No, not always. Some restaurants say "Online ordering only" on the AA Dining page with a link to order. Those are the ones to avoid (or at least be cautious of)

Yeah, I have never and likely never will order from one of those. I realize you can click on something so that they don't show up, but wish there was a way to make that be my default search.

If anything, I've noticed the opposite - that some restaurants do NOT count online orders because of some go between (for lack of a better term) processing the orders (but will eventually if you keep receipts). Nonetheless, I guess it's something to watch for. Luckily, a couple of my favorite local lunch spots are members of the program.

Not sure which restaurant you are talking about:

- the bagel place is only part of the online order program, so calling directly and paying the regular price would not earn me any dining points

- the Mexican place, yes, I have and could call in an order and get points via the registered credit card. But it’s at the other end of town and there are closer and IMO better similar restaurants, so without a bonus in the thousand point range I am not interested to make an extra trip there.

When I said "bonus," I was referring to the 3/1$ (or 5 with VIP) miles you get with a registered card. But, I understand, if you're looking for 1000 point bonuses, of course you're not making an extra long trip. That's why I said I was lucky to live where I do - I get the miles at restaurants I would frequent anyway.

I don’t know how Rewards Network recruits restaurants, but in my town they seem to have had zero success or put in zero effort in the last six or seven years (while tons of new restaurants have opened).

Re the brand of credit card used for payment and the posting of points. There is a place near my office that is an AAD participant, but in the "payment options" section of the AAD page for that property it only lists Visa and MC. So while the place does take Amex for payment- technically Amex charges are not valid to accrue AAD points- and dont accrue automatically. I have been able to get Amex activity to be manually adjusted by AAD a couple of times but i am thinking this is an accommodation that should not be relied on for a large spend event. So check the payment options per the AAD page to be certain.

So at the 10 day mark, I finally contacted customer service. Problem is I wasn't at the house where the receipts were. Plus, I'd gotten so used to them posting, I hadn't been as diligent about saving receipts, so I was missing one.

My Barclays statement hadn't yet posted, so I sent screen shots from 'recent transactions'. The problem was, the recent transactions summary doesn't have the credit card number listed. So the rep couldn't accept it. Finally she said if I sent her a picture of my credit card, with only the last four digits showing, she'd accept that. (Truly makes no sense to me, but I appreciated the lengths she was going to get me credited.) So about two weeks after my visits, the LPs were finally credited.

The service from AA was fantastic. But there's definitly more hoops to jump through if don't have your receipts and your cc statement hasn't posted. To be expected I guess.

Lesson Learned - always save your receipts. My breakfast place worked automatically like clockwork for months. Until it didn't.

ChowNow Gone so now what?
 

AA ended the partnership with ChowNow on March 1, 2024 - those restaurants are completely gone. This is a huge loss for me as the only places I went (Oriental and Kume for those wondering) were on that platform! I now have zero restaurants within a 25 mile radius! Have other people been affected? Is there anything we can do? I did send the email form to suggest the restaurant to AA or vice versa but I doubt they will re-up.

Funny you mention that. I noticed just last night all the delivery-only restaurants were gone from the platform now. I do feel badly for you and other folks who used this and will be impacted, but I can't say I'm sorry to it go myself.

A handful of my favorite local restaurants were listed, but I could never bring myself to go the Chow-Now route. With tip and delivery excluded from earning, it felt like a huge rip-off. The additional costs earning no points simply weren't worth it to me. Plus it irked me greatly I couldn't actually also go and enjoy a nice dinner at these places to earn points, or use these restaurants' own delivery services to earn points, I didn't want to give Chow-Now, AA, or those restaurants my business under that platform on general principle.

For myself, I'm glad to see AA send Chow-Now packing. I'm cautiously hopeful some of the restaurants in my area will reappear on the mainstream platform. I'd go to them often. Or if AA replaces Chow-Now with another delivery service, and tip & delivery fees are included in earnings this time, I'd give the delivery-only service a try.

I used the ChowNow service to pick up meals a lot, and loved it. The current dearth of restaurants is a big loss.

I feel this way about all of the delivery services - they're a net negative for diners, restaurants, and the delivery drivers. To add insult to injury, none of them turn a profit. Even with pickup I think they're taking a not unsubstantial cut from the restaurants which only serves to drive up the costs for all of us. I'd rather call for pickup or walk in and eat.

I saw when I was on my laptop earlier, you're also in the DC area. There's a few decent selections near me, but agree with you completely about the dearth of selections in the area.

A couple places I enjoyed have dropped out of the program in 2024. It seems like so many of the available options are places I'd just have no desire to go out of my way for, of that I've never heard of. I don't mind trying new places, but it seems like many are not in great areas, and don't have great reviews.

This could be a great program, if AA could increase type of selections, add additional 'nicer' places, maybe give more bonuses rewards for reviews past the initial join, etc.

But I get that the restaurant business overall is tough right now. My go-to Italian place near me just closed after a great 30 year run, because they couldn't make it anymore. There's been a lot closings and changes in the DC area in 23 and so far in 24.

Sounds like were not far from each other! Here in Central Me. it's a AADining wasteland, only a handful of restaurants remaining in Maine. they are all Portland and south. I've pretty much given up on AAD, even traveling to Las Vegas the options aren't what they once were RT

Kind of a funny story. I'm sitting at the bar at a Friday's near my house, since they were recently added for AADining.

Having a beer and appetizer while waiting for entree takeout. The girl just ran my credit card.

As I'm sitting here, still waiting on the takeout entrees, just received an email from AA Dining asking me to review my experience at Friday's lol.