Do any airline-related dining plans have foreign restaurants?
 

Almost every major US airline has some form of dining system with which you can earn miles. However, every one I've seen is honored only in the US and Canada. I travel a great deal, and I was wondering whether there is a plan that includes some restaurants in other countries.

First of all, didn't you read before you posted? The thread right below yours is:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/idine...ec-2011-a.html

So no Canada any more, just US.

And, apparently, you don't realize that these programs all are in the same place because they are all run by one company (Rewards Network, formerly known as iDine)! They run the programs for all the US-based airlines that have a dining program, plus several hotel programs. There's only one set of restaurants, and it's made available to all these programs. Some programs may "thin out" this list in certain markets, some programs may "thin out" this list for people who don't have "VIP" (11 dines a year) status in the program, but essentially there's just one list of restaurants and one company running all these dining programs.

There is a separate program called Thanks Again that isn't a dining program per se (it started with mostly dry cleaners!) but does have a handful of dining establishments, espeically in some airports, here and there. But not sure if any internationally either, and at any rate, way, way, way fewer restaurants domestically than the Rewards Network programs.

There is I think a separate program for one of the airlines (UA?) in Japan (a Japan-only program). I'm not sure whether it's avialable to people who live outside of Japan or not.

Finally, if you belong to SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest hotel program), you can earn SPG points (which you can later transfer to a wide variety of airlines if you wish) dining at SPG hotel restuarants even if you don't stay there:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...hout-stay.html

(I'm not sure whether you can do this any other hotel program or not. I don't remember seeing a thread about it any other hotel program forum I frequent.)

SDsearch,


Yes, there is a Japanese dining program for DL- a person can earn up to 5 miles for every 100 Japanese Yen spent. You must be a resident of Japan and the website is in Japanese only. As for other airlines having this same program I do not know.