In my food-obsessed brain, there are few things that I enjoy as much as a meal that is so good I swear heaven is real and Ryan Gosling wishes I had time for him. One of these certified treasures is a free ride home. No dirty subway or exhausting walk included, this option ensures that I and my food baby can exert minimal effort getting back to our warm bed, all while saving money. After all, heavy exertion while knocked up with a bowl of pasta can be very harmful (obviously kidding, but it is annoying). But this is where Lyft and Seated come in with a free ride home.
The Low Down on The Deal
Lyft recently announced that they are partnering with Seated, the app that pays you to go to dinner, to give out $1 million in ride credits. That’s enough ride credits for Little Miss Sunshine to drive to the pageant in Redondo Beach and back 461 times. TBD if their Lyft driver would let them stash the grandpa in the back, though.
The ride service made the decision to partner with Seated after finding that restaurants are the second most common destination for their passengers, after home. By joining forces, they want to make sure that the entire door to door experience of going out for dinner is that much more bomb for their customers.
What Is Seated?
Formerly VocoLife, Seated is an app that helps you discover the best restaurants in your city and then gives you a virtual high five for making good decisions by rewarding you with a gift card of your choice. They aren’t messing around, either—every reservation gets you between $15 and $50 to your choice of Amazon, Starbucks, or more. (The reward amount is based on when you dine and how big your clique’s bill is.)
For every Seated reservation, the company also donates one meal to a child in need through ShareTheMeal, in partnership with the United Nations World Food Program. Their goal is to provide 1 million meals and also melt hearts everywhere.
The only drawback to the app is that if you want to book a time at a restaurant that is not available through Seated, they won’t be able to give you a reward. Wrong time = no dime.
You Had Me At Free, Now How Do I Get This Deal?
According to Lyft, you can go from hungry and broke to fulfilled and at least $10 richer in five easy steps:
1. Download the Seated App.
2. Enter the promo code “LYFTxSEATED.”
3. Browse through their list of restaurants and book your fave.
4. Chow down.
5. Choose your Seated Reward (which can now be Lyft, or Starbucks or Amazon). Enjoy an additional $10 worth of Lyft credit if this is your first time making a reservation with the app.
The best part about this deal (other than the fact that you’re getting paid to eat and then go home—aka living the dream) is that you don’t have to choose Lyft as your Seated Reward in order to get the extra $10. However, if you do, the same reward scale applies to Lyft, so you could be getting up to $50 plus that extra $10. BRB, shoveling food into my mouth faster than I pressed the download button on this app.
So, Is Seated Worldwide or No?
The restaurant discovery and reservation app is currently only available in major cities such as Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Providence, and Seattle. However, it has hopes to expand into other cities and towns near you in the future.
If you are one of the lucky souls who does have the ability to take advantage of the partnership, just follow the simple steps above and you, too, will have a food baby complete with a $10 Lyft trust fund in no time.