My company is deciding on one of the above as our corporate card. We can enroll in either reward program. Which reward program is better. The only thing I see so far is that Amex has a limited amount of airline partners

That's a nice choice to have. Are you sure that the points program is included with both cards at no extra fee, or is there a fee you have to pay to include the points programs?

IMHO, MR is too restrictive, Diners is more flexible, Diners usually has a 1:1 promo at some point during the year, but Diners charges a small fee for airline miles redemption. Diners recently increased their membership fees, but that doesn't affect you as a corporate cardholder.

As far as service is concerned, hands down, DC wins there. Though there's been a few recent complaints from DC members, but nothing of the level of complaints you'll see in the Amex forums, which show a long pattern of bad customer service and treatment. It's too early to tell if the DC complaints are a trend or not. Personally, I've had nothing but great service from DC when I've called them.

I still think DC is better, though some people left DC when the mambership fees were recently increased (but as a corp card holder, this probably doesn't affect you) and they added the redemption fee for airline miles.

-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 11-23-2002).]

Diner's charges juice on airline conversions, but they have many more programs than Amex does. Considering most people use DC to top off accounts for awards, the juice isn't really that big of an issue. (95 cents or an extra 190 DC points per 1000 FF miles) It's nice to be able to move a needed three or four thousands miles into an account, and the $4 fee (while annoying) doesn't really bother me too much.

My biggest problem with Diners is that customer service in general appears to be slightly deteriorating. It's still the best in the biz by far, but they are doing little things that are putting them on a slippery slope towards becoming just another card.

Above and beyond all of this though: your company will probably choose the one that is accepted in more of the places your business will need to use it. If that is purely travel, it's a push. But Amex has the big advantage here when you get outside of hotels, rental cars, and flights.

Diners also gives you 60 days to pay so if you are lazy like me when it comes to doing expense reports, this is big bonus.

DC has exceptional customer service. The people there are so friendly and very helpful. It is like they know you personally. I also like that you have 60 days to pay it off. You can also gain lounge access in several airports around the world..which is good if you're flying an airline where you don't have status. But, like mentioned before, they are not as widely accepted as AmEx.

I prefer Diners although as previously mentioned, it isn't accepted at a lot of places. However, if it if a corporate card for business use, that shouldn't be a concern as most or all travel related businesses accept it. And, if you do use it for personal use for car rentals is that the BEST policy for insurance. They pay everything, you never have to go through your regular insurance company first. Other cards say the will pay the extra after you already go through your personal insurance company. I had to use this option a couple of years ago for a fender bender in Europe. It was so easy! No hassles, no expense on my part. For that reason alone, I would go with Diners IF you plan to use it for personal use on car rentals.

As a Corporate DC card holder, I can tell you first hand that a lot of restaurants don't accept the card. All major airlines and hotels will gladly take it though.

Unfortunately DC also gives companies the option to disallow the collection of points. That is what my company has done. The thousands I charge each month are not getting me anything.

Ditto with AMEX. I know of some companies that disallow collection of Membership Reward points on Corp AMEX card.

Our Firm just cancelled all corporate AMEX cards and changed to DC. We had a choice before when the Firm provided both AMEX and DC but not anymore.
I did not really mind because I have my personal AMEX and had rarely used corporate card.
I like DC, especially no annual fee since it is corporate card.
I had it before while I was in college (I had a family card issued in Japan). One time they did double-charge to my account. The head of Japan DC in LA came to my house in Pasadena to apologize. That was big surprise but I was so impressed with their customer care. (Maybe the business style between American and Japanese might be different though.....)