Is the new PizzaExpress Club loyalty scheme worth joining? (Yes – free dough balls!)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• bookish says:

  8 Dec8 December 07:59

  Possibly, it’s front loading spend for rewards. As a parent it’s attractive even if the pizzas are £13 as a free drink, dough balls , small dessert and a piccolo meal every visit is really quite attractive. That’s before the birthday rewards.

  • John says:

    8 Dec8 December 08:31

    It used to be 2 pizzas for £13 but pay for the rest (with a discounted gift card)

• John says:

  8 Dec8 December 08:11

  Does anyone visit Pizza Express and not use some form of voucher? That is the killer here. It sounds generous but you have to give up your instant rewards, ie discount on meal, for the possibility of a few free items after a year. Doesn’t add up or me!

• Greg says:

  8 Dec8 December 08:17

  I understand Prince Andrew is a member so you will be in distinguished company.

  • flyforfun says:

    8 Dec8 December 09:14

    The first thing I wondered when I saw this was how long someone would make that comment! 🙂

  • Brian says:

    8 Dec8 December 09:40

    Prince Andrew? Distinguished?

• John D says:

  8 Dec8 December 08:17

  Pizza Express can afford this because they applied for a CVA and screwed their landlord’s for 3 years with greatly reduced rents. It is the landlords who are paying for this scheme.

  • dst87 says:

    8 Dec8 December 08:58

    Ah yes, landlords. A group of people who always deserve a lot of sympathy. 😆

    • flyforfun says:

      8 Dec8 December 09:19

      Don’t forget that if you’ve got money invested in a pension scheme, there’s a big chance that some of it is invested in retail, leisure and commercial real estate by the fund.

      That saying, there are some rogue landlords that are a bunch of (fill in with expletive of your choice).

      • Rob says:

        8 Dec8 December 09:21

        My cousin, who is a fairly high profile architect, just moved his practice into a new building they bought outright. Landlord frustration was part of it. He told me two weeks ago that they recently got a £5,000 bill for ‘intercom maintenance’ for example, and this was just part of the bill as their building had multiple tenants.

        15 years ago, the apartment block in Wapping where I still own a flat did ‘right to manage’. Service charges, 15 years on, are still lower than they were before RTM.

        RTM threw up lots of other fun too. When the block was built, two senior managers who worked for the developer (one of the best known house builders in the UK) bought flats for themselves. They had the service charges rigged so that their flats paid virtually nothing, with the other residents crosssubsidising them. Until RTM, the split of service charges by flat was a secret. A court process was launched to reverse this but because it is baked into the flat leases it couldn’t be revoked.

        • flyforfun says:

          8 Dec8 December 09:51

          We’re trying to do RTM/buy the freehold as our FH wants to build more floors on top of us. Doing some crazy stuff to avoid full planning application. Its hard for us to do RTM/buy the freehold as we have multiple blocks and lots of over seas leaseholders who don’t get it. Service Charges are a murky quagmire of hidden fees. Any reform promised by the Tory party will be watered down or won’t apply to those already in this mess.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          8 Dec8 December 13:58

          I’d have to agree re: landlords and their ways. To quote Bill Bryson: “fuck’em”. Acquiring our freehold has saved us no end of aggravation.

        • Kelvs says:

          8 Dec8 December 21:55

          Not Cinnabar Wharf, by any chance?!

        • Rob says:

          8 Dec8 December 22:52

          Gun.

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        8 Dec8 December 10:12

        Only if you don’t know where to invest your pension in.
        Feel sorry for such people. Pension funds should be banned from investing in commercial real estate without specific approval from investors.

        • mvcvz says:

          8 Dec8 December 14:29

          How come the above rodent is permitted to use offensive language here, but if I type as much as “gosh darn”, my post never sees the light of day? Just idly wondering…

        • Rhys says:

          8 Dec8 December 14:42

          It’s not swear words we care about to be honest.

          Anyway, you seem to have been put on the naughty step at some point but I’ve removed the moderation block so better be on your best behaviour 😉

        • JDB says:

          8 Dec8 December 15:06

          Why shackle your pension managers in this way by excluding a whole asset class?

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    8 Dec8 December 10:10

    That’s good. Wish more businesses did that.

    • Rob says:

      8 Dec8 December 11:13

      You’re forgetting the alternative though – Pizza Express closes and the landlord has to relet the space at current market rates, which will be massively lower than Pizza Express agreed to – and that’s assuming they can relet the space.

      Aim your ire at people like Regus. They were refusing to pay rent on their office buildings – even putting individual building holding companies into liquidation if they couldn’t get a deal – whilst continuing to charge their tenants full rent during lockdown.

• Ryan Gill says:

  8 Dec8 December 09:32

  Like Banker’s and finance sector workers that make up much of the readership here. Or is property theft?

• David S says:

  8 Dec8 December 09:47

  I used to belong to PE’s previous loyalty scheme which just disappeared into the ether without much communication. Their ownership seems to have changed so many times that I wouldn’t join another of their loyalty schemes

• Malcolm says:

  8 Dec8 December 10:06

  Worth a look but without discounting Pizza Express is hideously expensive – we’ve not been this year due to the lack of vouchers etc.

• cinereus says:

  8 Dec8 December 10:26

  Christ. Most people would do anything to avoid eating at Pizza Express.

  • VINZ says:

    8 Dec8 December 10:37

    Yes, agree. Why would you want to eat there?

    • Alex Sm says:

      8 Dec8 December 23:31

      Why not?

  • Rich_A says:

    8 Dec8 December 10:41

    I think someone described it to me as ‘where you go when your sister’s kids are visiting from out of town’, which sounds about right.

    • Lady London says:

      8 Dec8 December 12:32

      It’s where you take your kids before they’re old enough to graduate to The Ivy.

      • Rob says:

        8 Dec8 December 13:24

        Indeed 🙂

      • mradey says:

        10 Dec10 December 06:59

        Bit late to comment now but I’ve been taking mine to The Ivy (the real one) since they were toddlers. Very well received by staff and customers alike.

  • NorthernLass says:

    8 Dec8 December 10:46

    It’s the kind of place you can bribe your kids with the promise of a visit to! These things are sanity savers for parents.

    • Rob says:

      8 Dec8 December 11:09

      Yes. I’d say we probably went 20 times per year when our kids were younger, albeit we were under 10 minutes walk from a restaurant. I think the last time we went (kids are now 13 and 10) was when we were in Jersey in Summer 2020.

      • sloth says:

        8 Dec8 December 14:43

        the jersey one is the only one worth going to, for proximity to the airport and mostly for the view…otherwise pex is awful

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.