‘Bypass the limit’: Man orders on McDonald’s app. Then he logs in at the McDonald’s kiosk

Fast-food apps have turned ordering lunch into a small game of coupon math. Every deal comes with a rule, and every rule eventually attracts someone who wants to test its limits.

One content creator says he found a way around a McDonald's deal limitation.

‘A pro tip for all you penny pinchers out there'

Content creator Josh Leesman (@esportsjatt) shares a video describing how he used two McDonald's deals in one visit. His video has since accumulated more than 321,000 views.

Leesman films himself walking outside with a takeout order. He offers up his “McDonald's trick” to viewers.

“I wanted to share a pro tip for all you penny pinchers out there at McDonald's,” Leesman says. “If you order in the app, you can only use one deal at a time. But if you order in the app and then log in at the kiosk, you can then use an additional deal and bypass the one deal per day limit. Hope this helps.”

Leesman's viewers refined the hack further in his comment section.

“Deals are 1 every 15 minutes,” one viewer wrote.

Another said, “If you just order at the kiosk, you can place multiple orders and use deals back to back, not just two.”

“You can actually triple up,” a third commented. “There's a 15 min cool down. Order on the way. Then use the kiosk method. Triple dip.”

A fourth viewer described an even more involved routine.

“You can order in the app and pick it up curbside,” they wrote. “Make another order and pick it up in the drive through. Once done, you can use another deal at the kiosk.”

How does McDonald's rewards system work, and is this a real loophole?

McDonald's own rules, as listed, are fairly brief. Under MyMcDonald's Rewards, according to the company's FAQ, members earn 100 points per eligible dollar and can start redeeming at 1,500 points. They are “limited to redeeming one reward per order.”

Deals are a separate feature, and McDonald's deals FAQ says they can be used only by people who have opted in to the program. It says customers “can only redeem one McDonald's deal per person, per visit.”

The company's deals help page adds a waiting period. It says that after a customer chooses “Scan at Restaurant” or “Add to Mobile Order” and then “Use Deal,” “all other offers become unavailable for the next 60 minutes.” Neither page mentions kiosks, a per-day limit, or a 15-minute wait.

Whether the kiosk trick still works may depend on the location. QSR Web reported earlier this year that some customers had scanned their rewards at a kiosk and repeated the process to “bypass the 15-minute cool down period” that applies in-app. According to Reddit posts the report cited, kiosks now enforce the same wait.

Have other McDonald's customers found similar hacks?

Leesman isn't the first person to circulate a McDonald's deal workaround. The Daily Dot reported in 2023 on a TikToker who said clearing the McDonald's app's cache let her “bypass coupon time limits.” However, commenters said this particular hack didn't work on iPhone.

In October 2024, the Daily Dot reported on a TikTok user who said she works at McDonald's and described placing a drive-thru order and an in-store order back to back. She said the app typically allows only one redemption every 15 minutes. 

Other viral McDonald's posts have been about the chain's prices, not its rules. ABC30 reported in 2024 on a Texas mom's $12.19 “dinner box,” which McDonald's said was possible because “franchisees set their own prices and have the flexibility to create promotions.”

Subplot News reached out to Leesman via TikTok comment and to McDonald's via email.

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