I emailed a complaint to Rewards Network. It read as follows:
To:
[email protected]
Subject: Non-participating Black Bear Diner?
On June 1, 2015, I dined at Black Bear Diner in Gilroy, CA.
I had dined there on previous occasions, when that particular Black Bear Diner was a member of Rewards Network, and I thought that it was still a member. I expected to earn AA miles from my dine.
However, it appears that it has stopped participating in Rewards Network.
The thing that makes me angry about this is that Black Bear Diner has prominent ads on the Rewards Network websites. This gives the impression that the whole chain participates in Rewards Network.
How can Black Bear do this? They get the benefit of advertising their whole chain on your website, yet they allow individual restaurants NOT to participate???
Here is the response I received:
Dear [],
Thank you for contacting AAdvantage Dining!
We would love for all restaurants to participate in the dining program; however the restaurant participation is determined by the restaurant owners or corporate department. The restaurant owners or corporate department will indicate to us if all of their locations or certain locations would participate in the dining program. Members will earn rewards only at the participating locations listed on AAdvantage Dining website.
Restaurant participation may vary. In order to check the participation of each individual establishment, please visit http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/ and log in to your account. After doing so, you may search by your local city/state or zip code. Reward availability will be listed on the search results page. This information can also be found on the left-hand column of the establishments own page under “Rewards Calendar.”
We look forward to rewarding you soon! Please do not hesitate to contact me or Member Services by calling 1-800-479-5981 from 9am to 10pm ET, Monday through Friday with any questions.
Sincerely,
[name redacted]
AAdvantage Dining Member Services
So, what are your opinions on this? It seems like the response completely sidesteps the ethics of allowing a restaurant chain to advertise on Rewards Network when not all members of the chain actually participate. Or, at least in some cases, some of the members of the chain go from participating to not participating and then back again. (I've seen this happen before.)
Anyway, for those of you who were unaware of this deceptive (in my opinion) practice, you've been warned.