Programs: Aeroplan SE, AAdvantage, HHonors Gold, Mariott Silver, SPG Platinum, PC Platinum, Idine Elite
Posts: 2,832
Rate your dine going away for 2009
E-mail sent to AA Rewards Network yesterday.
Quote:
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:
Quote:
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.
Programs: AA 0.94MM EXP, US CP, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold, National Exec
Posts: 1,295
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...
Last edited by MichaelColey; Jan 6, 09 at 12:00 pm.
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:
Quote:
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.
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.
__________________ Lend a hand up with Kiva; far more than a hand out.
"Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" (Isizulu)
Last edited by JDiver; Jan 7, 09 at 9:18 pm.
Reason: modify to fit the thread
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.
__________________
kings_29
Lowly Hilton Gold, United and British Airways
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rewards Network
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.
__________________ Lend a hand up with Kiva; far more than a hand out.
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.
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.)
__________________ Lend a hand up with Kiva; far more than a hand out.
Having emailed several requests to fix account problems, with no action -- I finally tagged one for "reply receipt" -- and got this:
Quote:
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 09:53:23
I hate having to rat-out somebody who probably needs the job, but hey !
__________________
A journey of a thousand miles.. begins with a cash advance.
Ambition is the last refuge of failure Gil (Oscar Wilde) Grissom
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
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...
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!
Wondering if Stacy works out of CHI or MIA?
