Originally Posted by jwhite4
Miles earn'd from iDine aren't necessarily free. There are two iDine programs, one which is free, and gives you I think 5-10 miles per dollar spent. The other is $49/yr, but gives you 10%-20% rebate back to your credit card (basically a rebate). For the person about, if you assume he dines at a restaurant(s) that award 10 miles/$, then he spent $1000/month. That same $1000/month would get him $200/month in rebates. Instead of 100k miles/yr, he/she would be looking at $2000/yr (at this point the $49/yr fee becomes irrelevant).
Maybe not all of us, but I'm sure some of us would rather have $2000 cash than 100k FF miles. That 100k miles (and a 'free' award ticket I might use them for) definitely is not free if I gave up ~$2000 to get them. Similarly, miles earned from airline credit cards are not free, because if I didn't use that card (that gives the miles), I'd have used another card that gave me a cash back reward, or other bonus (ie. AMEX Membership Rewards).
Jeff
First of all, that's assuming that the person is in just one iDine program. Your "simple" comparison only works then.
But frequent iDine users know very well that in many/most areas the majority of the restaurants only let you get miles (or cashback) for one visit per month PER PROGRAM. So if you want to eat at the same restauarnt repeatedly, if you are accumulating miles in 4 FF programs through iDine, you can earn for eating there 4 times, but if you are using the cashback program you touted, you can only eat there once a month. And in many areas, eating enough (especially by yourself) to get to that many miles a month is much harder to do earning into one FF program (or cashback) than dividing it among several FF programs.
So assuming that dines for miles in situations where you could have taken cash instead are not free, what about dines for miles where you already used up your once-a-month cash possibility at that restauarant and can ONLY earn miles (or else nothing at all) on your second, etc, visit there?
(Technically, there are TWO iDine cashback programs, the one you mentioned for $49 with iDine/Rewards Network directly, and the Restaurant Savings Program which is at no additional charge for Diners Club cardholders tho there's a $95 annual fee for that. But that only extends the same situation to the third, etc, visit, not to mention that it only does that at restaurants that accept Diners Club.)
Anyhow, as I use my miles generally only for upgrades or for premium class awards, in either case 100k miles tends to value at well more than $2000ish for me. And there's no OTHER way I can think of (if I don't want to play dubious money order recycling games) that I could take $2000ish and turn it into 100k miles, while there's other ways I could get $2000ish (including saving money by not eating out!
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