How to Score Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Pass and Get an All-Inclusive Trip to Italy
With earlier sunsets and cooler breezes marking the arrival of fall, we can’t help but start fantasizing about all the magnificent carbs we plan to eat in the coming months. And, with the changing of the seasons, Olive Garden is announcing the arrival of its $100 Never Ending Pasta Pass, which allows guests to eat all the pasta they want (“over 200 possible pasta combinations”) during the restaurant’s eight-week Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion. But this year, there’s a twist: they’re also giving out 50 Pasta Passports, which offer diners all the benefits of a regular Pasta Pass plus an all-inclusive, weeklong trip to Italy for them and a friend.
Last year, all 21,000 Pasta Passes were claimed in one second, and we imagine this year they’ll go even quicker, now that there are trips to Italy in the mix. On September 14 at 2 p.m. EST on the Pasta Pass website, 22,000 Pasta Passes go on sale for $100, and 50 Pasta Passports, which offer the Italy getaway and Pasta Pass privileges, go on sale for $200. And yes, that does mean airfare, hotel and all kinds of Italian excursions for two people for just an extra $100.
The Pasta Pass and Pasta Passport give diners unlimited access to pasta, homemade sauces, pasta toppings, soup or salad and breadsticks from Sept. 25 through Nov. 19. According to Marykate Roskck, Olive Garden’s director of marketing, last year one Pasta Pass holder went two times a day, every single day of the promotion. Respect.
“Never Ending Past Pass is our most popular promotion of the year, and the sale of our pass has become a real phenomenon,” says Roskck. “This year we thought, ‘How could we top that?’ So we added the Pasta Passport, which has all the benefits of the regular pasta pass plus the trip to Italy.”
When the passes go on sale on Thursday at 2 p.m., people will have to choose between trying for the regular Pasta Pass or the Pasta Passport. Both will go very, very quickly.
