TRRed

Note in the DC bill I received this week:

There are few restaurants near me which participate in the program and at which I care to dine, so this is not a huge problem for me. However, odds are that this change will also be spun as another "enhancement."

mia

I imagine it will then be possible to enroll a Diners Club card in one of the airline or hotel dining programs operated by Rewards Network, the same as any other Mastercard.

canuck_in_pa

Thanks for the heads-up. I just found it, on the back of the last page of my statement. Sneaky on their part...

Yet one more reason for me to cancel come next month.

sdsearch

Just because they haven't yet announced what the new benefits will be doesn't not mean they can't be better.

Remember, Diners used to use a DIFFERENT restauarant program until a few years ago. Had it been an MC at that time, you could have DOUBLED your opportunities at restaurant savings, because you could have used the DC at its own restauarnt savings program for cashback AND at iDine restaurants for miles/points/cashback/college savings/etc.

I find the current Restaurant Savings program to be more annoying than useful PRECISELY BECAUSE it uses iDine and thus I can't use my DC MC for a DIFFERENT iDIne program (I'd much rather get airline miles than cashback, especially given that the cashback is now only 10% at restaurants where you'd get 10 miles/$).

I ONLY use my DC at 1/month iDine restauarnts after I've already used about 5 other FF program iDine cards that month, and have no way to earn anything OTHER THAN cashback that month from that restaurant. So IMHO a change to a different program could be an IMPROVEMENT...

Eastbay1K

An "improvement" at Diners is kind of like the doctor telling you that you are going to die next week instead of next year, and therefore, you won't have to suffer very long. Glad I cancelled before this improvement.

MileageAddict

I never used the DC restaurant program very much and won't miss it. But... it doesn't surprise me tha yet another feature of this card is being gutted.

One of these days, I bet the Diners Club logo is just going to fall off the card alltogether!

jayzee9

I liked the older restaurant program. It was a consistent 20% at all participants. Then the idine, where you have to check what night they have savings and how much.

I use restaurant.com now--the diners club program hasn't been so good.

Wow, I used to love this card when I got it in 2000. Now I don't know why I still have it.

gleff

Wow ..

hedoman

Spoken like a true president.

martin33

while it's technically a true sentence, seeing those words together in that order is likely to cause brain damage in battered DC holders.

what's next? trading in points at a quarter cent each for meal gift cards---say
10,000 points for a $25 outback steakhouse card? yee-haw...

sdsearch

It depends on what you're after. I'm MUCH more interested in miles/points than cashback. So a new program where I'd earn bonus Club Rewards points for dining somehow (especially if it had a different set of restaurants than iDine) would be "better" in my book than the current program.

But, yes, there are other possibilites which would be worse (or at least just as irrelevant) for ALL of us. So I'm not saying it's GOING to be better, but just that you can't tell yet.

Two examples:

1. Since my #1 miles program is AA, and my #2 use of DC points is to transfer to airlines I'll fly ONE TIME (but want to upgrade on), like the current Iceland Air offer, I PERSONALLY see much more value in being able to earn anywhere MC is taken than I see loss TO ME from not being able to transfer to the 4 US-based airlines that you can no longer transfer DC points to.

2. Over in the iDIne forum, everybody complained about how the program was going to change to only 5 mi/$ for EVERY restaurant come last July, and only a COUPLE people were willing to believe that they would make it more with some sort of "constant" bonus, and yet that's exactly what happened: For peopl who've had 12 dines/yr in a program, it's 10 mi/$ for EVERY restaurant since July. (And that's what makes 10% cashback at Diners such a joke already, given that it was 20% cashback at 10 mi/$ restaurants before July 1, that I say "good riddance" to the current iDine scheme with Diners.)

Brendan

Mia & Sdsearch are spot-on ^ ! This Jan. I drank in a bar & charged my tab to DC not knowing it was Idine/ RSP. I got cashback but would have preferred miles & progress toward a bonus threshold!

dgordon

I am sorry about this as there are a few 40% off restaurants that I like to go to, even a couple of 20%. For anything less, I would use my AA idine and get 10 miles per dine. It is the less than 20% that I have never liked, because there is not way to keep track of the kind of discount you would get, so when in doubt I can be sure of miles, and 10 per 1$ is better than 8% discount. But I would always choose 40% when that is offered.

Flying Dutchman

Called yesterday and they still have no idea what's going to replace the Restaurant Savings Program, despite the fact that it's scheduled to end in less than a month.

Are they trying to annoy the few cardholders they have left?

Eastbay1K

Naw, they just have a huge office pool going for "last one standing".