Domino’s Rewards: The Cheesy Truth

Restaurants

Jul 21

Domino’s has been in the loyalty game for over a decade, but its revamped Domino’s Rewards program launched in 2023, and the brand brags about the 35 million US members. So they must be doing something right, right?

If you’re of a certain (Gen X) age, you might remember Domino’s infamous “30 minutes or it’s free” guarantee from the ’80s and early ’90s. That era gave us customers staring at clocks and drivers risking life and limb to dodge a lawsuit. Good news for drivers: that rule ended in 1993. Now you can earn a free pizza just by collecting points, no clock-watching required.

So, how cheesy is this program? Let’s dig in.

How it works:

🍕Domino’s Rewards is a straightforward program, and one of the rare fast-food brands to award points based on orders, not how much you spend.

Each order (min $5) earns 10 points
3 reward redemption amounts:
- 20 Points: Dip, 16-piece Parmesan Bread Bites, or 20 oz Drink
- 40 Points: Bread Twists, Stuffed Cheesy Bread
- 60 Points: Medium 2-topping pizza, pasta, over-baked sandwich, or 3-piece Lava Crunch Cakes

Members can take advantage of bonus point promotions and member-only deals.

Sounds good at first, right? Well… not so fast.

Here’s the truth: whether you order one pizza or ten pizzas for your party, you still earn just 10 points. That’s not just stingy, it’s insulting. Domino’s could have structured this by doubling or tripling points for larger orders (call us, we’ve got ideas!). Instead, heavy spenders get no extra love which defies loyalty logic.

And before anyone gets any bright ideas to game this system, you can only earn points on 1 order a day (per account).

how you redeem:

No surprise, redeeming is easy from the brand that practically invented easy ordering.

Points don’t expire if you have some Reward activity every 180 days.👏🏻
You control when you redeem your points and turn them into a Reward to be applied at checkout.

Two buzzkills 😖:

You can only redeem 1 reward per order, which is a bummer.

You can’t redeem for Chicken, salads, or large or X-large pizza’s! If you’re a family of 4 (or heck, a hungry couple!), a medium pizza will not cut it. Does Domino’s have something against families?

What’s the Value:

(Note: by “return value” we mean how much you save relative to how much you had to spend to earn it. For example, if you spent $100 to earn enough points to redeem $10, that’s a 10% return value.)

Calculating true return value for Domino’s is harder since each qualifying order can have different amounts. However, we ran our analysis assuming that each qualifying order earning 10 points was $30. This is based on publicly available data from Domino’s of a typical order amount.

If your average Domino’s order size is lower than $30, then return values will be better (yay for you!) than our calculations. If you have a larger family and tend to order more, these return values will be significantly worse (sorry!).

Worst deal: The free dip. A pitiful 1% return value. Don’t waste your points. Just spend the 75 cents.
Best deal: The medium pizza at a solid 9% return, pretty good for a fast-food program.
Runner-ups: Parm Bites (8%) and Cheesy Bread/Bread Twists (7%).

Everything else? Meh—hovering in the 4-5% return value range.

Want more bang for your buck? Look out for bonus point promos to pump up your return.

(Disclaimer: Menu prices can vary among different Domino’s restaurants. The prices we used are estimated based on what we are seeing in our home city of Boston and available internet information)

  
      Reward Item
      Points
      Spend
(at $30/order)
      Menu Price
      Return
    

  
      Dip
      20
      $60
      $0.75
      1%
    

      16 pc Parm Bread Bites
      20
      $60
      $4.99
      8%
    

      20 oz Drink
      20
      $60
      $2.69
      4%
    

      Bread Twists
      40
      $120
      $7.99
      7%
    

      Stuffed Cheesy Bread
      40
      $120
      $8.99
      7%
    

      Med 2 Topping Pizza
      60
      $180
      $15.49
      9%
    

      Pasta
      60
      $180
      $7.99
      4%
    

      Oven Baked Sandwich
      60
      $180
      $7.99
      4%
    

      3-pc Lava Cake
      60
      $180
      $8.99
      5%
    

🕵🏻The fine print:

Must be 13+ to join (yay for teens!)
Only 1 order per day earns points
Only 1 reward per order
Points don’t expire with activity every 180 days
Extra charges for fancier crusts and toppings

summary & verdict:

What’s Good
✔️ Simple, easy-to-understand structure
✔️ Earn a reward after just 2–6 orders
✔️ Great value for the medium pizza
✔️ Generous expiration policy

What’s Not
❌ No rewards for large/X-large pizzas
❌ Doesn’t reward big spenders
❌ Meh value on most non-pizza items
❌ Can’t stack rewards

If you even occasionally order from Domino’s, it’s worth signing up for the program. If you tend to order small, this program will pay back well for you, as it rewards you with 10 points per transaction. However, if you’re a family or someone who orders larger meals, the payback for this program is less generous, and that’s a bit of a bummer. It’s a rare time when a loyalty program is penalizing its best customers.