IDine does not allow you to sign up for frequent flyer miles if the same card is registered w/ upromise. Anyone else hear of this?

idine will apparently only allow you to collect once from any given meal - miles, cash or upromise. I have had several cards rejected in one of the other for that reason.

They generally only let one card in any of their programs. If it's an issue, get a few Visa or mastercard debit cards from one of the no fee banks and register those.

It makes you wonder if the people that own Idine are the same ones that own U-Promise and that is how they know which CC is registered with whom.

Thanks for explaining this... I was trying to figure out why Upromise kept rejecting my credit cards. Oh well, at least my grocery cards are registered and I spend waay more money in dining expenses anyway.

-g

Ummm ... I've never used my ATM card's [Visa] debit feature. Didn't know restaurants take debit cards. In Europe, they bring the the little machine thingie to one's table to settle the bill. How does one use a debit card in an American restaurant? Go to the servers' station to enter the PIN?

Points Scrounger,

Since your debit card carries the VISA logo, you can use it just like any credit card when at any restaurant. Typically, your debit card can always be used like a credit card (no PIN needed). Sometimes (when renting cars, etc.) they REQUIRE a credit as opposed to a debit card. (No need to worry about that at restaurants).

So when you receive your bill, just hand the server your bill & debit card. They will process it and bring you back a slip of paper to include your tip, write the total, and sign.

Edited b/c I noticed the [Visa] part in your original post!

Hope that helps...I'm sure others will add to this.

-Chris


[This message has been edited by chrislacey (edited 07-11-2003).]

No, upromise uses the idine program as its vendor. Hence, idine knows who is registered. They will only pay once.

Yes, upromise is really the iDine program, so they will not allow double dipping. I think what they give for upromise is only 10% so the miles program is better or even the cash back program. With Diners Club's new program, it is IDine with 20% back and no extra fee, If course it is only good at restaurants that take DC.

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Ms.DtG

It's more like that there are only about TWO dining programs in the whole country (iDine and Entertainment, now that LeCard seems to be gone as far as I can determine).

These dining programs are too much work for everyone to administer themselves, so dozens and dozens of companies (including all those airlines that offer dining programs under their own names, upromise, and now Diners Club) all contract with iDine to handle it, and iDine simple allows affiliates to put their own name on it. But since it's all iDine underneath, and iDine (not the affiliate which provided the name) is who handles the credit card registration, they obviously know whether your credit card is already registered with ANY iDine affiliate.

Then there's all the other companies that offer a program which clearly isn't iDine, and so far all I've seen (since Diners dropped LeCard) turn out to be Entertainment "under the hood". (So far I've only seen that one rigged up for savings, not mileage earning.)

Simiarly, in "half price hotel" programs, there's about two suppliers, Entertainment and one other.

And the world is full of this. Lots of services, as well as physical products, are "under the hood" available from a lot fewer companies than it seems. For example, a decade or so ago I remember finding out that there were only about SIX major manufacturers of VHS VCRs in the world, and just about all those dozens of brands you saw in stores were one or another of those "under the hood".

I work for a company that makes spa and pool controllers. Not spas, just the controllers. We have quite a few different major brand spa manufacturers buy the controls from us, because spa manufacturers are in the plastic molding business mostly, and most of them (Jacuzzi and one or two others aside) don't find it worthwhile to design and manufacture major components like the controllers or the pumps that go into their molded plastic.

So, can you get FF miles on say your Tom Thumb card and sign up for Upromise on the same card?

I have been going to the idine website for over a week and when I want to join I get the "refresh" , I do so but still can't get beyond the opening website page to join. Anyone know what may be going on??
Thanks