Info for Consumers
		Privacy
		Advice@American Express
		Tips, Tools &
		Information
		Consumer FAQs

Advice Archive by date

Advice Archive by topic

Looking for a good meal in a strange town?

If you’re traveling to a city that’s new to you, you’ll want to bone up on what the destination offers – including information about its restaurants. A new service available on the American Express Website can help you check out the different places to dine there. When you’ve found one that appeals to you, you can reserve a table and be completely confident it will be waiting for you when you arrive. And you can do the whole thing online.

Also, by the way, you don’t have to have an American Express Card to take advantage of this service – it’s free and open to all consumers. You’ll find it especially convenient to make your reservations through the American Express Web site, because the same site contains an impressive array of information to help facilitate your travel and entertainment planning – travel tips about sightseeing, theater and movie options.

After American Express introduced American Express Online Reservations to the world on May 2, Advice@American Express decided to run a test to see how it works:

• First, we picked one of our favorite cities (Atlanta, Georgia), a particular neighborhood (downtown, near Five Points), a cuisine (American), and a typical price for a meal (about $40 a person).

• A few clicks started the computer exploring; soon, a list of our options appeared on the screen. Among the choices, we liked the sound of a restaurant near Georgia State University, and just a short walk from storied Peachtree Street. The brief review in the listing described it as popular with Atlanta’s business community.

• We keyed in the date we wanted to eat, the time, and the number in our party, and waited for the service to present a list of restaurants with available seating. Our first choice had a table available, and, once we confirmed our reservation, we could e-mail our guests to inform them of the dinner plans through American Express Online Reservations. (And, if we had to cancel, we could also do that online.)

• Because this was a new experience, we asked a friend who had been one of the first to try American Express Online Reservations how things worked when he arrived at the restaurant he had chosen.

He had never been to, or even heard of, the restaurant before, and had selected it based simply on the information available on the site.

On arriving at the maitre d’s station, he was pleased to see that he was expected. They showed him his reservation on their flat-screen computer, with a code indicating it was made online. His table was waiting, as promised, and the meal was just as good as he had hoped it would be.

To register for American Express Online Reservation, click here. American Express offers 24-hour support at 1-800-AXP-DINE and also offers e-mail support.

May 24, 2001

Copyright (c) 2000 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved. Users of this site agree to be bound by the terms of the American Express Web Site Rules and Regulations. View Web Site Rules and Regulations and trademarks and Privacy Statement of American Express. See Corporate Entities and Important Disclosures for additional information about the American Express entities who offer products and services on americanexpress.com. American Express Brokerage is offered by American Express Financial Advisors Inc., Member NASD and SIPC. American Express Company is separate from American Express Financial Advisors Inc. and is not a broker dealer.