We personally go out of our way to eat at idine restaurants because of the points and miles and would sharply curb this practice if the points are reduced. The simple reason is that I don't count any idine restaurants among my favorites, and if the incentive is not big enough we'll just go more to our favorites, or other dining programs like Diner's Club or Lettuce Entertain You. But this is a marketing tool that makes sense and should be workable - somewhere somebody must be failing to realize the value of gaining a bunch of customers that the restaurant otherwise wouldn't have, or idine is failing to demonstrate that to its member restuarants. I surely don't think a restaurant should stay in the program if it doesn't see value, but knowing how many idine members there are who eat at restaurants they otherwise wouldn't, you can't convince me there isn't value. Why not just issue an idine card to people to hand over when they give their credit card, so the restaurant knows you came there because of the program? Might not sit well with those who want to discreetly save 20% versus earning points or miles, but that's silly anyway - if you're treating, you shouldn't feel bad about getting the discount. If you're skimming, that's terrible! Anyhow, I can only think of 1 restuarant that we went to before we knew we could get points, but even that place we now go more often, at least once a month.