iDine/Rewards Network - slightly OT: what is OpenTable and what are its benefits?

Some posters here sometimes mention OpenTable. What are the benefits of using it? It doesn't seem worthwhile if all it allows you to do is make an online reservation that you could have made over the phone.

1) Get 100 points (worth $1)

2) Some restaurants give 1000 pts at slow times

3) Don't have to deal with snooty reservation people

4) Can find a restaurant with an open table without having to make multiple phone calls

5) Can double dip with iDine

OpenTable.com is great for me, as my assistant will make reservations for me and I or my other half is able to log-in to see either that it was done, or what other reservations are lined up for us in the rest of the week. I'm thinking it was intended so that you could do things "on the fly" without speaking with a human, but I'm indifferent on whether that is a benefit or not.

What I do like is that the site is designed to have a profile set-up that can be managed separately by a "Reservation Maker," as well as "Diner," which like I said above assists when you have an assistant and a daily eat-out regimen.

The points mean nothing to me.

The other great thing is if you're anal, lazy, and/or adventurous, OpenTable will give you a snapshot of where you've eaten in the past so that you are not overly favoring one establishment (trust me, eating out every night makes this useful), helps make suggestions on where to eat in your home city or frequented city, and best of all makes suggestions on where to eat in cities where you are not familiar with the fare.

It works for me.

No searching capability! If you aren't familiar with the city you are dining in, having the restaurants classified by neighborhood is useless.

Much prefer the ability of being able to search near an address (such as AA Rewards Network used to offer).

OTOH, the OpenTable points are quite nice - when you earn the number of points you want - there are specific numbers they will work with - you are sent a check that spends at any OpenTable restaurant, and processes exactly like a traveller's cheque.

See the Rewards page here (http://www.opentable.com/info/diningrewards.aspx).

"How many points do I need to earn a Dining Cheque?
You can redeem Dining Reward Points for OpenTable Dining Cheques which can be used at any OpenTable restaurant nationwide. You need a minimum of 2,000 points redeem a Dining Cheque. Dining Cheques are issued in three denominations, with the following points values:

United States:
2,000 OpenTable Points = $20 OpenTable Dining Cheque
5,000 OpenTable Points = $50 OpenTable Dining Cheque
10,000 OpenTable Points = $100 OpenTable Dining Cheque

Canada
Redeem 2,000 points and get a $26 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 5,000 points and get a $65 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 10,000 points and get a $130 OpenTable Dining Cheque

United Kingdom
Redeem 2,000 points and get a £15 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 5,000 points and get a £37.50 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 10,000 points and get a £75 OpenTable Dining Cheque"

For restaurants one can earn 1,000 OT points at (some Sundays and by 18:00 weekdays seem to be conditions soe restaurants use,) I earn 5 normal and 5 rate your dine AA miles + 5 Hilton HHonors points + 1,000 OT points. Why not? Only dessert can be sweeter - well, earning points in dollars and getting £ cheques! ;)

Also note:

" Do dining reward points expire?
Yes, dining points will expire if your account has been inactive for 12 months. If you do not make and honor a reservation within this timeframe, your points will expire. You can view all point activity, including expiration on your "My Profile" page.

And you can lose your privileges by blowing off too many bookings as well (it's easy to cancel or modify online.)

" Do dining reward points expire?
Yes, dining points will expire if your account has been inactive for 12 months. If you do not make and honor a reservation within this timeframe, your points will expire. You can view all point activity, including expiration on your "My Profile" page.
I had my dining points expire (my balance was just a few hundred, not enough to redeem), but after an e-mail inquiry from me they kindly reinstated them. It never hurts to ask!

It never hurts to ask; the worst is they can say "no," but if you don't ask, you're the one who is saying "no." That would hurt!

I've had pretty good luck with OpenTable, though the number of restaurants that do OT and iDIne are dying in this (SMF) area. Still, a few are good and give out 1,000 points for Sunday brunch or earlier (6:00 PM) dines, so it adds up.

I had my dining points expire (my balance was just a few hundred, not enough to redeem), but after an e-mail inquiry from me they kindly reinstated them. It never hurts to ask!

Only dessert can be sweeter - well, earning points in dollars and getting £ cheques! ;)

So can you actually earn points in the USA and then redeem them for £ cheques for use in the UK? That seems like a really good idea and very appealing.

It's Winter Restaurant Week(s) in Boston. I like being able to "shop" the menus online, decide which ones to go to, then use the OpenTable link in the directory of participants to reserve.

Then - and this I like all the time - when you're trying to find the time you want, the booking engine will tell you what before|after times are available if the one you want isn't open. In the case of the popular participants in Restaurant Week, OpenTable tells you when the next availability is. For Boston's top establishment (well, one of two five-stars), l'Espalier, I went on the hunt before Restaurant Week started, and found the earliest availability there to be March 24, mid-afternoon. Zip, zip, zip -- bagged. Not bad: a five-star for $20.09. :)

(BTW, FWIW, boy are they hurting. In prior years, I think something like ~50 restaurants participated. Last I heard, for this round it's ~240 in the metro area, and still growing.)

I've used Open Table several times, I mainly use it for the convenience of making reservations online. On every transaction it says "no points this reservation", what is that all about?:confused:

I think the restaurants might be able decide which days to give the points. Got to look at that when booking if they are important. (Though I could be confusing this with RN.) To me, only the off-hours 1,000 matter. And I have to check the list linked on the left margin of the website for those anyway. It takes 20 dines to get the $20, otherwise -- if the establishment awards points on my dates.

1) Get 100 points (worth $1)

2) Some restaurants give 1000 pts at slow times

3) Don't have to deal with snooty reservation people

4) Can find a restaurant with an open table without having to make multiple phone calls

5) Can double dip with iDine

These are the exact reasons I use Opentable. I also like that is gives links to the restaurants menus in most cases so that makes for less searching on my part.

Also, a lot of restaurants close early on xmas eve here in Indy and this gives me a pretty good look at which restaurants do in one simple search.

opentable recently launched a "map it" feature that fixes the site's biggest fault: figuring out where the restaurants are. it also helps when you're looking to double dip with idine (which also has a good map feature).

Nice! I'll have to give it a shake when I return to the USA.

I've enjoyed my OpenTable "cheques;" they spend exactly like Traveler's Cheques, and I usually spend 'em in none-iDine restaurants (like McCormick & Schmick's, and where I do earn their points.)

opentable recently launched a "map it" feature that fixes the site's biggest fault: figuring out where the restaurants are. it also helps when you're looking to double dip with idine (which also has a good map feature).

We love it simply for the ease of booking reservations. Most of the better restaurants in town are listed in the system (although rarely as 1,000 pointers). I think I have about 4000 points...a dollar per dinner, not really worth bothering about, but this thread reminded me that I *can* redeem them for a little bit of cash off a future meal. :)

We also have a local independent restaurant card with points that convert to 10% off. It has much better restaurants than the iDine selection, but about once a year I find a sportsbar type place where I can triple dip...