Are you one of the brave souls who will venture to the frozen city of New York this New Year’s Eve? If you are, you can earn $10 of free pizza from LevelUp and Villa Pizza. What’s that? Free pizza? That’s right, ten dollars worth of a great NY slice (or two) can be yours if you download the LevelUp app right now, but that’s not all. There are a few other things that you’ll have to do if you want your free pie (details below).

Free pizza on New Year’s Eve is always a good thing, but keep in mind the NYC restaurant prices go through the roof on NYE. This is especially true when it comes to the Times Square area where Villa Pizza just happens to be located. If you’re not sure of where this pizza joint it, take a moment or two to situate yourself prior to heading to the Big Apple. Oh, one other thing – make sure to get your free pizza before you enter into one of those barricaded NYE blocks. Otherwise, you’ll never find your way to Villa Pizza prior to the ball dropping. Alright, now that I’ve cautioned you on NY NYE fun, let’s talk about that free pizza.

LevelUp

LevelUp is an iOS (and Android) app that allows consumers to purchase goods with a smartphone. By linking a smartphone to a credit card account, you can buy a number of goods at participating retailers. In fact, you’ll have to sign up for a LevelUp account if you want that free pizza. Once you have downloaded the app and signed up, you will be given a unique QR code that you can use at the Times Square Villa Pizza location. Even though the LevelUp app is interesting and unique, I can see a few problems with this promotion.

The first problem is that waving your smartphone around in a crowded pizza join in NYE in NYC is a recipe for disaster (and possible mugging). The other problem is that some people might be wary of entering a credit card number into a smartphone, so that it can be store in an app. If this is your concern, you should know that a rep from LevelUp responded to this very concern in a recent Mashable post stating that LevelUp does not store credit card or bank card information, and that the app is entirely secure (good enough for me, how about you?).

Lots of Users

LevelUp is no stranger to new users. When the app launched in October, more than 100,000 users signed up and downloaded this app. Right now, LevelUp is working with thousands of retailers across the U.S. Sorry, Canada, Australia, and Europe, nothing for you yet! The concept behind LevelUp is a simple one, but it doesn’t work if the place where you shop doesn’t accept LevelUp payments and this can be frustrating. What’s the idea here?

Paying with your phone (since you carry it around anyway) is simpler. That’s it – makes sense, right? Well, this is what thousands of other people just like you think too.
If you want $10 worth of pizza and you happen to be in NYC on NYE, make sure to download the LevelUp app, set up an account, and get a mouth-watering slice or two.