Applebee’s date night promotion has some customers seeing red — and not in a romantic kind of way.
On Jan. 22, Applebee’s released its Date Night Pass, which gives cardholders 52 “date nights” starting on Feb. 1 until Jan. 31, 2025. For $200, the pass allows customers to order up to $30 worth of food and nonalcoholic beverages during each use, either for dine-in or to-go.
If you do the math, this means passholders can get more than $1,500 worth of Applebee’s for $200.
People were clearly eager about the opportunity because, after the passes went on sale on Monday at 12 p.m. on Applebee’s website, they sold out in mere moments.
Applebee’s issued the following statement to TODAY.com:
“The Date Night Pass sale this week showed us that our guests are hungry for date night at Applebee’s—just prior to sale time there were nearly 100,000 guests waiting to try and snag a Date Night Pass. Our passes sold out in less than one minute to guests in 41 states — far exceeding our expectations. We apologize to our guests who were disappointed that the limited number of passes sold out so quickly. We’re always looking for ways to make date night special for our guests and look forward to sharing future offers.”
“Within the span of probably 30 seconds the Applebees date night pass was in my cart available and then sold out 😔,” wrote one X user, mirroring the experience of many, many others.
“Not even 2min in and the @Applebees Date Night Pass is sold out. BUMMER,” posted another disappointed fan.
“Applebees finessed everybody and used the Date Night Pass for free social media publicity,” someone else hypothesized.
“Somebody please prove to me that the Applebees date night passes exist...Because that sold out at warp speed and the page never loaded for me,” posted another X user.
Some customers said the website crashed or showed them a server error, while others said they didn’t see even see a button to click.
“Literally spamming refresh on @Applebees for the date night and didn’t even see the option to purchase one,” posted one X user. “What’d they sell, like 5 of them?”
“Imagine this rollercoaster of emotions,” posted another user who was at least able to get a card into their cart, only to find out it was sold out before they could check out.
The swiftness with which the Date Night Pass sold out has led to major backlash on Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, X and beyond, with many folks sharing their frustrating experiences and theories about what transpired.
“I called my Applebee’s 12 noon on the 22nd,” commented one person on credit information and deal site Doctor of Credit. “Hostess said that they were already sold out and that they were only offering 250 for all of the Applebee’s.”
“We want justice for the date and switch scam you just pulled,” one person punnily commented on an unrelated Applebee’s Instagram post.
“There were 250 sold, it’s unlikely any of us will really know anyone who got one,” commented one Reddit user.
“I guess they thought it was good to get people talking about Applebee’s, really I think it just left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth about Applebee’s,” another user replied.
