Effective August 1, Amex Plat/Gold Resy credits require the restaurant to show as credit-eligible on the Resy website at the time of purchsae. Currently most do! So it’s not clear whether this is just meant to cover for establishments whose MCC codes are odd and don’t track properly (or that don’t accept Amex), or whether the intention is to cut costs and limit to specific places (that presumably contribute economic value towards the credit) a la Chase, whose restaurant credit set is highly limited. At a minimum this creates the architecture for this going forward.
Effective August 1, 2026, U.S. restaurants and other food and beverage establishments (e.g., wineries, cafes) must be indicated as eligible for the Resy Credit on the Resy website or the Resy app at the time of purchase to qualify for the benefit. Qualifying restaurants and other food and beverage establishments will be indicated as eligible on their booking page on the Resy website or the Resy app and are subject to change at any time.
San Francisco won’t be TRULY back until there are shoeshiners at SFO
— Fed (@fedpoasts) June 12, 2026
I’m guessing that this is a way to stop the gift card purchase through those restaurants, requiring the purchase to be tied to an actual Rest reservation.
The way it works now is you can just buy the gift cards online as long as it goes through Toast at a Resy location..Or you can order takeout.
Financially it shouldn’t matter but they want to make it harder to use. This will increase “breakage” and make those cards less valuable to customers. Kind of like the doordash credits on the CSR.
It’s possible it’s just from the integration of Tock. Or it’s possible that they will require restaurants to pay for a portion of the credit and a meaningful number of restaurants will no longer be available for the credit.
But even if that becomes the case, this is a rational business move by Amex that may actually lead to the long-term viability of this credit. They started with the broadest possible subset (all Resy restaurants). After a period of time, they then tell restaurants that X number of people that ate at their restaurant used the credit, and do you want to risk losing that business? Or pay us $$ and we’ll continue to list you as a restaurant that accepts the credit and because we are customer-friendly we are of course going to prioritize restaurants that accept the credit in the search results.
Compare that to the CSR which started with (and still basically has) a small handful of restaurants in select major cities that are already seeing turnover.
So… I suspect that the ease of use of these credits as between Amex and Chase will still be night and day in favor of Amex. Some may say they are still “nerfing” the benefit, but all benefits don’t grow to the sky, and if they can maintain a benefit that is still usable at thousands of restaurants, that’s still excellent. Even if it was just the Global Dining Collection restaurants it would still be tons more restaurants than Chase has.
I did see one comment online (obviously not sure if true or not) that some Resy restaurants were not accepting Amex cards. I find that odd since Resy is owned by Amex and you would assume a condition of being listed on the site was acceptance of Amex cards. If there are such restaurants I would think Amex would immediately just drop them. Not sure what other considerations qualify for this restriction. It will be interesting as of August 1 to see what indication is on the Resy app or website to identify qualifying restaurants.
Personally I’ll probably use the third quarter benefit in July just in case some of my favorites aren’t included after August 1. Similary, I will use the CSR 2nd half year credit in July as there are only a handful of restaurants listed in Charlotte but some I go to often so the credit works for me at full value. However, with the limited offerings I’m more concerned that my favorites are no longer eligible for the CSR credit than I am about any restrictions on Resy. There are so many Resy restaurants I’m sure I can find something I like that qualifies.
There are so many restaurants on Resy, I think that even if there ends being fewer restaurants it would not be as few as Chase Sapphire Tables which would still be a positive. If this leads to a loss of a significant number of restaurants then it would be a nerf and require a revaluation of the credit.
@Peter is correct. This is pathetic. But not as lame as CSR. Still, super lame. That said, if one must use their “Exclusive Tables” benefit (I’d say, more like, ‘elusive’ tables…), and you happen to be in NYC, please consider Phoenix Palace in Chinatown. You won’t regret it.
@Retired Gambler Forcing a restaurant to accept a specific payment method, potentially requiring the restaurant to renegotiate with their card processing company, is a non-starter. The restaurants pay Resy to use the reservation platform, and there are competitors as well (OpenTable, SevenRooms) that definitely do not have a payment type requirement.
@ Gary — You need different shoes. Look around you, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone under 50 (probably more like under 70), wearing shoes that require shining. The newer business leisure shoes are about 1,000x more comfortable than old, heavy, stiff shiny, leather ones. And they look good. I don’t know, but maybe you need a whole new wardrobe!
@Gene, @Gary Leff — Eyy, we still got a shoe-shiners in NYC, in certain office buildings, and they’ll ‘do ya’ right there in a few minutes. (Though, yes, the newer shoes are quite nice, too.)
@ptahcha — When American Express OWNS Resy it is entirely reasonable that they require all restaurants listed to accept American Express cards. There is no legal obligation to allow restaurants on Resy so Amex can set up whatever terms they want. The restaurant is then free to either accept Amex’s terms or not. If they don’t they could either list on another site like Open Table or not list on such site at all.
Restaurants (and any other business) are certainly free to accept whatever form of payment they want but you can’t also expect to get marketing value by listing on a site owned by a credit card company then no accept that card. Sorry but I seriously doubt Amex’s terms with Resy allow this situation to exist and there is no legal recourse for a restaurant since, as stated above, there is no “right” to post on a site like Resy.
Nordstrom was known for having shoe shine stands in their stores. There are still stores with them, though not all. Worth checking out.
Speaking of Resy, when will Tock be officially integrated? Maybe this has something to do with that?
Gary, I suggest visiting Delhi. You’ll be assaulted by street urchins volunteering to polish your shoes.
@Gary I think I saw someone getting a shoeshine in DFW Terminal C last weekend.
@Retired Gambler – I don’t think you understand the business relationship between the restaurant and the reservation platform. The platform is a service provider to the restaurant, which the restaurant pays a service charge for both online reservations and in-house seat management. This is similar to any other suppliers. It is not a privilege to be “listed” as you stated, but rather a business decision. We made a decision to switch from Resy and to OpenTable because a) the business terms were much more competitive, regardless of the fact that Resy did not charge a per-cover charge and b) Resy has no presence in our geographic area, while OpenTable has a dedicated page. If Amex is not running Resy as a business and does not care about revenue, then sure go ahead and enforce the Amex acceptance requirement.
Also, Resy existed as an independent company before Amex acquired them, so I would imagine many restaurants kept their contract but still does not accept Amex.