For $200, couples could get $1,560 worth of food with Applebee’s Date Night Pass. It almost sounds too good to be true. One man who tried to secure one of these passes thinks it is.
TikTok user @hagamemnon is ringing alarm bells in his video on the Date Night pass.
The pass, which was sold for a limited time on the Applebee’s site, was intended to be used once a week. “The Applebee’s Date Night Pass is perfect for weekly date nights at participating Applebee’s restaurants nationwide since it’s valid 52 times from 2/1/24 -1/31/25! Passes will discount up to $30 of food and non-alcoholic beverages only per use,” the pass’ conditions read.
It has since sold out, and @hagamemnon believes it sold out in an eyebrow-raising amount of time. “Well, I should have known the Applebee’s date night pass was a crock of sh*t,” he says in a video that was viewed over 26,000 times.
@hagamemnon says he was refreshing the Applebee’s site 5 minutes before the passes went on sale, and that led him to the error page: “This service is unavailable.” He says that as soon as he was able to get to the site to buy a pass, they were already sold out. The time was 11:01am, one minute after the passes were slated to go on sale.
“See, this what happens when Applebee’s pays all these influencers to hype up their stuff,” he says. “All they want to do is get big on social media. They want to go viral because they’re kind of losing relevance.”
The TikToker speculates that Applebee’s only released 10 passes. “So congratulations Applebee’s. You went viral, and you disappointed a lot of people.”
@hagamemnon Seriously, Applebee’s Sucks #applebees #datenightpass #fyp ♬ original sound – hagamemnon
The Daily Dot reached out to Applebee’s via press email.
Viewers who also tried to get their hands on these Date Night Passes shared that they encountered similar issues. “I had in my cart but told me sold out,” one viewer wrote. “Exact same experience. I understand making it limited but it was sold out within a minute. This did the opposite of make me hungry for Applebee’s,” another said.
Redditors were similarly outraged. Over on reddit, users are encouraging customers to boycott the restaurant over the Date Night Pass fiasco.
Update 3:55pm CT, Feb. 8: @hagamemnon told the Daily Dot he doesn’t “blame the influencers for it being sold out fast. I blame Applebee’s for hiring influencers to promote the sale and spreading word of it and then not following through with anywhere near enough passes.”
“I understand how the ‘supplies are limited’ idea works, but to only sell 250 nationwide is a deliberately scummy action by Applebees,” he shared.
