Ver--ry in-ter-esting !

Idine is only partially an advance-meal-purchase service. As an alternative, an individual restaurant or chain could buy & award FF miles on its own, $4 worth for each $20 spent by a customer. Then the managers would have to do the paperwork themselves with the airlines, but they already have enough headaches !

So when they pre-sell Idine $20K worth of food, they get not only the $10K check but also about $4K (2004 rules & still today for "Élite" members) worth of FF miles for their customers + advertising & promotion on the Idine Websites + CC processing normally costing 2%.

Still I must admit that it strikes me as a poor deal for restaurants in most cases, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that Star of Siam Thai restaurant in Chicago's River North is still an Idine member after 10 years or more!