You only have to drive across town 12 times if you only have one place there to do this and it's "one/month".

If it's "unlimited", you can get multiple cups of coffee within minutes of each other, each as a separate transaction, as long as you round the tip differently on each one so each is a different amount. (Otherwise iDine will think they're duplicates.)

And/or: In many areas iDine restaurants are "clumped" (because the iDine reps who signed them up didn't want to drive all the way across town to sign up a different one ). So once you get to the part of town where iDine restaurants are, there's often (but I can't speak for your city) several within easy walking distance of each other.

The other point is why collect miles if you're not an airline traveler? Now, perhaps you only travel internationally. But if you travel domestically, don't you find yourself closer to iDine restaurants during some of your travels? If so, you can just do your "coffee runs" then.