Welcome to the Maitre D'Thread - Rewards Network / iDine for Novices thread.


Be sure to read over the Unofficial Users' Guide – iDine / Rewards Network Forum "sticky" thread, as it has some basics and some good thread links of interest.

If you are a new / novice member to the various Rewards Network programs:

Airline and hotel dining programs (earn miles or points): Other programs

I just realized today that AA has an "AAdvantage Dining" program and would like to sign up. I also see that other major airlines (Delta, United, SWA) have similar programs. I haven't looked in to those, but I know AA's allows you to "register" a card that can earn AA miles at certain dining establishments. I have 2 general (ie, newbie) questions regarding this:

1. If I register a dining-friendly credit card like the Chase Sapphire Pref or the Citi Forward, will I earn AA miles in addition to the Chase UR/Citi TYP earned from the card?

2. Similarly, can I register the same card with multiple dining programs (AA, United, Delta, etc.) and get points for all of them with each dining purchase? Thanks

If the other program in number 1 isn't set up through Rewards Network/iDine, yes.

2. A credit card can only be registered with one Rewards Network program, which all these airline programs are.

Here's a newbie question--

All the "dining rewards" programs (AA, United, SWA, etc.) are the same in that you need "12 or more qualified transactions in the calendar year" to go from "online member" to "VIP member". My understanding of this is that you always start at an "online member" until you get that 12th dining visit, then you're a VIP member for the rest of the calendar year? Is this correct? Or does VIP membership extend for 12 months? Forever?

IME, once you earn VIP status, you hold it for the remainder of that calendar year and the full following calendar year. In other words, if it was earned today, it would be effective for the remainder of 2012 and all of 2013.

Sounds good to me, but can anybody confirm this? I didn't get this impression at all by reading the fine print.

That matches my experience.

You must dine at least 12 times each year to keep your VIP status. 12 dines in 2012 will mean VIP status until 12/31/13. 12 dines in 2013 will give you status until 12/31/14. That's all you have to do. Dine once a month and your VIP status will never end (as long they never change the rules, of course)

Okay, that sounds great and definitely attainable.

Now I see the requirements for the iDine membership chart are a little different. Instead of a number of dines, it's based on amount spent. For level 2--

I understand that means that if I sign up now, I have to spend $250 at one of those establishments by Oct 31, 2013. Now if I do that, will I also maintain level 2 status for the full year afterward? For example, if I hit the $250 mark by 12/15/2012, I'll have level 2 status (10% off) until 12/31/2013? Thanks!

First I want you to know that you are talking about two different dining programs in the post above. The information I gave you above about the 12 dines each year is a dining program called REWARDS NETWORK. It is a program where a person earns miles or points toward his or her favorite frequent flyer program. All the major US airlines belong to Rewards Network (RN): American (AA), Alaska Airlines (AS), Delta (DL), United (UA), USAirways (US) or Southwest (WN). Most of us here at FT focus on this program. We'd rather earn miles/points for first class flights around the world.

The second program you mention above is IDINE, and in this program you only earn cash back as far as I know. I don't belong to this program so I cannot comment on how it works. But I will say that I believe you are reading it correctly. I would, however, call them directly to confirm.

Finally, please know that years ago that REWARDS NETWORK was orginally named IDINE, but now it's a seperate and different program. I hope I am being clear. Don't confuse the two programs. Some old post here on FT still use the title IDINE to refer to what is now the REWARDS NETWORK program.

Open Jaw, are you sure that IDine is separate from the Rewards Network? When I go to the RN website, IDine is one of the programs listed. That's why I thought IDine is one of the RN programs that we can choose from.

Anyway, if IDine is a separate program altogether, wouldn't that mean that we can double dip by registering our credit cards to both a RN program as well as IDine, and get points/miles in addition to cash back?

Yes, they're the same company. The bottom of the idine.com home page says "The iDine program is part of Rewards Network." I think there's no double dipping, registering a card for both iDine cash back and airline miles with Rewards Network. iDine used to be the name used for all the programs; now it's only used for the cash-back program.

What I mean by seperate is that you will earn miles/points with Rewards Network while Idine will give you cash back. You will not be able to earn both miles and cash back at the same time or for the same dine.

Put it this way, I cannot earn Delta miles and American Airlines miles during the same dine. The same goes with IDINE and REWARDS NETWORK.

The only way to earn RN miles and cash back is if you use a cash back credit card during a dine. I have a Chase cash back CC which is linked to one of my RN frequent flyer accounts. This cash back CC has nothing to do with IDINE.

If you want to have one account with Idine and one with a RN frequent flyer account, you'll need at least 2 credit cards, one for the RN account and the other with the Idine account. It's important to tell you also that every RN FF account needs to have one CC resgistered in it at all times. I have three RN accounts with AA, DL and US. That means I need to have at least 3 different credit cards. One card must be resgistered with AA, another with DL and the last one with US. If I wanted to open an account with Idine as well, I would need a fourth CC for that account.

Bottom line is you have to choose between miles or cash back before each dine.

Thanks, that's what I figured.