Programs: UA 1K, Priority Club Platinum, Starwood Gold, US/DL/NW/AA/CO Back of the plane...
Posts: 394
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.
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.
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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.
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 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.
Programs: UA 1K, Priority Club Platinum, Starwood Gold, US/DL/NW/AA/CO Back of the plane...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJUPINTHEAIR
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....
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJUPINTHEAIR
I am glad you are happy with 5 miles to the dollar -- most of us are not.
I think my exact words were "while I am at not at all happy"
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 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.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fwfdan
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.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by makfan
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.
Location: SF CA USA. FT addict. I love large faceless corporations. And they cherish me in return (sometimes). ;)
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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.
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.
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.
