at end of meal and pay (picking tip at that time) so were excited to see BlackBird pop up at a lot of our local restaurants as thought it would be easy to use. The first 3 times we gave up as despite the restaurants trying to find our name it is literally a 5 step process so each time either our name didn’t show or even though we paid it would say pending for 30 minutes. At a busy restaurant bar and they can’t wait that long. Worse is there is no option to get to pick a tip when checking out as you again have to go through multi steps and go into settings and set in your default payment. This would be okay if Blackbird was only at restaurants as usually you tip 20% (although hate it’s hard to tip more if you want) but issue is that I get to go beer from a brewery by me and it’s self serve just just give a $1 or $2 but I had to stop using Blackbird as forget to change from 20% so twice now gave a $5 tip on a 4 pack of beer. They really need to redo the whole system

Blackbird has been super easy to use and actually makes dining out more fun. I love that there are so many restaurant options to choose from, especially great local spots. The app is simple, smooth, and rewarding — literally. It’s an easy way to earn money/rewards just for supporting restaurants you’d already want to visit anyway. Everything feels quick and user-friendly, from checking in to earning rewards. Definitely one of the better restaurant apps I’ve used, and I love discovering new places through it. Highly recommend for both foodies and anyone who enjoys getting perks while dining

It’s a cool idea, but Blackbird charges a $100 check-in fee that they refund later, about 3-5 business days, according to customer care. The actual bill is charged separately. I used this at a restaurant in NYC and my bill came out to $85. So now my account is out for $185 and it will probably take longer to get the check-in fee back since it’s the weekend. If you’re a money savvy diner and you are paying with Blackbird, make sure to budget out at least $200+ for your dining experience. I’m sure that’s not a problem for a lot of people in NYC, but it’s stressful to me to be out that much money for an $85 meal. Wasn’t really worth it for the free “secret menu” $30 cheese plate we got for participating. I’ll just pay the restaurant directly next time. UPDATE: They responded saying that the pre-authorization does not actually post to an account; this is true, it was stuck in “pending” in my bank account. However, my bank does take pending charges into consideration when I make purchases. So if I have $125 in my account but the pre-authorization hold is $100, my bank will not let me make any purchases over $25. I’m sure this is different with different banks; but once again, if you are a money savvy diner, make sure you have more than enough in your account to continue your daily purchases while factoring in the fee until the pre-auth charge is cleared.