Disclaimer from the current booklet:

" ... You are not entitled to a benefit from us if a restaurant has dropped out of the program, so be sure to check the up-to-date [online] listings."


Their "automated' system started breaking down for me back in September when two restaurant visits that month (at joints with no restrictions) just plain didn't go through; as a matter of fact, one of them went through on one airline, but not the other.

That was the first real problem I'd encountered with iDine in a couple of years.
Since then I've sent in one that the rep agreed did not state the weekend blackout clearly enough in the booklet, one that the rep said I could submit for their leaving the program after that booklet was received, and one that had failed to post as the restaurant didn't put through the charge for several weeks after the visit.

The vast majority of visits go through within 4 - 5 days automatically.
One of the bigger iDine disappointments was on vacation with my folks. We dined at one place on American AAdvantage; they loved it there! So ... the last night of our vacation we returned for some Delta Skymiles. My mother came up with the idea of getting a gift cert there for friends who had taken my parents out earlier in our trip. Visions of additional frequent flyer credit were dashed by the wily manager who put through the cert as a separate charge, although I had specified I wanted it put through with the tab.

By the way, if you are travelling either with the booklet, or a PDA download that doesn't cover the part of a metro area in which you are interested, call iDine.
I did that with three "www" joints and no online access recently. At first the rep was sceptical of my request until I read to her from the booklet encouraging clients to do so.
It turned out the three places in question had dropped out (naturally, so had one place I had not checked out with her - no luck on a retroactive request there). She had been having a bad day and I tried to be extra patient in my request. By the third look-up, she was getting into it as much as I was.

If there is an iDine lurker here, the customer service folks are very friendly and professional.