iDine/Rewards Network - most Baja Fresh & La Salsa locations showing "Leaving soon!" (1 Nov 2008)

I just did a "new month" check to see who was "Leaving soon!"

Every La Salsa location in SoCal I've seen on a list shows "Leaving soon!".

Most Baja Fresh locaitons do too. A search of Orange County CA (all areas) shows 13 Baja Fresh locations, 9 of which are shown "Leaving soon!".

Wow, that wasn't long between banner ads left and right about these two chains, and them apparently dropping out. (Of course, they might renew before the month is out, but at this point that seems far from certain.)

Luckily, they both have gift cards that you can buy in any amount, and most airlines currently have some sort of bonus on $50+ "dines", so that's at least one way to keep earning miles from these two chains for dines over months to come (should they indeed leave). (OTOH, maybe they're leaving exactly because they've seen a wild rash of $50 gift cards being bought by iDiners? :) )

One of those 'banners': www.reachdiners.com/pr_display.php?prfile=Feb2008_Baja.html (http://www.reachdiners.com/pressreleases.html) ? :eek:ops

/.

I will tell you this much... I hammered the Baja Fresh location near John Wayne Airport each time we had an event there, as my catering choice. I know I purchased 500 dollars worth of fajitas several times. I hope they reconsider, as I will move my business to another iDine location.

That's too bad - wonder when they'll actually leave RN...end of year?

Well, hopefully some other cheap chain will be added to take its place. :)

That's too bad - wonder when they'll actually leave RN...end of year?

Well, hopefully some other cheap chain will be added to take its place. :)

My suggestion:

RN + In 'N Out Burger = ^^^

Interesting...I definitely saw a few locations that were "leaving soon" a few days ago. Now the designation is gone...anyone else notice the change?

Perhaps they're staying after all?:confused:

Bizarre - and how it's showing "leaving soon" again. <rubbing eyes> I'm not going crazy, am I??

Bizarre - and how it's showing "leaving soon" again. <rubbing eyes> I'm not going crazy, am I??
I saw the "leaving soon" go away sometime on Monday, and I haven't seen it come back again, but then I've only been checking at most one or two times of day. :)

Also, was this on the list (which is recalculated each time you refresh the page), or on the particular merchant's page (which can be cached weirdly)?

There was a restaurant I was checking around midnight West Coast time last Saturday. It kept showing Nov 1 as a valid dine date when by my clock it was already Nov 2. I opened up other restaurants and they were showing Nov 2 already, but when I went back to this one it kept showing Nov 1. Finally I did a different search and the original search back, and then pulled up the restauarnt, and only then did it show Nov 2 as the first valid date.

It seems as if the fact that I viewed this restaurant before midnight cache'd it somehow in a way that even a "hard refresh" of the page didn't seem to update it.

But the list can't be cahce'd in the same way, because every time I refresh the page with the list, it pops up the "wait while we compute this list" message and obviously spews forth the list itself separate from the page that contains it.

Checked today and Baja Fresh locations gone in my local restaurant search. Hadn't seen "Leaving Soon" message when I checked earlier after seeing this thread.

FYI.

Here in bay area, Baja Fresh are still there.

Neither of the pasadena locations are participating :(
Pity because Baja Fresh is close to me and I like their tostada salads.
I cannot think of a time I have been to a la Salsa-are they any good?

Neither of the pasadena locations are participating :(
Pity because Baja Fresh is close to me and I like their tostada salads.
I cannot think of a time I have been to a la Salsa-are they any good?
Baja Fresh and La Salsa seem to be operated by the same company as far as I can tell, and they seem to be of similar quality, but different menus.

Keep in mind that you can go to a particpating Baja Fresh location elsewhere, buy a gift card, earn miles on that, earn even more miles this month if that gift card is $50 or more* (though La Salsa doesn't sell gift cards over $50 as one transaction, so you may have get one for exactly $50 if Baja Fresh has the same limit), and then use the gift card at the non-participating locations.

Of course, you have to use your own judgement about how long those locations will stay in business, compared to how long it will take you to use up the gift card. (In today's economic climate, I would not necessarily recommend a gift card, especially if you would only use it at one or two locations, if it'll take you many many months to use it up.)

*Just to be clear: La Salsa and BajaFresh each have their own gift cards, each of which only work at their respective chains. But both are cards that you can load with "any" amount (though apparently lmiited to $50 per transcation). The $50 limit I ran into is not on the card itself, it was on how big a transaction the register allowed as a single transaction. I tried to buy a $65 gift card but they said they'd have to process it as one $50 purchase plus another $15 purchase, and given the nature of the promo that was pointless.

The promo, just in case you aren't fimiliar with it, is that it "doubles" your miles on any single qualifying "dine" ("dines" include gift card purchases) that's $50 or more (including tax, though tax doesn't apply on these gift cards), through 11/30. If you're VIP (earn 5 miles), then it only doubles your base miles, not the "rate your dine" miles, which is why I put "double" in quotes (because for me it only gives me 1.5x normal miles!).

I just did a search in the Western Chicago and the Rolling Meadows and Lombard Baja Fresh locations are still participating.

I've never eaten at Baja Fresh but I think I'm going to try it this week . I need to get some dines in to keep my status anyway.

Good News: No 'leaving soon' banners next to BAJA FRESH

Bad News: MY Baja Fresh doesn't participate. I'm going to go to another one and get a $50 gift card before the end of the month tho ^