If you are an American Express accepting venue, Card Members have been instructed to notify you that they’ll be paying with an American Express Card to claim a free side.
We aim to answer all your questions here below. If we have missed anything, please email us and we will aim to get back to you within 2 business days. Please use the subject line "Side With Amex Venue enquiry" and email sidewithamex@au.timeout.com.
How do I participate as a venue?
If you are not already participating in Side With Amex, please email us with subject line “Sign me up to Side With Amex” sidewithamex@au.timeout.com.
Once you have confirmed your participation in Side With Amex, you will receive a welcome pack with an overview of the initiative, T&Cs, and a decal sticker to present in your venue window to show diners you are participating in Side With Amex.
What if my venue does not participate with Side With Amex?
Side With Amex is an initiative to deliver additional customers and awareness to great venues across Australia. The benefits of participating are increased patronage from a proven dining audience and help developing long lasting relationships with new customers and old customers alike.
What if I charge a surcharge for American Express purchases?
This initiative is only for venues that have 0% American Express surcharge or charge a parity or equal surcharge for ALL Credit Card transactions. If you have questions regarding your eligibility, please contact sidewithamex@au.timeout.com.
Do I have to remove the American Express surcharge?
You do not need to completely remove your credit card surcharge, however this initiative is for venues the warmly welcome American Express, meaning you cannot charge an extra surcharge for American Express transactions.
What if my venue does not accept American Express?
If you would like to explore the potential of being a American Express merchant, please contact us and we will happily connect you with a dedicated American Express relationship manager, who will be happy to help you. Simply email sidewithamex@au.timeout.com.
How do I verify this with my American Express representative?
Time Out have a dedicated American Express relationship manager, who we can connect you with upon request. Please forward your enquiry through to us at sidewithamex@au.timeout.com.
What do I do if we have reached 200 dishes?
Great! Continuation of the initiative is at the your discretion. Please notify Time Out if you have reached your 200 dish commitment and we will be able to work with you to offer increased incentives to continue to the end of the phase. Simply email sidewithamex@au.timeout.com.
What do I get in return for participating?
Time Out have committed to $1,500 free media value across the Time Out network. The free media will be a venue listing or promotional event listing or short promotional write-up, along with content marketing for your venue.
What is a venue listing?
A venue listing is a 150 word write up on your venue, describing the setting, food type, hospitality group, key staff, cuisine and any other relevant details. This is written by a Time Out staff member. As part of the Side With Amex campaign media package, we can create a new venue listing for unlisted venues, or update an existing venue listing.
Please note: A venue listing is not a critical review of your venue.
What if I have a critical review already on Time Out?
Time Out cannot perform a critical review as part of any commercial partnership. All critical reviews (star rated) are performed independently by our editorial critics. If your venue has a critical review, we will offer a promotional event listing to help promote an upcoming event, special or party.
What is a promotional event listing?
People come to Time Out for our event listings: to be told where to go and why. A promotional event listing is a commercial version of this product. The listing will be written by a Time Out staff writer, and includes all the essential details of your event, including dates, an outline of what to expect, pricing and even a booking button which we can link to your payment portal. An event is a time bound, unique and generally ticketed event, dining package or party.
A promotional event listing is not something that happens every week (Sunday roast, cheap Tuesday), a seasonal menu update or a new chef. It must be a one-off event, or event series that differs significantly from your usual offering, eg: a guest chef, a party with a large line-up of DJs/bands.
What is a short promotional write-up?
A short promotional write-up is a short (150 words or less) piece of content about a promotion, or piece of news from your venue. This can include a regular recurring special ($1 wings; taco Tuesdays) or a piece of venue news (new chef, new area of the venue opening). This write up is not a listing, but a feature. It will not have your venue’s address or hours on it, but will hyperlink to your venue listing on Time Out, and to your venue website.
Will Time Out or American Express cover the cost of the free side?
No, the cost of the free sides will be managed by the venue, however the hard cost will be offset by the free media campaign offered by Time Out.
How do I spend my $1,500 free media?
Time Out will allocate your media on your behalf, in commercial content initiatives that are relevant to your venue.
How do I cancel our participation?
Please forward your enquiry through to us with subject line “Cancel Side With Amex” at: sidewithamex@au.timeout.com. We will aim to respond to you within 2 business days. If no resolution can be found, we will remove you from the Side With Amex list and relevant content pieces.
How will people know I am part of Side With Amex?
Time Out and American Express have partnered in an extensive campaign to deliver new customers to great venues across Australia.
Who do I contact with questions?
If you have any other enquiries contact us at: sidewithamex@au.timeout.com. We will aim to respond to you within 2 business days.
What if the venue EFTPOS is broken?
Accepting alternative payment method and honouring the Side With Amex agreement is at venue discretion. Payment must be made with a valid American Express Card in order to claim the free side. The venue should have a manual credit card machine to process the payment.
What if more than one customer has an American Express Card?
The agreement is for ‘one free side per bill’, and split bills does not entitle the customer to additional free sides.
What if I want to exclude menu items?
Venues have the opportunity to exclude menu items from the Side With Amex promotion. Customers will confirm when making a booking or upon arrival if they are an American Express Card Member, at which time your venue staff should disclose any limits to the menu items on offer as part of Side with Amex.
What is a ‘main meal purchase’?
Venues have the opportunity to exclude menu items from the Side With Amex promotion. Customers will confirm when making a booking or upon arrival if they are an American Express Card Member, at which time your venue staff should disclose any limits to the their favourite menu items on offer as part of Side with Amex.
What if we don't meet the 200 dish commitment?
Venues only have a maximum commitment for the campaign duration.
What do I do with split bills?
The agreement is for ‘one free side per bill’, and venues are only committed to providing one free side per total bill.
What if we don't serve ‘sides’?
Your business can still participate by offering an equivalent small dish to accompany a larger dish purchase. This can be an appetiser, free garlic bread, amuse bouche or serve of vegetables as accompaniment. Venues have control over what is available through their participation with Side With Amex.
When I sign on, how long will it take to see my listing on Time Out?
We will update the venue listings by the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month. Once you have confirmed participation, we will add your venue to the list and someone will be in contact if they are missing any information.
Will you update my REVIEW? And how long will it take?
If you have a critical (starred) review on Time Out that is significantly out of date (the menu has significantly changed and the appearance of the venue has significantly changed) then the venue has the option of replacing their review with an unstarred listing, upon consultation with Time Out. If a venue has not materially changed since it was critically reviewed (starred) by Time Out, then we will offer a promotional event listing, or some other piece of commercial content instead.
What are American Express doing to help customers know about this initiative?
Please see American Express Casual Dining.
What will my listing look like?
Here is an example of a commercial venue listing.
What’s in it for Time Out?
American Express have come to us due to our existing and extensive relationships in market. This partnership helps us connect with our customers and audience and maintain our dominance and credibility in the hospitality space.
