Dining Programs
 

As everyone probably knows, Transmedia bought Dining a la Card, so now all airline dining programs and Transmediacard are all run by the same company, with a similar sorry group of restaurants (at least in Austin). I'ts now called iDine.

I belong to AAdvantage dining and have my credit card registered to that program. The new mailing from iDine for former Transmedia members says the seperate Transmedia credit card is being phased out- that we should use the credit card it is linked to. How would they know whether to credit my AAdvantage dining or Transmedia accounts? It seems that one can only belong to one program now that they are all operated by linking to the credit card. Or else we need to register a different credit card for each program.

Good question. Here's my answer: I don't know. But I have a slightly related comment.

I got a new OnePass dining directory recently, and I noticed that they didn't have the little dollar signs by the restaurants, which gave you a clue as to whether you'd spend $5 or $35 there. I am going to call and complain.

There's plenty of restaurants where I live, and I'd hate to show up at a restaurant and find out it's $30 an entree. This would be especially true if I decided to hit one of the restaurants out of town.

monot:

I received mine this week and I don't like the new format either.

Also, in some cities that used to have seperate sections by area, they now have one large section. St Louis being an example of this.

However, their website www.dalc.com does
still show the price ranges.

I received the Fall 2000 Mileage Plus Dining directory a few days ago. It says:

• United Mileage Plus Dining is sponsored by United Airlines and provided by SignatureCard, Inc.

There are no dollar signs in this edition.

I use the Transmedia book to find some interesting spots in areas, that I am not familiar with. It has been a pretty good source of reasonablyy priced good food. the discount helped. There was only one Italian restaurant, that wasn't up to a minimum standard. But they are a 'financing' organization, that advances loans to restaurants and in turn gets some repayment from the charges made.
Noticed that there was a dropout of some local places in the last booklet.

I think I've just had this question answered by iDine.

I belonged to Transmedia and also had my credit cards registered with United's dining program. When I used my Transmedia-registered credit card recently, I found I did NOT receive any cash credit towards the bill on my online credit card statement.

After sending an email to iDine to ask about the credit, I received the following reply (exact quote):

"When Transmedia and Dining a la Card merged, your existing accounts were merged together. You have a Frequent flyer account with Dining a la Card. Now that the 2 programs have merged, you will receive 10 frequent flyer miles on the first visit to a participating restaurant. Then on your second visit, you will receive your monetary savings."

I'm not sure I like their solution, since I'll never be able to keep track of whether I'm getting miles or cash, so I think I'm going to cancel one of the two methods -- I just haven't decided yet which one. I love the miles, but the immediate cash discount is hard to pass up.

The new SkyMiles Dining book just arrived, no $$$$ by the names either. Looks like they dropped this feature from the book.

I am hapy that some of the Transmedia restaurantsn are now in the DL SkyMiles Dining program, as before in GNV there were no choices and now there is one. A 100% impovement, geee great http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Come on, that's an INFINITE improvement.

violist, you are correct, but down here in GNV we can not count higher then 100%... heee heeee.

One other thing to mention, since buyout of all of the dining programs, I am impressed that the levil of customer service has not changed. The old DL program had great phone reps to help and the new program also does. Twice I have not gotten credit for meals, called and they were very helpful. Copied my charge card statement, posted it in, mileage was forth coming. There were some bugs in the auto fax system during the change oever, but all seems to be in hand now.

Since I'm not alone in my displeasure of the dollar signs being omitted, I suggest that others follow my lead and call in and complain. Who knows, it can't hurt.

I think that the merger will actually be an improvement. First of all trying to remember which restaurants are in which programs will be eliminated, and you won't have to keep track whether or night you have dined in your favorite restaurants during that month. We have made that mistake in the past (with the dining programs), and consequently got nothing for the second visit. This way you get 15% off the entire bill (up to $600 for the month). The only problem is that they are no longer allowing for new transmedia cards, so the card that it is attached to (and the FF flyer program that is attached to the card) is the only one that will be able to do this. Since my husband pays less attention than I do, I am leaving the Transmedia/Idine program on his name. Mine will remain the dining program - meaning first visit of the month gets miles. Period. No second chances for subsequent visits. So, I will use his card for subsequent visits, so there is some keeping track. This new idine program, therefore is NOT open to everyone. If you did not have a transmedia card, you can't do it. New people would have to pay a $49.00 yearly fee.
P.S. there are some restauran=ts designated with a star rather than a diamone that will be the "old dining program formate" - first visit with miles. nothing after that. These seem to be some restaurants that were NOT in transmedia - only dining a la card -

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DtG

[This message has been edited by dgordon (edited 07-30-2000).]

These restaurant listings in the various programs change so often that you need a scorecard in pencil to keep up.

IMHO, you can't go wrong with Diner's Club and the 20 percent ala card discount, including tax and tip, automatically credited to your account.

Most of the resturants seem to stay from year to year. At least the ones I go to.

Diners Club is great for the areas it covers, but is much more limited in scope. For example, there are no DC restaurants with 50 miles of where we live. On the other hand, the Transmedia etc program has dozens.

Quick DINING FOR MILES question...is the once per month once per calendar month or 30 days from your last visit?

Can I go to the same restaurant on July 30 AND on August 1 and get the miles---or is it 30 days from your last visit?

It is once per calendar month, so you can dine July 31str and Aug 1 and both will count for miles.
Has anyone had this experience? You get a new directory and it has a through date. A new restaurant is listed, so you go to it. You then don't get miles because on the date that you went (after you saw it in the new book) it wasn't yet in the program. Because of this we missed the 500 bonus miles with AA elite plus the miles for a $16 meal. If we had known we would have gone elsewhere for our third restaurant of the month. If anyone has successfully resolved this kind of problem I would appreciate it if you would post the details. I'm planning on calling AA customer service tomorrow.

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DtG

In 1999 I credited dining miles to both the NWA & Delta programs. The crediting was flawless, in that all dining thru the last day of the month was in the acct by the 15th of the next month.

Since early 2000 the program has been managed by Signature Group which took over Dining ala Card. My experience has been "spotty" posting, requiring me to call every month to request the missing miles. Sometimes it gets corrected, sometimes not. Also, beware that restaurants drop out of the program and they try to deny you credit even if the restaurant is in a printed directory effective through a later date. A supervisor @ Signature recently told me that they have worked out most of the bugs in the system, & that better days are ahead. Unfortunately, my very recent experience is more indigestion than miles credit, & I'm getting tired of faxing receipt copies to sweet talking people who DO NOT solve the problems.

I'm waiting until the end of 8/00 for all the corrections to be made, but if the program is still not up to par I intend to complain to Beth Shultis, NWA honcho of World Perks. She took over after Rick Dow left NWA.