I am visiting up in Asheville N.C. and have tried to use my A.H.A card for the first time and have found that no one is honoring what is said to be honored. When I say not honored … no notta nothing. “Oh we don’t do that”. Anyone else experiencing this?
I was at BJ’s in Virginia over the summer and the servers didn’t seem to even know what it was. After they took my phone (had a picture of the card) for 5 minutes, they came back and honored it.
There’s no a lot of places around me but the ones that do honor it have been great.
I’ve used the Brew Guru app at multiple places in Indy with no problems. It has all the latest discount information in it. If you aren’t using that, I recommend you try it.
The brew guru shows the same I pulled off the site and they don’t honor them. Example is new Belgium would not honor the 15% off merchandise nor the globe glass
I think we are such a small community that many employees simply don’t know. Ive used it at dozens of locations and I’ve had “trouble” about 50% of time. A server at one location near me doesn’t even check my card anymore, yet another guy there questioned said “we don’t do that” an hour later.
Same thing around here. A few places (or servers) know with no questions, but some others look at you like you’re trying to steal their wallet. Occasionally you can see them talk to the manager or owner who clears it all up. Until the next time.
Edit - Honestly though, it’s been at a place or two with the repeated issues, likely from new employees not being trained properly/remembering the training. Otherwise I haven’t had issues at all. I like the app a lot.
There used to be lhbs near me…I stopped in one day to pick up some supplies, and that store didn’t honor it. Gee…I wonder why he closed down?
If you have problems, try contacting Matt Bolling.....matt@brewersassociation.org
I’ve had very few places not honor what is listed online.
Normally, as others have said, it’s a front line employee who just doesn’t know about the discount. I have had a couple times where management said the information was wrong or they were not offering it yet. Both places seemed highly mismanaged so it wasn’t too surprising.
I would say that the assumption is that the customer is BS-ing to try to get something for free/discounted. This is not just the AHA card but a service industry thing IME. Ever have a bartender refuse to believe you when you tell them there is something wrong with the beer or tap line?
“Son I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive and I know what Porter tastes like. This is basically an oud bruin. But no, go ahead and keep treating me like this is my first beer and don’t know jack”
In the end, I’ve used my AHA card exactly zero times. It hasn’t been worth the effort to argue.
whatever. it’s not why I’m a member. But when people ask me if they should be members I don’t describe the discounts as benefits either.
Haha if a bartender ever talked to me like that, I would find another bar. As far as membership, the only place I use it is my lhbs. It’s not worth the effort anywhere else.
The worth of trying depends on the location. Flying Saucer locations give 25% off food. That’s nothing to balk at IMO. I’ve saved $20 in one go using it on a table of 6 people.
I wish I HAD an lhbs. I live way up in the Frozen North where there are none. Try getting your card honored at the bigger online venues. In their shops, when I’m lucky enough to be near one, no problem, but online, forget it.
Interstingly there’s been an effort for a few years to get a verification api operating for membership benefits for online retailers. Don’t know where that ended up
That could be tough as it would need to validate that the number is legit and in good standing + would need to validate the name or address to prevent sharing. Basically just as much effort as validating a credit card.
I think I’ve had NB honor my member number on orders. Pretty sure it was NB, but you had to put the number in the notes.
As far as local brew pubs, Goose Island has always been great to me. I haven’t been there in ages though.
And as far as crappy bartenders go, I’ve seen my share. One dude tried to tell me a pour of Guinness that was half foam was OK because “the foam is as good as the beer.” I told him to keep the foam. Didn’t go over well, but I got my full pint.
The discount is too nuanced for most to know about, and I find the whole percent discount thing is sometimes confused and applied to the entire bill. It’s more of a talking point for me. A good bartender knows that the occasional generosity of the tap is returned in generosity of tips & returned business, and at that point a discount really doesn’t matter. Finding a good bartender, +1.
My favorite benefit of the AHA card is to check the gap setting on my grain mill. It should be a semi-loose fit but not fall through. Works great.
Not many discounts around me (or any that are worth it), but I use it at Moonlight Meadery and they are always great.
Hi all - thanks for the input on this… And apologies on the delayed response. I’m sorry to hear that some of the locations in Asheville aren’t honoring the discount. If they are listed in Brew Guru, or in the online directory - then they ARE participating. I’ll look into New Belgium.
Unfortunately - as has been mentioned in this thread - we run into a problem in many restaurants or taprooms that have a high turn-over rate. Sometimes the discount just isn’t part of the training protocol - though we encourage every business to make it so. It is a rare occasion where a business actually has stopped doing the discount but has failed to inform us.
As always - if you find a place that says they are not honoring the discount - please email me at Matt@BrewersAssociation.org or Steve Parr at Steve@BrewersAssociation.org. One of us will follow up with our contact there and make sure that it won’t happen again.
So sorry for the inconvenience!
Matt Bolling
AHA Events & Membership Coordinator
Matt@BrewersAssociation.org
I’ve never had an issue using my card at all. A few times a server or bartender asks a manager but the server or bartender seemed like it was no big deal.
What I have a hard time with is renewing my AHA membership. The web renewal hasn’t worked in three years forcing me to call each year. This year I’ve tried calling the AHA several times and nobody answered. My membership has been expired for several months. Hopefully I have the time to call (and get an answer) this week as I want to use the card on our honeymoon in Cali next week.