Blackbird launches FlyCard, a rewards card for everywhere you dine

Blackbird—the restaurant rewards platform backed by American Express, Coinbase, A16Z, and Square—has a simple goal: reward diners for their restaurant spend and loyalty everywhere they dine. Now, “everywhere” is getting a lot bigger.  

Blackbird, founded by Resy and Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal, is partnering with Rain to launch FlyCard, a new card that rewards users on dining purchases at any restaurant, cafe, bar, or food delivery platform that accepts Visa. FlyCard is the first rewards card of its kind, designed to work at any card-accepting restaurant in the world. 

The Blackbird restaurant loyalty program unifies rewards across thousands of participating restaurants, as opposed to traditional programs, which silo points to a specific restaurant or among locations of a chain restaurant. FlyCard extends this network even further, eliminating the requirement that merchants opt-in, and offers card holders the opportunity to spend points like cash anywhere and everywhere. The program is built on top of Blackbird’s FlyNet technology platform. 

Blackbird and FlyCard use “Fly” as their native currency, which moves on FlyNet. FlyNet is powered by Coinbase’s Base blockchain.  

Users can load Fly directly in the Blackbird app (iOS and Android) using fiat currency or USDC. When they visit a participating Blackbird restaurant, they check in and pay their bill through the app, either with a linked credit or debit card or from their Fly balance. Every check in and payment earns more Fly, value that can be redeemed at future dining purchases. 

The FlyCard waitlist is now open. 

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More than a rewards program

Blackbird users earn Fly and earn their way into Blackbird Club, a premium restaurant loyalty club. The three-tier membership program unlocks enhanced spending rewards, plus benefits like priority reservations and access to special events. At the highest tier, users get access to a private concierge for reservation support and earn up to 7X back on qualifying purchases. 

The entire Blackbird experience is powered by Birdie, an agentic taste, recommendation, and booking layer. Birdie observes dining behavior, adds its own layer of curation, and connects to third parties for a seamless booking experience. Where public reservations aren’t available, it is able to escalate those requests, based on Blackbird Club status, to an in-house concierge.  Birdie is available exclusively available to users of Blackbird.

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Why Blackbird built with Rain 

Blackbird and Rain take a similar approach to onchain infrastructure: the technology should improve the product without complicating the experience for the people using it. Blackbird makes it easy for diners to earn and spend Fly without managing crypto themselves. Rain takes the same approach to payments, using stablecoins behind the scenes to power cards that work just like any other Visa card. FlyCard gives diners a familiar way to pay at any restaurant or food delivery platform that accepts Visa, while bringing the rewards they earn back into Blackbird.

The difference is in how those payments settle behind the scenes. Traditional card programs operate on banking schedules, requiring partners to keep enough capital on hand to cover several days of spending. Rain-powered programs settle with Visa in stablecoins every day, including weekends and holidays, reducing how much capital partners need to set aside for settlement.

Rain also supports multiple chains and tokens, so Blackbird doesn’t have to rebuild its existing onchain infrastructure around the card. Its platform can keep running as it does today, with Rain providing the card layer alongside it.

Blackbird already had a loyalty program people wanted to use. The card gives that loyalty somewhere new to grow. Together, Birdie, Fly, and FlyCard bring AI-powered reservations, onchain rewards, and stablecoin-powered payments into one dining experience.

The same model can work for any brand with a rewards ecosystem of its own, whether it’s built around points, membership, or tokens. A card extends that ecosystem into the places customers already spend, while bringing the rewards—and the relationship—back to the brand.

If you’re ready to explore what a card layer could add to your loyalty program, let’s talk.