Best dining rewards program? ie which program should I register my cc with?
 

Hey

See alot of chatter in this forum about advantage dining, Idine, and rewards network.

As I understand you can only register one cc with one of the above, correct?

So which is the best and why?

Thanks

Duh, which airline/hotel programs do you belong to? :confused:

The best one is among one of those, as there's not enough difference between them to suggest one that you don't collect over one you do collect!

Once we have your list, we can tell you if one of those makes more sense than another, or if they're about the same.

It is really a personal preference.

Some folks migrate from bonus to bonus, and you will note that different airline programs run promotions at different times.

IMHO, one of the best uses of RN is to generate activity into an account that otherwise miles would expire due to inactivity: a recent cuppa coffee preserved 20k UA miles, and although there are other ways to stop orphaned miles from expiring, RN is the path of least resistance.

For the most part I just dump miles into the airline that I primarily fly/redeem.

I would like to make one thing clear: Idine is the original name for what is now called Rewards Network or RN. There are several airlines that participate in the RN. Each airline calls its dining program a diferent name. For example, American Airlines is Aadavange Dining, Delta calls its program Skymiles Dining and USairways calls its dining program Dividend Miles Dining.

You can belong to as many dining Airline programs as you like, but you must keep at least one credit card on file for each airline at all times. For example, I belong to AA, DL and US dining programs. That means I must have 3 credit cards, one for each program. You can also use gift credit cards sold at stores as place holds for your dining programs, that way you can move your favorite credit card around from program to program. I do this with my favorite CC, especially when there are double point or mileage bonuses.

What you must do is decide what is your main airline and join that dining program through RN. People in ATL would most likely choose Delta because that's its main hub. I am currently in NY and can fly a number of airlines while in Dallas one would choose AA at DFW or Southwest (WN) for Love Field.

Idine = RN?

But there is a separate website idine.com which appears to be completely different? or are they part of the same?

I have an account w/ AA, UA, BA, delta, usair

thanks

iDine used to be name for the company that is now known as Rewards Network.

However, they have since re-used the name iDine for specficially (and only) the cashback version of the program.

For people who don't care about airline miles or hotel points, there is that cashback version. Most of us who dare about miles / points don't pay attention to the cashback program.

The cashback program called iDine is just another program in the Rewards Network collection, along with AAdvantage Dining, Mileage Plus Dining, etc.

There used to a BA dining but no more. So forget BA for dining.

AA, UA, US, and DL are about equivalent for dining bonuses in the long run, but some months one may have a better bonus than the other. Thus the reason that many of us prefer to have an account with each, with "placeholder" cards in each of them, and then move our "favorite" card between programs as either the bonuses change or our earning preferences change.

If you don't want to go that far, just pick whichever of those 4 airlines you'd like to add miles to slowly but steadily. As long you only have one credit/debit/gift card, you can only register in one of those.

I use mine mostly for Priority Club, as that is where I get the most points per dollar spent, and they have frequent promos. If there is another Grand Slam this year I will use my Barclays card for the Dividends Dining.
I look at the PClub points as a way to get a Points Break hotel. :)

wow sdsearch- thanks for the well written response, that answered all my questions!

Priority Club spending counts towards elite status in their program (such that that is).

Someone based in the US (which is likely where someone participating in Priority Club Dining would be based) has a much easier way to get PC Platinum (their top status, such as it is*):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...um-status.html

*The PC Platinum status works best if you are mostly concerned with free breakfast, are flexible in which hotel to stay in, and can either stay in Express or Staybridge (where breakfast is of course free to everyone anyway!) or else research ahead of time to verify that the Holiday Inn (or whatever) that you're planning to stay at gives breakfast (and of what sort) to PC Plats.

There are a number of Holiday Inns that do that, but you have to know which ones, as it's a hotel-by-hotel benefit. In Orange County CA, the OC Airport North one on Grand Ave does, and the Anaheim one on Machester does, but AFAIK the somewhat misleadingly named "1 blk Disneyland" one doesn't. (It's one block from a wall that separates you from Disneyland. It's far far more than one block to an actual entrance you can use!) In Kansas City, the airport HI does. In all these cases, it's a buffet they give, and what is and isn't included varies (the Manchester one doesn't include any juice!).

Make sure you do the math on that. It can misleading, since one Priority Club point is in general worth less than one mile. So that fact they give slightly more points per dollar spent than the airlines give miles actually hides the fact that the Priority Club dining program gives less value (after comparing the value of PC points to miles) than most mileage programs (DL possibly excepted :) !).

But of course, as you said, it depends on how you use each. If you only fly domestic coach on your airline miles, that's not a great value, so hotel points may be better there. If you only fly international business or first on your airline miles (flights you couldn't even ever afford with real money!), then it's less likely that hotel points (at the rates that PC Dining earns) would do as well. But then again, you mentioned PointBreaks, and if indeed you only book PC properties during PointBreaks, then you have an unusually good return on your points. (But most people find they can only do a small fraction of their reward stays at PointBreak rates.)