Last September, Timberline partnered with travel rewards company Priority Pass to give certain credit cardholders a $28 meal credit to use multiple times – the first DIA restaurant to do so. Nine months later, Timberline said the program is to thank for a significant boost in traffic: In May, rewards members accounted for over $400,000 in sales.

....[General Manager] Steinberg said the restaurant recorded about 6,000 Priority Pass check-ins during the program’s first 30 days last year. That number had tripled since then, with nearly 18,000 check-ins for May, or 38 percent of Timberline’s total business.

But the increase in sales doesn’t necessarily mean increased profit. The rewards program reimburses Timberline just $23 of the $28 credit; the remainder goes back to Priority Pass and its parent company, The Collinson Group.

“So from the front end, it’s bringing in a lot of traffic,” Steinberg said. “But if you’re sending out $5 per person back to that company, is it truly profitable?”

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When the program started, Steinberg estimated only 25 percent of Priority Pass members tipped their servers appropriately. But the restaurant raised that number to at least 75 percent today through coaching and printed notices.