iDine/Rewards Network - Reinstated Restaurants That Pulled Out in August

My favorite RN restaurant in Boston, Davio's, was pulling out of the AA Dining rewards program in August. There was a notice posted, on the AAdvantage Dining website, LEAVING SOON, next to Davio's and its sister restaurant Avila (also in Boston). I emailed the manager of the establishment and asked politely, since I dine there so often, in part, because of the Rewards I accumulate, if they would reconsider about dropping out. Low and behold, when I went to Davio's late last week he came up to me and said that they decided to stay in the program. They are still there. So, if you like a restaurant (granted, very few in the program are any good), and you see that they may be LEAVING SOON, email or call the manager or owner and tell them that you value the rewards you get for dining at their restaurant and hope that they reconsider dropping out. It can work.

Thanks for sharing. I was at Avila a few weeks ago and still haven't had any points post. I now have some hope

there's only one restaurant left in my city :(

2 closed down and one inexplicably left the program (of course, not before not having valid dines show up)

and now I have $10 in benefits that I might not be able to redeem unless I go to the one restaurant left and spend like $100 there.

The question is - did reinstatement have them begin with a tabula rasa ("clean slate")? Could you earn 500 bonus miles for dining there "the first time" in September, as if they were new again? Let us know!

Power to the people! :D

The question is - did reinstatement have them begin with a tabula rasa ("clean slate")? Could you earn 500 bonus miles for dining there "the first time" in September, as if they were new again? Let us know!
My previously-posted assumption (which I don't know if anyone has tested): If the reinstatement was under the same Merchant ID as before, it won't likely count as new. If the reinstatement is under a brand new Merchant ID, it may very well count as new.

That's because based on my understanding of how the dining program works, it's primary identifier of a restaurant is the Merchant ID. That allows the restaurant to be considered the "same" even if the name changes, even if the address was originally wrong and gets corrected, etc.