Diners Club Club Rewards - British Airways co-branded Diners Club card to end in UK

Discussed here, but worth flagging up in this forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1364545-ba-diners-club-partnership-end.html

Sadly, without the ability to earn Avios points with my Diners Club card, this is one I will be cancelling when the August deadline arrives.

Some people have clearly had a letter saying they would stop getting BA Avios points soon on their UK-issued Diners Club cards. But I have not.

I called DC UK yesterday and asked them - they confirmed it was stopping, and had stopped already for some people - but could not say when mine would stop (which seems odd). They said I will get a letter, but until I do, I continue to earn (and my August points have just posted).

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Is your card a co-branded BA/Diners card which automatically earns Avois, or does it participate in Club Rewards with an option to redeem for these programs:

http://www.dinersclub.co.uk/en/cardholder-services/rewards-program/airlinehotel-member-programmes.html

Is this related to Citicorp selling the Diners Club UK/Ireland franchise? Does anyone know how the new owners will promote the card?

Is your card a co-branded BA/Diners card which automatically earns Avois, or does it participate in Club Rewards with an option to redeem for these programs:

http://www.dinersclub.co.uk/en/cardholder-services/rewards-program/airlinehotel-member-programmes.html

Mine is co-branded, and as soon as I become unable to earn Avios, the card will go.... Sadly!

Is this related to Citicorp selling the Diners Club UK/Ireland franchise? Does anyone know how the new owners will promote the card?

They have sold to a private investor group. Is unlikely this organisation will have a lot of capital to invest in the brand or the infrastucture: they must have some plans because its operation in the UK is very minamilist but I can't see them being able to do much that will excite us. Could of course be completely wrong. One thing I am not sure is whether the chip and pin issue is something they can control or whether they will have to hobble along as the global payment network doesn't do chip and pin.

They have sold to a private investor group. Is unlikely this organisation will have a lot of capital to invest in the brand or the infrastucture: they must have some plans because its operation in the UK is very minamilist but I can't see them being able to do much that will excite us. Could of course be completely wrong. One thing I am not sure is whether the chip and pin issue is something they can control or whether they will have to hobble along as the global payment network doesn't do chip and pin.


More details from Affiniture

Insurance, Rewards and most features stay the same. Payment terms trimmed, ie need to pay before 30 days are up, but they did not say how long we will get.

Good news is that they will implement Chip & Pin

We've just had our new BA Diners Club corporate cards through, and they still have the BA logo on - plus we've not had a direct notification of the intention to cancel the link with BA yet. Others reported it in the BAEC forum, see my first post, but my colleagues and I are yet to be told.

Could it be they've reversed the decision, hence the new cards are still co-branded.

Positive news is they say they are increasing UK acceptance - places they claim will take Diners from now on include BP, Shell, Esso, Texaco, ASK, Zizzi, Garfunkles, Prezzon, Raddison, Holiday Inn, Hilton, Avis, Europcar, Hertz, Enterprise, Debenhams, Sinasbury's, Harvey Nics and House of Fraser...

Hope that means my local BP and Shell will take it again - about a year ago, they stopped...

Out with the old, in with the new:

http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae229/747_kirki/IMG-20121015-00184.jpg

Also, to add, I called Diners Club, and they confirmed that the partnership with BA will continue, hence their logo is still on the new cards... BA's relationship had simply ended with the previous Diners Club organisation in the UK. The people who have bought Diners Club have renewed it. If true, this is very good news!

Positive news is they say they are increasing UK acceptance - places they claim will take Diners from now on include BP, Shell, Esso, Texaco, ASK, Zizzi, Garfunkles, Prezzon, Raddison, Holiday Inn, Hilton, Avis, Europcar, Hertz, Enterprise, Debenhams, Sinasbury's, Harvey Nics and House of Fraser...



Is there anything new in that list? Diners Club has been welcome at Sainsburys for years.

Is there anything new in that list? Diners Club has been welcome at Sainsburys for years.

Well I am hoping the BP / Shell bit is new. Had been welcome for years, but in the last 12-18 months I had found the card to be almost unusable for fuel, with most retailers declining it.

Another big plus with the Diners Club UK arrangement is the call centre - its based in the UK, I've had reason to deal with them several times (to get pre-authorisation for big transactions), and they are very easy to work with. Previously the call centre I believe was in Barcelona, and prior to that in India...

Out with the old, in with the new:

http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae229/747_kirki/IMG-20121015-00184.jpg

Why don't I see a chip on the card? Is it not a chip (EMV) card, only swipe? I thought the UK was much further advanced than the USA for chip cards, but the USA Diners for close to a year has had a chip (see picture on right below):

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1v6b6v8T57GbOa2qoypYciySrna7Ju_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1v6b6v8T57GbOa2qoypYciySrna7Ju)

yet on this much newer UK card I don't see a chip. :confused:

This announcement is from January 2011. Don't know if the new owners of the UK card issuing franchise will change the timetable.

http://www.dinersclub.co.uk/home/news.html

Diners Club Cards are currently not part of the Chip and PIN initiative and will remain on the magnetic stripe and signature system. We are hoping to commence issuing Chip and PIN cards from January 2013.

All Diners Club merchants should continue to accept Diners Club cards in this way.

In all cases the PIN pad will automatically recognise that a signature rather than a PIN is required for:

cards that do not have a Chip (e.g. Diners Club)

cards from overseas

chip and signature cards for disabled cardholders

If any Diners Club Cardholders have an issue regarding acceptance they should urge the merchant to insert the card into the terminal and follow the prompts. The machine will automatically request a signature.

The UK was / is way ahead on chip & pin tech, we've had it for years on all my Visa and Amex cards. It's just Diners which is still to catch up - some retailers which aren't used to seeing them are amazed there are still cards out there without chips in 'em!

As this is with Diners Card AND BA....I am trying to get the BA Diners Card for Switzerland - but it is said that there are some Problems on the Homepage so they cant issue it at the moment..Anybody know anything?