There was a whole thread about this late last year:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diner...lub-cards.html

but the short version is this:

- Late last year Diners US suspended taking apps for the personal card until at least the end of the year.

- That other thread discussed that at length in late 2008, but no one came back after 2009 started to say whether anything had changed, until your message above in this thread. (Where you don't say whether the taking of apps has changed, of course, but do point out the name change to Professional, which no one before had mentioned.)

- That other thread did not have US in the title, and devolved into complaints about people assuming that Diners was the same everywhere!

Anyhow, the main thing to understand is that for quite a while, even when you could apply (prior to late 2008), you could only apply over the phone (1-800-2DINERS). Presumably if you can apply now, it's still over the phone. But we won't know until someone actually interested in applying tries that and reports back here.

Your point about the Professional renaming could be relevant, because it could be that Diners put a hold on new apps simply because they were changing the card to Professional, and ididn't want to take apps until that was completed. (Unforutnately, if so, that was never explained by them.) If that's the case, if the transition to Professional is now completed, maybe they're taking apps again?

PS. For what it's worth, my card was updated to a new expiration date last summer, and already says Professional on it. But I don't think the website said it until recently.