Originally Posted by gsilliman

How does Idine know when you use coupons?

A restaurant does have the option of taking steps to ensure that a check partly settled with a coupon, or a check for more than 6 diners, does not earn I-dine miles (and so does cost extra I-dibe money to the restaurant) -- BUT the process is extremely cumbersome, especially for any modern place that swipes cards through the main POS system.

To bypass I-Dine, I-dine will install a stand-alone dial-up terminal that must be used. special processing codes must be entered. The transaction occurs outside the POS system and so is not entered into the house database (it appears in the POS system as settled to cash). The establishment is supposed to maintain hard-copy documentation to support the reason each transaction went through bypass terminal (cc of coupon, check showing # of entrees ordered).

We have 6 locations where cards can be swiped -- all on the dining room floor, near our guests. There was only one bypass terminal, upstairs, in the office.

FInal hassle -- since you never know whether a card is part of I-dine, you would have to scan every coupon transaction, and every >6 table, through the bypass terminal, on the off-chance that any one card is I-dine.

It's not hard to see why cardholders have every meal earn I-dine points.