Capital One Launches New Dining Platform

A couple of weeks ago we learned about the new Capital One Dining platform, intended to offer cardmembers access to acurated collection of restaurants. You can start making reservations on the website now that it's live. We've seen a lot of dining programs from credit card companies, but what makes this one different?

How Capital One Dining works

Capital One Dining has more than 350 restaurants in 11 cities in the United States, and the plan is for the list to grow over time. The selection of restaurants includes everything from 3-star to hidden gems. Capital One has a mobile app or website that can be used to access the platform.

The James Beard Foundation is one of the main features of Capital One's partnership with Chef Andr.

• A curated list of top restaurants in each city
• Special access to reservations at many of these top restaurants
• Special dining events, including with Chef Andrés and ThinkFoodGroup

Cardmembers have access to a number of restaurants.

• Odo in New York
• minibar in Washington DC
• Virtue Restaurant & Bar in Chicago
• Itamae in Miami
• Quince in San Francisco

Should cardmembers care about Capital One Dining?

It goes without saying that this won't be for everyone. This is useful for people who live in major cities.

In the past I have been critical of airlines teaming up with celebrity chefs since they are just being paid to put their name on some disgusting food.

This is a bit different. There are a few thoughts.

• The big question is how many extra reservation slots are made available for cardmembers; if it’s a significant number it could be pretty exciting, since in many areas getting a reservation at a great restaurants is harder than ever before
• I can see value in a curated list of good restaurants in major cities; the issue is that everyone checks sites like Eater when visiting a destination, and then that makes it hard to get a reservation at those places, so it’s nice to have an alternative, (hopefully) trustworthy list
• I almost wish Capital One would make this an exclusive perk for premium cards, like the Venture X; by opening it up to all cardmembers (including no annual fee cards), one has to wonder how much value this can really add, given how many people will have access to the platform

The platform seems to offer a moderate amount of additional restaurant availability. I don't see a lot of days that are completely sold out through other online booking platforms, but there are days where I can find additional time slots through Capital One.

Bottom line

All Capital One Dining card members have access to a list of restaurants in 11 cities around the United States, with additional reservation slots as well.

In the past I wouldn't have been interested in this concept, but I'm hopeful that it will work out. I used to be able to get reservations at my favorite restaurants a few days in advance, but now I have to plan a month in advance because I am not that good of aplanner.

What do you think about the Capital One Dining platform?