Earning Rules - Gift Certificates
 

My favorite place now has Saturdays blacked out. I'm considering buying a bunch of gift certificates to get around this. I did not see anything in the Rewards Network rules that mentions gift certificates. Has anybody ever encountered a problem with buying or getting credit for gift certificates?

Gift Certificates
 

Many posters, including me, have used this approach effectively for the 3X match or the >$15 type promotions

I use gift certs to get around a couple of restaurants here with weekend blackouts myself; it's a great solution to the problem. I had one problem one time as follows ...

I did a $50 transaction at a once-a-month joint by loading a debit-card-type gift cert. The credit failed to post when it should've; I waited a week or so, and sent a copy of the receipt to Rewards Network. In the interim I used the card once for roughly $15. I infer that the waitress had messed up the original sale so that the $50 transaction would need to be done again (if possible without swiping my card) using a date long after my actual visit (and after the promo I was doing had expired!); RN gave me the full credit, but the restaurant cancelled the balance of my gift card, which I noticed by checking the balance online before my next planned visit. So, I paid nothing, got full dining credit (including a promo bonus) and a $15 meal out of it. On the other hand, it was a pain in the neck trying to resolve it.

To answer your question, by all means get the certs in roughly the amounts you think an average Saturday tab might run. I pay the difference in cash in those cases as it is too painful to sign a mile-less credit card slip. :(

Swipable gift "Card" ?? Guess we're in the stone-age.

Our local favorite (1x/mo :( ) still uses paper certs ~ hand written for any $$ amount ^
Just can't go too crazy on 'stocking up' .. except around the holidays
/.

I feel your pain as two of the only three convenient, decent ones here went from 1x to unlimited -- and all 3 dropped Alaska Airlines participation altogether shortly thereafter. As for gift certs themselves: one of the joints works well for large amounts on a debit-style gift card; the second is part of the same debit-scheme, but the waiter was never able to get the card to load properly, so I gave up on that approach there after a few tries; the third one uses hand-completed paper cert forms specially designed by the owner. I did get a couple of $15 certs there for the just-ended Delta promo, to be surrended on future blacked-out Fridays. However, this guy is the one I have mentioned elsewhere who is hopping mad at RewardsNetwork. I don't want to push my luck with him after our conversation about iDining.
Since the upcoming NW promo is $15-per-visit there's not much you can do regarding your own 1x joint there, except enjoy the whopping 250 bonus miles each month. Sorry. :(

And a note about gift certs and 1x'ers ... I once ordered a paper gift cert, instructing the server to charge the total amount as one transaction. The manger delivered the cert after I surrendered my credit card. Surprise, surprise ... the server then presented me with two transactions to sign, acting helpless when I protested.