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

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• Chas says:

  8 Dec8 December 10:56

  You might want to delay signing up until you have an imminent visit, as the free dough balls voucher appears to only be valid for 6 weeks (I just signed up, and mine expires on 19 Jan 22).

• David says:

  8 Dec8 December 11:06

  Surely once you reach Gold (with all those freebies) you’ll have to eat a lot more per visit to get your average spend above £10 per head.

  • Rob says:

    8 Dec8 December 11:07

    I don’t think you can get a pizza for under £10 at PE these days.

    • Richie says:

      8 Dec8 December 11:36

      If Margherita is your preference it’s £9.95 which is over priced for me.

      • Rob says:

        8 Dec8 December 12:11

        I look forward to seeing you showing us how you can pay £150,000 per year in rent for a large restaurant site, spend a further £500k in fitting it out, hire 20-30 staff and then making a profit selling an £8.33 exc VAT £10 pizza …..

        • Geoff 1977 says:

          8 Dec8 December 12:15

          They’ve also got a billion pound of debt on their books (not sure how they ended up with that in the first place though)

        • Rob says:

          8 Dec8 December 13:25

          That’s the debt from the original acquisition of the business, which was dumped back onto the company, Manchester United style.

        • Rhys says:

          8 Dec8 December 12:34

          Franca Manca manages!

        • Rob says:

          8 Dec8 December 13:23

          That’s a different business model though – tightly packed seating (often on the street), a short menu deliberately aimed to put off kids, aiming to make money off beer.

          The food is decent though, I admit.

        • meta says:

          8 Dec8 December 12:35

          Plus business rates!

        • Geoff 1977 says:

          8 Dec8 December 13:39

          They made a £56m loss in 2019 so whilst it might be a different business model to Franca Manca, it’s not really a good one.

        • chabuddy geezy says:

          8 Dec8 December 18:06

          Pizza Union and Franco Manca are eating Pizza Express’s lunch. They are both cheaper than Pizza Express and have proper pizza ovens rather than electric ones.

        • RYAN BERRY says:

          8 Dec8 December 23:48

          Currently £8.88 with the 12.5% VAT, standard cost of food is 25% net or 20% gross, that’s what we generally aim for with at my company

        • Lou says:

          9 Dec9 December 06:44

          And the beer is cheap in Franco Manca!

          I guess the big difference with Franco Manca/Pizza Union (love both these places) and Pizza Express is that the former are pretty much aimed at seeking you a pizza and you’re on your way. PE is trying to sell you a dining experience. I do think the writing is on the wall for PE if FM continues to expand country-wide

• Geoff 1977 says:

  8 Dec8 December 11:53

  Diversifying into other areas given the current/likely 2022 travel sector woes or just a one off article?

  • Qrfan says:

    8 Dec8 December 13:14

    Shopper points, the sister site, used to cover this sort of non travel stuff until it went dormant, so not entirely new. I’d be happy if shopper points came back because my friend and I have had a good laugh out of how useless this is (to us) this morning…

    • Chris D says:

      8 Dec8 December 13:29

      I unsubscribed from ShopperPoints because the signal to noise ratio wasn’t high enough (this isn’t a knock at the HfP team, as the coverage was excellent; it’s just there isn’t enough major material to cover). I’d much rather this site breaks its purity for the occasional bit of major news; given that this is the most commented-upon article today, it seems most agree.

      • Qrfan says:

        8 Dec8 December 13:37

        Purity is not the issue. The naffness of pizza express is! Many of the comments seem to be on that exact point.

        • Rob says:

          8 Dec8 December 14:49

          So easy to spot the childless readers 🙂

        • Sussex bantam says:

          8 Dec8 December 16:12

          We had dinner the other day in a restaurant that didn’t give us a colouring set as we sat down. Felt like a real treat…

        • ken says:

          8 Dec8 December 17:06

          Living in London & going to PX 20 times a year.
          Kids or no kids, that just seems bonkers.
          Hardly short of alternatives.

          PE a desparatly tired brand trying to wean themselves off their addiction of having to over charge on the menu such was the proliferation of deals they offered.
          Seemed decent several decades ago. Everywhere else got better, they have got worse.

        • Rob says:

          8 Dec8 December 17:38

          Er … yes, actually, you are short of restaurants which serve food which adults like but which also welcome 3-6 year olds with open arms.

        • Qrfan says:

          8 Dec8 December 20:11

          “so easy to spot the childless readers”. Not easy enough for you to actually do it successfully! If you ever lived in rural parts that don’t have these chains in every conurbation you’d realize how ridiculous this “only choice for kids” argument really is.

• Chris D says:

  8 Dec8 December 13:00

  So if you dine as a party of one you get all these benefits for yourself, but if you dine as two you can’t participate individually and have to “share” the rewards+benefits? That’s not a nice facet of the scheme

  • Chris D says:

    8 Dec8 December 13:20

    And even more unfair considering that they tied the earning to the party size (£10 per head to earn ONE stamp for the ONE participating member on behalf of the entire table), but not the redemption. Seems like it’s just going to cause arguments!

    • Robert says:

      8 Dec8 December 18:57

      We’ve already had this “debate” over a planned group trip next week!

      • Rob M says:

        8 Dec8 December 19:33

        Can you imagine one person on a table of four with all their goodies lined up, trying to make sure the bill adds up to at least £40. Or attempting to split 1 soft drink and 1 coffee. Seems a hungry single diner or one parent and one kid would do very well.

    • Christopher says:

      9 Dec9 December 17:15

      Surely even with a table of 2 adults, you can still have a ‘part’ size as 1? If both of you have the app, and order separately, then it’s 2 loyalty earners.

      Or have I missed something?

      • Rob says:

        9 Dec9 December 17:21

        As this is all app driven then, yes, it may well work as you’d never interact with the staff when paying – unless their IT is smart enough to only allow one credit per table at the same time.

        • Chris says:

          9 Dec9 December 21:21

          Even better, each person could split their own bill. One bill for pizza, another one for coffee & dessert and a third one for wine. With a bit of imagination, and a hangover next morning, you could earn Gold in 1 night!!

• kt1974 says:

  8 Dec8 December 14:07

  There are people who go to PX every 2 months? Who are they?
  Anyway, since HfP is suddenly covering pizza loyalty schemes, why no mention of the Franco Manca one? All pizzas under a tenner, cheapest basic pizza for little more than a fiver, and 6 visits = a free pizza (aka the Hotel.com of pizza loyalty schemes). Plenty of families and kids last time I visited. More branches in London than PX. And they didn’t even need to do a CVA to their landlords… although they hiked the asking prices for rents on Bermondsey Street when they arrived – which indirectly led to the closure of independent restaurants such as Zucca – RIP

  • sloth says:

    8 Dec8 December 14:49

    and most importantly they taste like proper pizza…

  • Richie says:

    8 Dec8 December 14:51

    So that’s why the wine is expensive at Jose P’s!

  • Dubious says:

    8 Dec8 December 14:53

    I think someone called Andrew used to be a fan…not sure if they frequent these days.

  • M says:

    8 Dec8 December 16:14

    Thought I’m missing something with all that discussion around PX.
    Eat some decent pizza (like FM) or just go elsewhere.
    Life is too short to settle for PX.

    • Andrew says:

      8 Dec8 December 22:04

      Agree. Such a dump. And if that where you have to go when you have kids, I’m so thankful I decided not to have any!

• Kevin D says:

  8 Dec8 December 17:22

  I think they would have done well off the back of the Prince Andrew interview until Covid hit! All publicity is good publicity and that eh!

  • sloth says:

    8 Dec8 December 17:36

    I would have said that was the exception the proves the rule, personally..

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  8 Dec8 December 17:35

  I had very happy memories of Pizza Express at Kettners – first as a cheap date in Soho in the 1980s and then with the kids in the 2000s.

  Best memory was our son and daughter being invited to join in with the lunchtime pianist – hungry and tuneless was how I described them!

  (The looks from some of the other customers were priceless!)

  Too corporate now. Lost its soul.

• Peter says:

  8 Dec8 December 21:58

  Who goes to Pizza Express and pays full price? They constantly got some 2 for 1 offers, and I bet you can’t combine it with this.

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