iDine/Rewards Network - Rate Your Dine OVER in 2009

Does anybody know if the Rate Your Dine Bonus will be extended into 2009?

Previously, when it was about to expire (March, June, September), they extended it around the 15th - 20th of the month before it was to expire (10-15 days notice). Today is the 29th, and all of the partners still say it will expire on 12/31/08.

What a bummer to earn only 5 miles per dollar. :mad: It was only a slight inconvience to go from 2007 earn 10 miles per dollar to 2008 earn 5+5 miles per dollar. Wasted a little time rating the dines, but didn't hurt my bottom line.

Have not heard anything from AA program...my completely non-scientific gut guess is that they'll extend into 2009, but once again, I have no information one way or another. :p:D

They cut bonus announcements right down to the wire in many cases - even as day or so after the start date has been known to happen! From RN's point-of-view there's probably no rush to announce before the first dines of the year have been posted.

So far it's not showing at all for AA*, is showing as through Dec 31 2008 for NW and AS, and is showing as through Dec 31 2009 for DL (http://skymiles.rewardsnetwork.com/bonus.htm) (link only shows this bonus when logged in as VIP!) and UA (http://mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com/bonus.htm) (link shows this bonus whether logged in or not!).

*It doesn't show at the left at any of these sites. It only shows in the middle as the default "main" bonus. So I attribute the fact that it's not showing at all at AA due to the fact the the "Fast Track" bonus is the "main" one there taking up the middle of the bonus page.

Hopefully the difference between 2008 at some airlines and 2009 at others is simply due to them catching up slowly...

I don't see the bonus showing up for any of the programs for 2009. :td::td:

Not showing up on any of my programs (inc AS and DL)

If this really happens it would be unfortunate and would send my Idine earnings spiraling in the same direction as my brokerage accounts. If this administrative change holds it represents the loss of one coach class ticket to Europe…not to mention that my motivation to go out for Idines will be cut by…half.

I’ll throw my guess in the ring, however, and suspect that 10 miles per dollar will be back in some fashion in the second quarter, if not before.

Well, this is a bad decision in a down economy. I suspect the bonus wil be back. I had already scaled back my dining over the last year after the demise of the British Airways dining program. This will just probably further reduce my attention to this program for UA.

Agree with those who say it is a bad decision for us and the restaurants involved as there is not much incentive to dine at the idine restaurants when earning miles under these apparent new rules.

I will consider dining at the restaurants using the RN cash back program, however.

Given the paltry miles earned if this stands and the overall devaluation of airline FF programs, I would then rather take the "bonus" in terms of a cash back to my credit card and pocket the savings.


If or when they decide to resume some decent bonuses, then I will consider reviving my miles earning dining accounts.

Very stupid of them.

Some good news:
according to Gary's post on his free fequent flyer miles site: http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm
"The Delta and United Airlines Rewards Network bonuses for VIP members rating restuarants were extended a year. Others may follow soon (but no promises). (In the Dining section.) "

Direct link to UA's bonus terms: http://mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com/bonus.htm?promoId=elite&detail=

Thanks for the info Gary!

Regards,

kings_29

Thank goodness and thank you Kings and Gary!! ^^

The others are likely to follow.

Some good news:
according to Gary's post on his free fequent flyer miles site: http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm
"The Delta and United Airlines Rewards Network bonuses for VIP members rating restuarants were extended a year. Others may follow soon (but no promises). (In the Dining section.) "

Direct link to UA's bonus terms: http://mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com/bonus.htm?promoId=elite&detail=

Thanks for the info Gary!
Well, maybe. But then, Gary's post seems to date from early on 1/1, around the time my post #4 above does. But a few hours later, those disappeared (see posts #5 and #6 above) from the BONUS tabs at the respective dining program sites.

Good for Gary for providing archived direct links that still work, but the question is, since the links only work if archived, and don't work directly from the BONUS tab at those sites any more, is it something that was withdrawn by accident (or because it needed some minor fixing), or was it something that was put up by accident and they meant to withdraw it completely (but simply removed a way to link to it, which only Gary has preserved)?

Keep in mind that these popped up early on a holiday (1/1) and were "withdrawn" later on that holiday. And now we've had a full business day come and do and nothing further has happened (they haven't reappeared on the BONUS tabs, they haven't been updated for any other programs "behind the scenes", etc).

It looks like SDS search's warning was well advised as the United link above now shows that the page has been withdrawn.

In addition, I just saw a bonus offer from AAdvantage dining that provides a bonus of 1,500 miles for $400 in dines (cumultive) by 2/28/09.

The above bonus combined with the Fast track bonus and the now 5 miles/$ just scrapes by at 10 miles to the $1 if you complete all the terms and conditions.

Bottom line -- they have definitely cut back on the program and I won't be utilizing them as much this year. :td::td:

....Bottom line -- they have definitely cut back on the program and I won't be utilizing them as much this year. :td::td:

That I am on day 5 of my Idine boycott has by now certainly caught the attention of the Idine powers that be. With all the conviction of a heroin addict in recovery, I am guessing that I can hold out until the 10th, make that the 9th.

Some good news:
according to Gary's post on his free fequent flyer miles site: http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.com/index.htm
"The Delta and United Airlines Rewards Network bonuses for VIP members rating restuarants were extended a year. Others may follow soon (but no promises). (In the Dining section.) "

Direct link to UA's bonus terms: http://mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com/bonus.htm?promoId=elite&detail=

Thanks for the info Gary!

Regards,

kings_29


Thank you for your interest in the airline dining programs. Unfortunately, we encountered a technical issue that was specific to archived links associated with the Delta SkyMiles Dining and the United Mileage Plus Dining “VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus”. The VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus for all Rewards Network dining programs ended on 12/31/08 – there was no special extension for Delta or United.

We will continue to work hard in 2009 to design different types of bonus offers and add additional participating restaurants to the airline dining programs. Our goal is to deliver as much value as possible to both members and participating restaurants.

We regret any confusion or inconvenience the archived link messaging may have caused. We will honor the additional 5-mile-per-dollar VIP bonus for VIP members of the Delta SkyMiles Dining and United Mileage Plus Dining programs for surveys submitted within 60 days of dines that took place between January 1, 2009 and January 5, 2009. And of course, I hope you’ll continue to seek out participating airline dining program restaurants where you’ll earn additional frequent flyer miles – and bonus miles – throughout the year.

If anyone has additional questions regarding their airline dining account, please feel free to contact us at:

United Mileage Plus Dining: 1.800.555.5116

Delta SkyMiles Dining: 1.800.818.8339


Stacy Delgado
Director, Member Services
Rewards Network Inc.

E-mail sent to AA Rewards Network yesterday.

Will you be offering the 5 bonus miles/$ spent for rating your dine in 2009? I don't see any mention of it on the web site.

Response today:

Thank you for writing The AAdvantage Dining program and The AAdvantage Hotel program!

We appreciate your continued patience. The VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus for all Rewards Network dining programs ended on 12/31/08. Unfortunately, the bonus will not be extended for 2009.

We will continue to work hard in 2009 to design different types of bonus offers and add additional participating restaurants to the airline dining programs. Our goal is to deliver as much value as possible to both members and participating restaurants.

We appreciate your continued patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Should you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

That's not great, but perhaps the bonuses will make up for it, at least if you're flexible with your spending. It'll definitely give them more margin to create bonuses, but we'll see if they actually do more bonuses or not.

The current bonus (2000 miles with $150 by 2/28) can generate up to 18.33 miles per dollar. Not as good as the 20+ that we would hope to earn, but far better than the base of 3 or 5.

3 miles per dollar didn't motivate me at all. 5 miles per dollar won't, either. 10 miles per dollar will motivate some slight changes in dining preferences. 20+ miles per dollar will get me to dining runs. ;)

It's going to take bonus campaigns to get me to use iDine much. That's where the biggest earning potential is.

But with the current bonus only appying to the first $150, once I hit $150 I won't be using iDine until the next bonus comes along...

E-mail sent to AA Rewards Network yesterday.

I wrote yesterday to inquire and also told them I go out of my way to dine at participating restaurants, so any devaluation will reduce my dines. Just got essentially the same response, with an addl paragraph:

Additionally, we truly value feedback from our members because we do realize how important it is to the success of a growing organization. Please rest assured that your concerns have in fact been forwarded to the appropriate department for consideration.

Maybe it's worth it for others to chime in, probably not. :td:

Bye, bye to any incentive to provide feedback for my (declining) dines. Given the state of the economy and the fact that fewer are eating out.

We have had a number of restaurants go bankrupt / shut their doors in the greater Sacramento / Roseville (California) area where we dine primarily, and somehow, this disincentive / diminution of benefits will help? Hmmm.

What kind of moron organization posts a link stating they are extending the rate your dine bonus for all of 2009 for United on Jan 1 and then yanks it? You think that is going to make your big users a bit put out? I'll only go for bonuses as well this year. The restaurants should be thrilled...will take that much longer for Idine to collect on the loans.

I'll tell you who really should be mad -- the struggling owners of the restaurants who signed up for IDINE.

I am confident that they were sold a bill of goods -- we have a vast reservoir of individuals to patronize your restaurant -- look at our stats.

Of course, those stats were based on the old award system that they essentially have gutted.

While some of you have stated that you can get close to 20 miles to the $1, that is based on the assumption that you only have to spend $150 and not the originally stated $300 in dines, and that the promotions are cumulative.

As you should know by now, the heaviest ;) diners are the ones who got the least incentive bonus. Even you allow that you will stop at the $150 or $300 threshold, as well.

This is not a move that will bring in droves of new customers as I am sure they were told when they signed up for the program. Instead, they are likely to see a substantial drop-off in participants in the dining programs, for one should remember, that of all the programs, AA is the only one right now with any semblance of a "promotion" at all.

We can vote with our feet on what establishments to patronize, but those small business owners signed up for an entirely different program that RN is now offering.

This amounts to nothing more than sleazy business practices, IMHO, and instead of registering your discontent with RN, I would mention this to your eatery, and how the incentive that they and you thought would be there to get that extra benefit to dine there, has been pulled out from the both of you. The best way to pressure RN into offering meaningful bonuses is through their established business contacts/customers -- the restaurants, not us.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, and thank you for verifying the sad news, Stacy. I am glad RN will at least honor the dines of those in UA and DL programs who dined assuming they would earn 5 bonus miles per dollar for rating.

Thank you for your interest in the airline dining programs. Unfortunately, we encountered a technical issue that was specific to archived links associated with the Delta SkyMiles Dining and the United Mileage Plus Dining “VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus”. The VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus for all Rewards Network dining programs ended on 12/31/08 – there was no special extension for Delta or United.

We will continue to work hard in 2009 to design different types of bonus offers and add additional participating restaurants to the airline dining programs. Our goal is to deliver as much value as possible to both members and participating restaurants.

We regret any confusion or inconvenience the archived link messaging may have caused. We will honor the additional 5-mile-per-dollar VIP bonus for VIP members of the Delta SkyMiles Dining and United Mileage Plus Dining programs for surveys submitted within 60 days of dines that took place between January 1, 2009 and January 5, 2009. And of course, I hope you’ll continue to seek out participating airline dining program restaurants where you’ll earn additional frequent flyer miles – and bonus miles – throughout the year.

If anyone has additional questions regarding their airline dining account, please feel free to contact us at:

United Mileage Plus Dining: 1.800.555.5116

Delta SkyMiles Dining: 1.800.818.8339


Stacy Delgado
Director, Member Services
Rewards Network Inc.

Apologies for any disruptions:


The thread has been retitled to reflect actual conditions, and make it more searchable.

Posts regarding the Jan - Feb VIP bonus miles have been relocated to their own thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/idine-rewards-network/906431-2-000-aa-bonus-miles-rn.html).

Rewards Network / Stacy has joined us, but her first post was hidden by the system until a moderator could approve it - it is now visible, and I apologize for the inconvenience. (This relatively new protocol exists as part of the Spam suppression system; all first posts don't necessarily get hidden, but many do.)

Her profile doesn't allow for 'direct mail'.

Having emailed several requests to fix account problems, with no action -- I finally tagged one for "reply receipt" -- and got this:
Your message
-----To: (program)@rewardsnetwork.com
-----Cc:
-----Subject: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Thread:1041yy)
-----Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 14:22:26
was deleted without being read on Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:53:23I hate having to rat-out somebody who probably needs the job, but hey !

I finally tagged one for "reply receipt" -- and got this:
Be aware that stupid Outloook has a "preview pane" option, where you can see a message in a pane without officially "opening" it, and if you only read it there, without actually opening it, it can report is a "not read".

I tag my in-office emails with read receipt requests always, and have run into several cases where the person clearly read the message yet I only got a "not read" receipt.

Thank you for your interest in the airline dining programs. Unfortunately, we encountered a technical issue that was specific to archived links associated with the Delta SkyMiles Dining and the United Mileage Plus Dining “VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus”. The VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus for all Rewards Network dining programs ended on 12/31/08 – there was no special extension for Delta or United.

We will continue to work hard in 2009 to design different types of bonus offers and add additional participating restaurants to the airline dining programs. Our goal is to deliver as much value as possible to both members and participating restaurants.

We regret any confusion or inconvenience the archived link messaging may have caused. We will honor the additional 5-mile-per-dollar VIP bonus for VIP members of the Delta SkyMiles Dining and United Mileage Plus Dining programs for surveys submitted within 60 days of dines that took place between January 1, 2009 and January 5, 2009. And of course, I hope you’ll continue to seek out participating airline dining program restaurants where you’ll earn additional frequent flyer miles – and bonus miles – throughout the year.

If anyone has additional questions regarding their airline dining account, please feel free to contact us at:

United Mileage Plus Dining: 1.800.555.5116

Delta SkyMiles Dining: 1.800.818.8339


Stacy Delgado
Director, Member Services
Rewards Network Inc.

this so not good. delta already took away the double benefit with the amex card and now they took away the 5+5 bonus miles for VIP accounts. aren't we trying to boost the economy. for 5 miles per $ i will think twice to go out to eat. at 10 miles per $ it truly paid to go out.

I just posted this on an Idine establishment rating request:

"It's too bad that Idine has devalued their program by cutting benefits in half. Hopefully they've given you a refund on your investment since you'll now be getting less business because of their reduction in benefits to diners."

I encourage everyone to do the same on any rating requests they get so the word gets out to the restos;)

I wasn't planning on doing ANY ratings now that I'm not getting paid for it! Same as it was before they implemented the 5 miles/$ for ratings.

Or maybe I should just leave all the fields blank and just insert a comment as to why I'm not filling the survey out ...

Bye, bye to any incentive to provide feedback for my (declining) dines. Given the state of the economy and the fact that fewer are eating out.


Ditto.

Plus, in the past, I would at least spend an extra second to think "Hmm, are there any Idine restaurants in this area?" I may even take a little bit of a detour to visit a specific establishment. With only 5 miles/$, I doubt I'll even give the program a second thought in choosing a place to eat now...:td:

I just posted this on an Idine establishment rating request:

"It's too bad that Idine has devalued their program by cutting benefits in half. Hopefully they've given you a refund on your investment since you'll now be getting less business because of their reduction in benefits to diners."

I encourage everyone to do the same on any rating requests they get so the word gets out to the restos;)


236Dkota --

That is truly brilliant!!! @:-)@:-)@:-)^^^

I was going to refrain from any ratings like MG, but this is a far better and perhaps faster way to communicate my displeasure to RN, as well as to alert those they had duped as to what is really going on with their program.

With your permission I would like to copy your statement verbatim for all dines that I have, as well!

Please advise!

NJ

236Dkota --

That is truly brilliant!!! @:-)@:-)@:-)^^^

I was going to refrain from any ratings like MG, but this is a far better and perhaps faster way to communicate my displeasure to RN, as well as to alert those they had duped as to what is really going on with their program.

With your permission I would like to copy your statement verbatim for all dines that I have, as well!

Please advise!

NJ

Funny enough I had posted the same thought in 2 of my dine ratings. Hopefully they will get the message. These will be my last dines for a while since I thought I was getting 10 miles per $ at the time. I'd encourage everyone to do the same with your ratings.

Or maybe I should just leave all the fields blank and just insert a comment as to why I'm not filling the survey out ...

That's my plan. I've also put an inquiry in at my local favorite (48 dines in 2008) to find out how their deal is structured. Assuming they're not getting a commensurate discount, then the only conclusion can be that RN is trying to stick it to both members and the restaurants. :td::td::td:

236Dkota --

That is truly brilliant!!! @:-)@:-)@:-)^^^

I was going to refrain from any ratings like MG, but this is a far better and perhaps faster way to communicate my displeasure to RN, as well as to alert those they had duped as to what is really going on with their program.

With your permission I would like to copy your statement verbatim for all dines that I have, as well!

Please advise!

NJ

Go for it, everyone^

I have already dined 4 times this year, and it sure does feel liberating not having to check in and rate the dines for my other 5 mile incentive. I definitely encourage others to skip the rating until the 10 miles total per dollar comes back!

Not only that, I think RN is pulling out of offering AA Hotels too! :mad:

Tell-tale signs:

1. No mention whatsoever about AA Hotels by RN on main page except for a small link at the bottom under privacy and policies

2. Tried doing a search for hotels for upcoming trips in Seattle, Durham, and Toronto and all hotels comes up as "no rooms available"


RN needs to get their act together. No e-mail correspondence of changes = no future business with me :td:

Sent e-mail to RN:


Dear RewardsNetwork,

I am writing to you in correspondence to the community of FlyerTalk where there has been discussion of how you guys did away with the Rate Your Dine VIP bonus. This was a bonus that has been extended year after year, and it allowed many to earn 10 miles to the dollar on our dines. But now that the condition and bonus was scrapped, I am not so sure whether I will fully commit myself to the Dining program as I used to.

And furthermore, I am having suspicions that you are trying to do away with AA Hotels by RN section. Before the "new look," the page was known as AA Dining and Hotels by RewardsNetwork. But now, there is no hint of that. All I see is the push for "earn AAdvantage miles for Dining" but little or no mention of earn AAdvantage miles for Hotels" In fact, the only hint of your affiliation with the Hotels program is shown at the very bottom near the Privacy Policy and Terms & Condition section of the front page.

Are you guys trying to hide something? This leads me to be suspicious that you want to get rid of this program without telling the loyal members and that they hopefully "forget about that existed." If this is your intent, I am truly outraged as I have been very satisfied with your Hotel affiliation. And even if I access the AA Hotels by RN site through that discreet link at the bottom and try to do a search on hotels, there are no rooms available anywhere!

I hope you re-consider on your judgment of the VIP Rate Your Dine bonus and the way you're handling the discreet low-profile of AA Hotels by RN.


Sincerely,

kebosabi
Hopeful to remain loyal to AA Dining AND HOTELS by RewardsNetwork


Let's see how they respond.

Not only that, I think RN is pulling out of offering AA Hotels too! :mad:

Tell-tale signs:

1. No mention whatsoever about AA Hotels by RN on main page except for a small link at the bottom under privacy and policies

2. Tried doing a search for hotels for upcoming trips in Seattle, Durham, and Toronto and all hotels comes up as "no rooms available"


RN needs to get their act together. No e-mail correspondence of changes = no future business with me :td:

I did find some hotels in Sedona, AZ in January and February, nothing in Denver. The small hotel link at the bottom of the page has been going on for a while.

Ignored all of the rating radio buttons, except the one saying that RN participation did NOT influence our decision to dine and wrote:

We dined here 48 times last year because of the program, but now that Rewards Network has severely devalued their rewards to members for 2009 by eliminating the Rate Your Dine bonus (50% of the miles we earned), we will no longer go out of our way to eat here. The restaurant should ask Rewards Network for a 50% refund on whatever they paid to participate in the program.

I ended up emailing skymiles@rewardsnetwork.com today to have them cancel my account due to my extreme displeasure with their reducing the number of miles from 10 to 5 that a VIP member can get per dollar.

Honestly, it's not worth driving out of my way to go to a restaurant I would not normally go to just for 5 miles per dollar. 10 miles per dollar + bonuses is well worth my time and gas, but not 5.

I hope this sends them a clear message, especially since I've earned well over 100,000 Skymiles from them over the past few years.

I just don't understand why they decided to "rock the boat" so-to-speak. They had something very good going, and they just ruined it...

I'll let you know if I get a response from them...

I just received the 5 bonus miles/$ for rating a dine I did on January 2. This is in the Delta program. Hope it's not a mistake and they take them back.:D

I just received the 5 bonus miles/$ for rating a dine I did on January 2. This is in the Delta program. Hope it's not a mistake and they take them back.:D

Did you read post #15?

I ended up emailing skymiles@rewardsnetwork.com today to have them cancel my account due to my extreme displeasure with their reducing the number of miles from 10 to 5 that a VIP member can get per dollar.

Honestly, it's not worth driving out of my way to go to a restaurant I would not normally go to just for 5 miles per dollar. 10 miles per dollar + bonuses is well worth my time and gas, but not 5.

I hope this sends them a clear message, especially since I've earned well over 100,000 Skymiles from them over the past few years.

I just don't understand why they decided to "rock the boat" so-to-speak. They had something very good going, and they just ruined it...

I'll let you know if I get a response from them...

I applaud your conviction, although I expect there are few who will go this far. From the member's perspective, 5 free miles, while not as good as 10, is still better than 0. It's the restaurants that are really getting screwed, assuming they're paying the same amount to participate.

Rewards Network forced a questionnaire on me about my 200i9 vs 2008 dining plans, but didn't ask the question they should have asked!

See this post from the Please Share iDine Bonuses thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11078780-post389.html) for the scoop.

I also expressed my sentiments on the rate your dining forum without rating the dine itself. I think this should send a message to them.

So far, the things that have not impressed me with RN customer service:

1. No mobile device support. Hello, as a business traveler, when is their best opportunity to get you to use their service? When 4 of my co-workers are looking to me for a suggestion in a random city.... I pull out my mobile device and find a place.

2. Reduction in benefits... this thread is about it.

3. The new website where you can not search by a distinct address. I travel to San Francisco alot, and sometimes a zipcode search makes it look like all restaurants are close, but they turn out to be 3/4 miles away when you actually map it out.

3. The new website where you can not search by a distinct address. I travel to San Francisco alot, and sometimes a zipcode search makes it look like all restaurants are close, but they turn out to be 3/4 miles away when you actually map it out.


Click on advanced search. Then click on search by address. That should get you where you want to be.

At the risk of being flamed....

5 miles per $ is about 15% if you value your points at .03 (not to open up a discussion of "what is the value of a mile!") - so while I am not at all happy about the reduction I will not stop using Idine just because it is not what it used to be...

I just think back to the past 2 years where my partner and I rcvd about 200k miles total in all our dines... I always figured it was too good to last, but to say "just don't go use the perk"? Not me.

At the risk of being flamed....

5 miles per $ is about 15% if you value your points at .03 (not to open up a discussion of "what is the value of a mile!") - so while I am not at all happy about the reduction I will not stop using Idine just because it is not what it used to be...

I just think back to the past 2 years where my partner and I rcvd about 200k miles total in all our dines... I always figured it was too good to last, but to say "just don't go use the perk"? Not me.

Most optimistically value 1 FF mile at 2 cents, not 3 cents.

Moreover, the value of a FF mile has fallen considerably with luggage and fuel surcharges, re-deposit fees (even for elite FF members) etc. Therefore, in addition to the RN devaluation they are hit with the above.

I am glad you are happy with 5 miles to the dollar -- most of us are not. :td:

Dan:

I understand that you're speaking actuarially, but psychologically it was a 50% devaluation from 10x to 5x.

I plan on completing the current AA promo, which will put me well over 12 dines for requalification. I'm not going at all out of my way to get in dines with my other partners, until I see decent promos (vs. the current dearth) to make up for the elite base cut.

Points

At the risk of being flamed....

5 miles per $ is about 15% if you value your points at .03 (not to open up a discussion of "what is the value of a mile!") - so while I am not at all happy about the reduction I will not stop using Idine just because it is not what it used to be...

I just think back to the past 2 years where my partner and I rcvd about 200k miles total in all our dines... I always figured it was too good to last, but to say "just don't go use the perk"? Not me.

I actually don't think you should get flamed for this viewpoint - it's basically along the lines of what I described in Post #42 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/idine-rewards-network/903995-rate-your-dine-over-2009-a-3.html#post11076129) above.

OTOH, while there's not a strong reason for me to boycott RN at 5 mi/$, there's also much less of a reason for me to go out of my way to dine at participating restaurants than there was at 10 mi/$.

Unfortunately, I think we as members have little pull in this situation :( as we are not paying RN directly. It's going to be up to the restaurants to decide whether to stay or go or push for changes based on what they're getting out of the deal. Haven't been back to my local favorite yet to find out how their deal is structured, but will post when I do.

Most optimistically value 1 FF mile at 2 cents, not 3 cents.

Moreover, the value of a FF mile has fallen considerably with luggage and fuel surcharges, re-deposit fees (even for elite FF members) etc. Therefore, in addition to the RN devaluation they are hit with the above.



As I said - not to open up the discussion to what is the value of a mile....


I am glad you are happy with 5 miles to the dollar -- most of us are not. :td:

I think my exact words were "while I am at not at all happy"


As I anticipated - disagreement is not valued...

I was in Grand Rapids this week on business. A coworker and I needed to eat dinner somewhere. I have no idea what's good or not in Grand Rapids ... I go to my preferred Rewards Network site, sort by rating, and I get a nice choice of restaurants to go to. While it's a bummer that I only get 5 miles/dollar instead of 10 miles/dollar now, it's all free miles for me as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'm in a minority of Flyertalkers, but I travel to a lot of cities where I don't know much about the dining situation, so using Rewards Network as a guide works out pretty well for me, especially because the ratings can guide me to somewhere at least half-decent.

using Rewards Network as a guide works out pretty well for me, especially because the ratings can guide me to somewhere at least half-decent.
For now, maybe, because the ratings you're seeing are from last year.

But as time goes on, trust them less, because many people either will refuse to rate, or will rate erroneously (leaving messages for RN in the comments, but what if RN is inept enough to remove those comment but include the ratings?!?), so I suspect as the year progresses the ratings will be less reliable.

For now, maybe, because the ratings you're seeing are from last year.

But as time goes on, trust them less, because many people either will refuse to rate, or will rate erroneously (leaving messages for RN in the comments, but what if RN is inept enough to remove those comment but include the ratings?!?), so I suspect as the year progresses the ratings will be less reliable.I would hope even if someone leaves "notes" about the changes to restaurants it does not affect the ratings they give the restaurants. The only numeric rating it should potentially affect is Value, but even then I would suggest one should rate Value based on the restaurants prices independent of Rewards Network. One could also argue it could affect liklihood to return and recommend, but those ratings don't appear to be included in the publicly displayed ratings.

I would hope even if someone leaves "notes" about the changes to restaurants it does not affect the ratings they give the restaurants.

I agree - why would you rate the place down because of an Idine change?

I agree - why would you rate the place down because of an Idine change?

I've left the ratings blank on my 2 dines this year and just left my note posted upthread and clicked the "No" button on whether or not participation affected my decision to dine there. On the summary page, however, this seems like it might be showing up as a rating of zero (no blue bars), which I hope is not really the case.

I would hope even if someone leaves "notes" about the changes to restaurants it does not affect the ratings they give the restaurants.
Hope, yes. But in case you haven't noticed, if you go to rate your dine, and then click the "finish" button without actually rating it (say, because you only left the comment), it comes up looking as if it got rated zero (all five stars are white). Hopefully, they would count this as "no rating left" rather than a rating of zero, but given the number of bugs at the RN websites, I wouldn't count on it.

At the risk of being flamed....

5 miles per $ is about 15% if you value your points at .03 (not to open up a discussion of "what is the value of a mile!") - so while I am not at all happy about the reduction I will not stop using Idine just because it is not what it used to be...

I just think back to the past 2 years where my partner and I rcvd about 200k miles total in all our dines... I always figured it was too good to last, but to say "just don't go use the perk"? Not me.

I'm with you, for the most part. I'll go to restaurants that I like that happen to be in the program, and I'll check the list when I'm traveling, but I may not go out of the way to restaurants that involve taking BART over to the East Bay, or whatever.

My problem is that there are very few restaurants in the program within walking distance of my house, and I live near dozens of restaurants. It seems like the ones that I used to walk to have all left the program in the past year. One that I really liked went out of business about six weeks ago. :(

My problem is that there are very few restaurants in the program within walking distance of my house, and I live near dozens of restaurants. It seems like the ones that I used to walk to have all left the program in the past year. One that I really liked went out of business about six weeks ago. :(

I hear you -- there are a couple quite nearby I go to regularly that left the program a couple of years back; I often think of those missing miles (along the lines of phantom limbs) when paying.

I see no reason to bother rating one's dine at all now. If there's no tangible incentive (in the form of bonus miles/points/dollars or something else worthwhile), I'm not wasting my time doing it.

Besides, I don't find the ratings to be so terribly reliable anyhow. I posted in another thread that I think RN/idine "cheats" and doesn't include really negative ratings -- at least based on a place that I gave a very poor rating to. I never (even after months had passed) saw my review appear, and I suspect it wasn't even included in the numerical averages.

BTW, the thread title is misleading -- you can still "rate your dine," you just don't get any bonus for doing so. :p

Besides, I don't find the ratings to be so terribly reliable anyhow. I posted in another thread that I think RN/idine "cheats" and doesn't include really negative ratings -- at least based on a place that I gave a very poor rating to. I never (even after months had passed) saw my review appear, and I suspect it wasn't even included in the numerical averages.

If you read the fine print (I think it's there when you submit your review), it indicates that RN can pick and choose which reviews to post on their site, although it appears that all reviews should, indeed, be going to the restaurant.

I've seen some negative comments in reviews.

I see no reason to bother rating one's dine at all now. If there's no tangible incentive (in the form of bonus miles/points/dollars or something else worthwhile), I'm not wasting my time doing it.

Besides, I don't find the ratings to be so terribly reliable anyhow. I posted in another thread that I think RN/idine "cheats" and doesn't include really negative ratings -- at least based on a place that I gave a very poor rating to. I never (even after months had passed) saw my review appear, and I suspect it wasn't even included in the numerical averages.

BTW, the thread title is misleading -- you can still "rate your dine," you just don't get any bonus for doing so. :p


I don’t mean to be petty (or at least admit to being petty), but when a restaurant where I had previously got food poisoning came onto Idine I decided to do my bit to get them the lowest rating of any local Idinery. Since I would literally pass by the place, I’d often get a cup of coffee (pretty safe, right?) and then ding them with all ones on their review.

It soon became clear to me that the weight of my ratings was not factoring into their overall score. I suppose that it’s possible that Idine only lets a person rate a restaurant once, but I kind of doubt it.

In regards to my enthusiasm for only 5 miles per dollar, my three dines in January '09 compare to 13 dines in January '08. Mrs. Jailer packed my lunch yesterday, I'm taking my lunch today--Trader Joe's sushi. I have lost five pounds.

If you read the fine print (I think it's there when you submit your review), it indicates that RN can pick and choose which reviews to post on their site, although it appears that all reviews should, indeed, be going to the restaurant.

Here's the actual disclaimer, just below the comments box on the rating page:
NOTE: Member Reviews and comments are shared with the restaurateur in a timely manner. Rewards Network reserves the right to select the reviews that are posted to the Web site.

By providing feedback to us based on your experience, you authorize Rewards Network to share this
information in a non-personally identifiable manner (either in aggregate or by including first name,
first initial of last name, city and state of residence) with our participating restaurants, partners and
other program members.

I've seen some negative comments in reviews.

:rolleyes:

Thanks for misreading/misconstruing my post. :td: My words were:

...I posted in another thread that I think RN/idine "cheats" and doesn't include really negative ratings...

Yes, I've seen "negative comments" -- that's not the same thing as "really negative ratings." The rating is the numerical value (1 through 5) you assign. You may see some "negative comments," but how many actual ratings of 1 or 2 do you see? A "mediocre" rating of a restaurant on idine would be a 3, which is pretty rare. Most are in the range of 4 to 5. Not really useful or even credible that they nearly all fall into that range. @:-) But I guess RN/idine wouldn't want to admit that at least a few of their member restaurants are just so-so or even real stinkers. (By the way, I gave a "1" to the crummy restaurant, as I recall.)

:rolleyes:

Thanks for misreading/misconstruing my post. :td: My words were:



Yes, I've seen "negative comments" -- that's not the same thing as "really negative ratings." The rating is the numerical value (1 through 5) you assign. You may see some "negative comments," but how many actual ratings of 1 or 2 do you see? A "mediocre" rating of a restaurant on idine would be a 3, which is pretty rare. Most are in the range of 4 to 5. Not really useful or even credible that they nearly all fall into that range. @:-) But I guess RN/idine wouldn't want to admit that at least a few of their member restaurants are just so-so or even real stinkers. (By the way, I gave a "1" to the crummy restaurant, as I recall.)

There was one local joint that I never got to visit that had a 2.8 overall, though all the individual numbers were above 3.0!

Without the bonus,I will rarely rate. I made a lot of DL miles because of this bonus.

For March, they're offering a flat 50 miles for rating dines of $25 or more (at least on Delta and United).

For March, they're offering a flat 50 miles for rating dines of $25 or more (at least on Delta and United).

Hopefully this is the start of a policy reversal. I have exactly 1 dine over all myprograms for 2009 because of this change, just not worth it to go out of my way. This particular offer is still not going to get me to bite as the bulk of the restaurants near me are fast food counter service where a $25 bill is unrealistic and I am not going to speculate in gift certs.

For March, they're offering a flat 50 miles for rating dines of $25 or more (at least on Delta and United).

Just got the email for American too.

So this is 2 miles per dollar max for rating and not more than 50 miles total. :td: It was 5 miles per dollar for rating, unlimited

The AAdvantage Dining e-mail reads:

"Earn 50 AAdvantage Bonus Miles on every dine! Just rate and review your dines.

Here's your opportunity to tell us what you think and earn American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles with the March Survey Bonus! Rating and reviewing restaurants has always been a great way to share valuable feedback with other members as well as restaurant owners. Now, not only do you get to help out other members, but you'll get something for yourself too. We are giving you 50 AAdvantage bonus miles for each survey you fill out after you dine.

• Visit any participating restaurant, bar or club between 3/1/09 and 3/31/09 and spend at least $25.
• Log in to My Account Center within 30 days of your visit and fill out the survey for your dines.

It's the quickest way to add 50 AAdvantage® bonus miles to every dine! You don't need to register and there's no limit to the amount of AAdvantage® bonus miles you can earn!"

Pitiful! :td: It seems obvious nobody is rating since we lost five miles per dollar for rating, and now they want to bait us with - 50 miles for rating each dine over $25, during the month of March.

So, under the Dec 2008 regimen, if you dined to earn the 500 bonus miles and spent $150, you would have earned 750 miles plus 750 bonus miles for rating, plus 500 miles for making $150 = 2,000 miles. Under this new silly offer, that might entail anything from one to a maximum of six dines - now, we'd earn 750 miles plus 50 - 300 for rating, and 500 bonus miles = 1,300 - 1,550 miles.

So, the questions I ask myself might be: "Do I want the fifty bonus miles per dine sufficiently to get e to take the time to do the ratings? Do I feel I want to encourage them with this poor alternative? Do I want to rise to the bait for one month? Would they up the ante if I do not?":rolleyes:

So, the questions I ask myself might be: "Do I want the fifty bonus miles per dine sufficiently to get e to take the time to do the ratings? Do I feel I want to encourage them with this poor alternative? Do I want to rise to the bait for one month? Would they up the ante if I do not?":rolleyes:

I sent them an email saying that a max of 2 miles/$ wasn't worth my time to type in the password to log in, let alone rating..

The 50 bonus miles for taking the surveys are for AA, DL and US RN accounts. I don't know about the other airlines. Remember the dines have to be $25 or more between 3/1 and 3/31.

Presumably, if you had a $50 dine, you could split it onto 2 credit cards and rate it twice?

I haven't decided if I want to give in and play this game with them. I think I will just avoid i-dine in March so I don't fold!

Presumably, if you had a $50 dine, you could split it onto 2 credit cards and rate it twice?

I haven't decided if I want to give in and play this game with them. I think I will just avoid i-dine in March so I don't fold!

If you can get them to give you two bills, then I see no problem with your plan. One time I had to wait to be seated so I hung out at the bar. I had to pay the bar bill before being seated and then I had a second bill for my meal and any extra drinks. I put both bills on the same CC and earned two dines that night towards the 11 dines needed for VIP. I even think I had to fill out two surveys as well, but I am not 100% sure on that..

Or you could just go the bar in the restaurant before you sit down to eat and pay for one with one card and dinner with another.

Let us know what happens. Good luck! ;)

If you can get them to give you two bills, then I see no problem with your plan. One time I had to wait to be seated so I hung out at the bar. I had to pay the bar bill before being seated and then I had a second bill for my meal and any extra drinks. I put both bills on the same CC and earned two dines that night towards the 11 dines needed for VIP. I even think I had to fill out two surveys as well, but I am not 100% sure on that..

Or you could just go the bar in the restaurant before you sit down to eat and pay for one with one card and dinner with another.

Let us know what happens. Good luck! ;)


I like this idea, and think I will give it a try later this week. Thanks Open Jaw!

I like this idea, and think I will give it a try later this week. Thanks Open Jaw!

No problem at all. Have a Sam Adams on me! :D

You don't even need 2 bills. 1 bill and ask them to split it between 2 credit cards. I've done this many times with girlfriends (even in non i-dine places!). It's easier on the waiter/waitress than keeping 2 tabs going. Just ask them to split the bill 50/50. No problem with i-dine thinking that it's a duplicate charge if it's going on 2 different cards.

You don't even need 2 bills. 1 bill and ask them to split it between 2 credit cards. I've done this many times with girlfriends (even in non i-dine places!). It's easier on the waiter/waitress than keeping 2 tabs going. Just ask them to split the bill 50/50. No problem with i-dine thinking that it's a duplicate charge if it's going on 2 different cards.

I know it can be done, but many places around here will not do it. I was just trying to give you another option in case you could not split the bill.

:)