All posts regarding this specific "VIP Bonus Miles" for Jan - Feb 2009 have been moved to this thread, resulting in some post displacement, but roundin' up all them skittish dogies and herdin' them here to this thread for ease in following the discussions.
Apologies for any disruption.
__________________ Lend a hand up with Kiva; far more than a hand out.
Once again, this year Rewards Network takes this VERY "engaged" member and throws cold water on the program (between us, we scored over 140,000 miles on the various programs this year. My weight shows it.) An outrage: cut our awards in half, and expect us not to notice! Not an email (among the zillions they send each year, for each program, to each spouse.....)--- no, just let the second 5 miles "expire". Well, I'll tell you what: I'm going to let Rewards Network expire. At least some of the time.
I HAVE NOW SPENT -YEARS- DINING IN $HITHOLE ESTABLISHMENTS AND DODGING THE VARIOUS COMINGS AND GOINGS OF iDINE/RewardsNOT-WORK'S EVER-CHANGING LIST OF SOME-DAYS-WE-DO-SOME-DAYS-WE-DON'T EATERIES, AND I'M *TIRED* OF THESE PEOPLE'S IDEA OF A MOUSE MAZE. As I said last year on here (paraphrasing):
Thank you, RewardsNetwork, for simplifying my dining out. I eat out almost every meal. I have been forced to run to my computer to find out where and when I can eat, and now I can relax. It is a RELIEF to just FORGET about your program, as it is no longer worth it. I look forward to eating out at interesting restaurants I find in all parts of town, not just the ones your rep happened to visit. I look forward to ignoring what day of the week it is, and never having to "click" and get a receipt from you, and not caring what dollar amount I spend, and never having to reconcile my dines according to you with my dines according to my various credit cards, and call you when inevitably some of them fail to post. In short, I look forward to recovering my mealtimes to ME AND MY STOMACH, and leaving REWARDS NETWORK, UA, AA, BA (RIP), DL, AS and NOW WN and PC out of it. Good riddance RN. Good luck keeping that stock price above a dollar, by the way.
***************
"Bonuses" my eye. The more this program gets cute, the less they've got to attract me. Oh, and by the way: count on me to rate any of your restaurants that I dine at out of force of habit or because of an accident with a cutting, biting edge. Now that you've got me writing reviews, you can COUNT on me skipping the effort to write nice stuff when I don't get miles to do it---- but ALSO COUNT on me telling you DOUBLE BARRELLED when the place deserves a good kicking for the poor service or cold meal. Oh yes, swords will be sharpened for that! I can't wait to hear the reaction your reps get about the program when the only people writing the reviews really have something to write about......
("I laugh my evil laugh", as someone has said before....)
Very bad math on my part! 3 $50 dines, the I'd need 1 $25 dine for the other 500 miles.
But I'm still confused. You said they said it's not combinable, which would imply that either:
(a) The first 4 $25+ dines do not count toward your $150 for the VIP Exclusive bonus, or
(b) Any $25+ dines in your first $150 do not count toward your 4 $25 dines for the Fast Track bonus.
But you're giving an example where 3 of your dines count toward both bonuses at the same time!
How it that "not combinable"? And what happens if instead of having 3 $50 dines, you have 6 $25 dines? Did they say that in one swoop would give you both bonuses?
But I'm still confused. You said they said it's not combinable, which would imply that either:
I don't see that in my post.
[/quote](a) The first 4 $25+ dines do not count toward your $150 for the VIP Exclusive bonus, or?[/quote]
The first four would count.
[/quote](b) Any $25+ dines in your first $150 do not count toward your 4 $25 dines for the Fast Track bonus.?[/quote]
They would count.
[/quote]But you're giving an example where 3 of your dines count toward both bonuses at the same time!?[/quote]
See reply to first quote above
[/quote]How it that "not combinable"? And what happens if instead of having 3 $50 dines, you have 6 $25 dines? Did they say that in one swoop would give you both bonuses?[/quote]
They told me it was combinable
Hey, these are a goofy combination of bonuses and I'm not entirely sure that either RN or I understand them either.
It was indeed shabby for RN not to give nay sort of heads up concerning these changes -- even the airlines give some notice.
I will continue to dine at some of the restaurants I have done so over the years not out of foce of habit to RN but more out of loyalty to those restauarant owners. However, as for new restaurants, I doubt that I will even search out RN restos.
Whereas I would first consult RN if there was a resto in the area that I had planned to be in, now I will just go to Yelp, etc, and see what intrigues me at my price point. 10 miles to the $ and bonuses were enough to get me to check RN first.
5 miles to the $ -- Fugheddaboutit!
If the resto is on RN, so much the better and I will get something I was not expecting. However, it is not worth the trouble to check anymore for a measly 5 miles to the $.
Please feel free to convey this message to your boss, Stacy Delgado!!!
This morning my first dine of the year showed up at AAdvantage Dining ("pending", of course). It was for exactly $25.
Yesterday my dines to (renew) VIP Membership was showing 10 (why 10 and not 11, I have no clue; did the dine that was on 12/30 but posted after 1/1 count?!?).
Today my dines to (renew) VIP Membership is showing 3. This clearly indicates to me that my $25 dine counted toward my Fast Track (at least the requal portion of it).
Yaay! (I've already had two more dines since then, and have made both $25+, in hopes of seeing if the Fast Track would work with my first dines.)
That's good to know. I was confused because you didn't say that in your original post about the conversation (now post #11 on the first page of this thread).
You also said there:
"This is what I was told:
The VIP Select is the prioity bonus."
Of course, it could still be confusion over the definition of "combinable". I guess in one interpretation, combinable does not necessarily mean "stackable". (It could mean you can do both promos together, without meaning that a single dine can count toward both promos at the same time.)
If they are truly stackable, neither has priority! One having priorirty over the other implies that they are not stackable!
If they are stackable, both have equal priority, in that a dine that is over $25 satisfied both promos at the same time.
So maybe they were telling you the bonuses are combinable but not stackable (ie, that you have to fullfill one before you can start on the other)?
Last edited by sdsearch; Jan 8, 09 at 10:40 am.
Reason: reorganized message for clarity
Location: California; DO-RAGS: Old Gold tagged, PIP, LatPass 1/2, AA 3MM, HH Diamond, *Wood Gold, Omni
Posts: 4,302
Quote:
Originally Posted by SST
Once again, this year Rewards Network takes this VERY "engaged" member and throws cold water on the program (between us, we scored over 140,000 miles on the various programs this year. My weight shows it.) An outrage: cut our awards in half, and expect us not to notice! Not an email (among the zillions they send each year, for each program, to each spouse.....)--- no, just let the second 5 miles "expire". Well, I'll tell you what: I'm going to let Rewards Network expire. At least some of the time.
I HAVE NOW SPENT -YEARS- DINING IN $HITHOLE ESTABLISHMENTS AND DODGING THE VARIOUS COMINGS AND GOINGS OF iDINE/RewardsNOT-WORK'S EVER-CHANGING LIST OF SOME-DAYS-WE-DO-SOME-DAYS-WE-DON'T EATERIES, AND I'M *TIRED* OF THESE PEOPLE'S IDEA OF A MOUSE MAZE. As I said last year on here (paraphrasing):
Thank you, RewardsNetwork, for simplifying my dining out. I eat out almost every meal. I have been forced to run to my computer to find out where and when I can eat, and now I can relax. It is a RELIEF to just FORGET about your program, as it is no longer worth it. I look forward to eating out at interesting restaurants I find in all parts of town, not just the ones your rep happened to visit. I look forward to ignoring what day of the week it is, and never having to "click" and get a receipt from you, and not caring what dollar amount I spend, and never having to reconcile my dines according to you with my dines according to my various credit cards, and call you when inevitably some of them fail to post. In short, I look forward to recovering my mealtimes to ME AND MY STOMACH, and leaving REWARDS NETWORK, UA, AA, BA (RIP), DL, AS and NOW WN and PC out of it. Good riddance RN. Good luck keeping that stock price above a dollar, by the way.
***************
"Bonuses" my eye. The more this program gets cute, the less they've got to attract me. Oh, and by the way: count on me to rate any of your restaurants that I dine at out of force of habit or because of an accident with a cutting, biting edge. Now that you've got me writing reviews, you can COUNT on me skipping the effort to write nice stuff when I don't get miles to do it---- but ALSO COUNT on me telling you DOUBLE BARRELLED when the place deserves a good kicking for the poor service or cold meal. Oh yes, swords will be sharpened for that! I can't wait to hear the reaction your reps get about the program when the only people writing the reviews really have something to write about......
("I laugh my evil laugh", as someone has said before....)
LOL, and how true: If I was Idining at last year’s pace I’d be at around 7,500 AA miles my now, but nary an Idine for me in ’09. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll do the minimum to get the maximum benefits, but I won’t prowl for 5 miles per dollar. It’s liberating to not be enslaved by Idine, taking my lunch a day or two a week is good for my wallet, and hitting the gym during lunch is good for what surrounds my wallet.
I guess my million lifetime Idine miles will have to wait.
__________________
Never used an emoticon, never will.
There are Two (2) separate outstanding questions that still require definitive answers in this thread:
1). Which Bonus takes precedence?; and
2). Can those who initially received a bonus offer of $300 in spending for 2,000 miles only to see it later converted by RN to a $150 spend for 2,000 rely upon that later bonus offer?
I have asked via PM, Stacy Delgado who made an inital posting to this forum under the Rewards Network handle to answer these questions by a public posting.
It is clear what we all expect the response to the later question to be, and I have argued that the Fast Track bonus -- as the first announced and for many of us, first registered bonus, take precedence, especially since I have no intention of completing the terms of my other bonus: $400 in dines for a measely 2,000 miles. I had already started to fulfill the terms of the earlier Fast Track bonus -- then in the belief that the Rate your Dine bonus was still extant -- and therefore, to expect me to only receive that bonus, after I spend $500 is ridiculous, and I expect others are in this same situation.
The fact that RN has had a presence on this board for a couple of weeks now, and still has yet to weigh in on these issues, is appalling in my opinon.
I ask you to contact the Rewards Network Representative with PMs seeking clarity with respect to the above -- It is high time that they respond to their extremely disapointed formerly loyal membership.
NJ
__________________
Great to Know -- Good to Go!
Last edited by NJUPINTHEAIR; Jan 18, 09 at 5:15 pm.
Programs: Aeroplan SE, AAdvantage, HHonors Gold, Mariott Silver, SPG Platinum, PC Platinum, Idine Elite
Posts: 2,878
My whining finally paid off!
After numberous e-mails with a supervisor at i-dine, she finally confirmed that the bonus was for US residents only. I changed my address to my TX one, but that did not trigger a bonus.
After a few more e-mails, finally today the supervisor confirmed that I had been manually registered for the 2000 mile bonus for $150 spend between Jan 16 and Feb 28!
I just sent another e-mail asking for clarification on which bonus takes precedence per NJUPINTHEAIR's request.
Last edited by margarita girl; Jan 21, 09 at 6:12 pm.
Ok, an actual data point. I registered for Fast Track first, but registered for both before my first dine. As I mentioned before, I started out with 4 $25+ dines, and saw my "dines to requalify" count down (from 10?!?) to 9, 8, then disappear.
Well, Wednesday (yesterday) morning at AA I saw "DINING 500 BONUS MILES" attrributed to 1/9, the date of my fourth $25 dine.
And this morning (Thursday) it's also showing up at AAdvantage Dining, as "BONUS - FAST..." (no way that I see to click on it to get the full description, but obviously it's "FAST TRACK" ), 500 miles, attributed to 1/9, paid 1/20.
So at the very least we now know that Fast Track works while registered for VIP Select, at least if you registered for Fast Track first, at least if you did all your Fast Track dines before any non-Fast Track dines.
(Whether the same dines work for both promos I doubt I can be the first to announce, because I'm in the $400 spend required category, so I presume one of the $150 spend people will figure that part out first.)
Ok, an actual data point. I registered for Fast Track first, but registered for both before my first dine. As I mentioned before, I started out with 4 $25+ dines, and saw my "dines to requalify" count down (from 10?!?) to 9, 8, then disappear.
Well, Wednesday (yesterday) morning at AA I saw "DINING 500 BONUS MILES" attrributed to 1/9, the date of my fourth $25 dine.
And this morning (Thursday) it's also showing up at AAdvantage Dining, as "BONUS - FAST..." (no way that I see to click on it to get the full description, but obviously it's "FAST TRACK" ), 500 miles, attributed to 1/9, paid 1/20.
So at the very least we now know that Fast Track works while registered for VIP Select, at least if you registered for Fast Track first, at least if you did all your Fast Track dines before any non-Fast Track dines.
(Whether the same dines work for both promos I doubt I can be the first to announce, because I'm in the $400 spend required category, so I presume one of the $150 spend people will figure that part out first.)
This is good news and thanks for sharing. I am hopeful that the Fast Track will be the operative bonus for me.
I believe it was another poster who had advised that the VIP Select bonus would take precedence, but given the track record of that other poster in connection with his reporting on this issue, I am hopeful that he is wrong.
Very bad math on my part! 3 $50 dines, the I'd need 1 $25 dine for the other 500 miles.
Quien sabe
), 500 miles, attributed to 1/9, paid 1/20.
