iDine/Rewards Network - Can a restaurant in RN choose not to give the miles?

I ate at a RewardsNetwark member restaurant. I used my AAdvantage RN-registered cc. I used OpenTable to reserve during a 1,000 point period. I used a Groupon. I was pretty proud of myself, but maybe I was too clever. No problem using the Groupon. The OpenTable 1,000 showed up two days later. The AA miles haven't shown up in more than two weeks. Might they never show up? If they don't, is there any point in calling RN customer service, since they can see the charge on the cc account? Thank you.

participants have the ability to flag the visit as having used a coupon. You can contact RN, but don't be surprised if they reply that your visit was ineligible for that reason.

So in theory, by using the Groupon, you made the visit "ineligible" for miles...

I don't know which program you use, but here's what it says in the AA Rewards Network Terms and Conditions page (which I think are the general RN T&Cs) http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/terms.htm:

10. The Rewards may not be earned for qualifying purchases at a Participating Merchant when using coupons or discount cards or in combination with discount programs.

Thanks, Points Scrounger and JY1024. So they can deny. The charge was only going to be about $10 above the value of the Groupon. No big deal. RN's reward is pretty marginal in comparison with these others. But I guess I've said that. Thanks again.

This is interesting. I frequently use Open Table rewards and/or restaurant.com certs for part of the bill at RN/AA restaurants, and have always gotten miles for the credit card portion. Either I've been fortunate that the restaurant didn't intervene, or these sorts of things are treated as gift cards rather than as coupons or discounts.

This is interesting. I frequently use Open Table rewards and/or restaurant.com certs for part of the bill at RN/AA restaurants, and have always gotten miles for the credit card portion. Either I've been fortunate that the restaurant didn't intervene, or these sorts of things are treated as gift cards rather than as coupons or discounts.It's been discussed here before that credit could be refused in such cases under the rule quoted above, but it rarely is.

your miles will probably post at some point in time... i always use restaurant.com -entertainment coupons--groupon any other offer special offer and have never been rejected.... The restaurants would have to manually manage all the promotions and send to idine.... Normally they do not have the time!!!

I ate at a RewardsNetwark member restaurant. I used my AAdvantage RN-registered cc. I used OpenTable to reserve during a 1,000 point period. I used a Groupon. I was pretty proud of myself, but maybe I was too clever. No problem using the Groupon. The OpenTable 1,000 showed up two days later. The AA miles haven't shown up in more than two weeks.
Haven't shown up where?

If they haven't shown up at AA, that's very normal, it's taking a lot longer since a couple months ago.

If they haven't shown up at AAdvantage DIning, you should call and report it as a missing dine. Missing dines are quite common even when you don't use any other program or any coupon, for a variety of reasons (including restauratns using a different register to run the card than RN knows about, perhaps because they have two, perhaps because their previous one broke, or whatever).

So the reason could be because of the cuopon/etc, but it could be just a normal missing dine.

And many normal missing dines will never show up if you don't call and report them. Because if they didn't get the transaction information from the restaurant, they have no way of knowing the dine happened at all unless you tell them!

Now, if they don't tell you it's ineligible during the phone call, they'l ask whether you'll send in the receipt or statement. If your receipt shows a coupon, offer to send in your credit card statement (it can be an online printout, as long as it clearly shows your card's last 4 digits, no other account number, and shows the dine information clearly). (They accept either by itself in most cases*.)

Now, they could tell you that it's ineligible (either on that first phone call or at a later time). But if you don't call, you'll never know whether you could have gotten those miles.

(Although they also have an option for emailing, I've never had luck with that. I only get missing dines fixed when I call first, then fax.)

*If the receipt shows no coupon, the receipt is just as good, and in a few cases may better. I had a case where on a missing dine the restaurant failed to charge my tip. I even explained that on the phone call, and sent in both my receipt (showing the tip) and the statement (showing the pre-tip amount). Well, a week and half later the dine showed up at the RN site, and lo and behold they gave miles for the amount with the tip included! ^

Thank you all, and especially sd for your detailed comment. :)

BTW, it hasn't shown up in either place. I do see in my account that the average is about two weeks between "Transaction Date" and "Paid" on the AA RN page itself. Meaning sometimes longer.

FWIW, I used a groupon at a RN restaurant (Spill the Wine in Minneapolis), and did actually get RN credit for the remaining charges.

I've received credit for OT dines where I also used an OT check. You might try calling, or sending a copy of the non-detailed credit card receipt for credit.

Thank you all, and especially sd for your detailed comment. :)

BTW, it hasn't shown up in either place. I do see in my account that the average is about two weeks between "Transaction Date" and "Paid" on the AA RN page itself. Meaning sometimes longer.

Thank you, JDiver. This prompts another question. In the past, when I have followed up after credit doesn't show up - in my RN account, let alone in my AAdvantage account - the RN CS person has said, "Just a moment," put me on hold, and come back to say, "I see it, and I've credited your account". I surmised that she was looking at my cc statement.

So, my question (to anyone), actually beyond this OP, is: Can/Do they look at our cc statement if we note a discrepancy? (I hope this hasn't been asked before ...especially by me.)

Thank you.

Thank you, JDiver. This prompts another question. In the past, when I have followed up after credit doesn't show up - in my RN account, let alone in my AAdvantage account - the CS person has said, "Just a moment," put me on hold, and come back to say, "I see it, and I've credited your account". I surmised that she was looking at my cc statement.

So, my question (to anyone), actually beyond this OP, is: Can/Do they look at our cc statement if we note a discrepancy? (I hope this hasn't been asked before ...especially by me.)

Thank you.

I think it's more that she can see the (cc processing) transaction on her end, which clearly did not "catch" for miles posting; I highly doubt RN has access to our actual bank statements.

Thanks, Points Scrounger. I thought maybe just the transactions part. But your doubt makes sense, so no need to answer again. :)

It's been discussed here before that credit could be refused in such cases under the rule quoted above, but it rarely is.

Yes, there are other threads on this topic, of course. The subject has been beaten to death already. ;)

In my own experience, sometimes I have not received RN credit when I used other coupons (such as Restaurant.com). With OpenTable, I've generally had good luck with RN also posting.

"The charge was only going to be about $10 above the value of the Groupon. No big deal. RN's reward is pretty marginal in comparison with these others"

The reward is not marginal to the restaurant. RN awards are typically much more costly than just about any other other promotion or marketing program, as a percentage of any one bill. Pile on the promotions and at some point, you don't leave enough money to put good food on your plate.

As a practical matter, RN does not make it easy to for a restaurant to keep a transaction out of RN. At our restaurants, we only excluded large private parties. Checks settled outside RN had to be processed through a special terminal (never in a convenient spot) and then manually entered into the nightly accounting

Yes restaurants at one point did have a terminal that would identify "double dippers" and large party transactions BUT have pulled out all of the terminals about 2.5 years ago....according to customer service rep at rewards.....


I have been using restaurant.com and RN at the same restaurants for over 2 years now...(have never been denied my miles)


If restaurants are doing all of these programs at the same time-then they are voicing that they "need bodies in their seats"

I have no problem in supporting their restaurants!!

Thanks you two, for adding some information from the other side of the counter.