Idine can be a nice asset to your frequent flyer program when things go well.
However not all things go smoothly all the time.
Since Transmedia took over the program IMO the program has gotten a lot worse.
In one area with email notification of all finished dining transactions clearly better.

The high quality dining establishments aren't as common as they once were.
You must know exactly what days you are allowed to dine with the available current merchants.
Show up on the wrong day get nothing
I have seen merchants pulled from their site 1 hour before I planned to dine at an establishment !
Some require advance reservations thru Idine to get mileage credit.
Let the diner beware. They have refused credit in some instances.
Last week Idine insisted I could only earn miles if I made reservations for one of the last two seatings at an upscale dining establishment in Brentwood @ 9 or 9:30 PM .
One small problem the last seating was at 8:30 and then they closed for the evening

Idine has a mixed bag with customer service
Some are rude and some are highly satisfactory.
Idine can take a lot of effort depending on the establishments and the rules of the merchant

I have had over a hundred transactions that did not post in the past.No fault of my own. Some were easily posted later by Idine. Others not.
Some airlines also do a lousy job of posting wirth no dining date or establishment name listed after posting. Matching them is a pain.Especially if you do a large amount of transactions
I believe the program was superior years ago
All listed merchants were always honored 24/7 as long as you used the correct credit card.And there was a grace period of 30 days after a merchant pulled out of a program.
They would always honor the miles
They have also stopped mailing out books.
On the road I don'y always have round the clock access to a computer nor do I want to call them each time and wait till their customer service locates a participating merchant.
I certainly appreciate the program but it certainly hasn't been all smooth sailing .
It can be very time consuming and unlike the older program that always earned you 10 miles per dollar and uo many are scimpy on earnings not making it worth the chance to get bad food for a small amount of miles.
Happy New Year

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AA & Starwood,Marriott Platinum
Hyatt, Hilton Diamond
Swissotel Club Gold
U/A 1k




[This message has been edited by 777 global mile hound (edited Jan 02, 2004).]