I recently signed up a couple of credit cards for the Dining for Miles program (this is with respect to the Northwest WorldPerks 10,000 mile bonus). For the forums police, Dining for Miles appears to administer the dining programs for a number of different airlines, so this seemed more reasonable in The Buzz than any individual FFP forum.

Has anybody ever gotten the restaurant directory from Dining for Miles in electronic form? (No, FAX-while-in-transit doesn't count as electronic form....) I don't need them to put up an amazingly spiffy Web site, I'd be very happy with just a PDF file every 2 months (or however often they put out the printed directory).

It appears they all use the same restaurants so, since I notice you are UA Premier just look at their program on line and they will let you search by location.

Don't automatically assume that the same restaurant is in every program. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but when I was talking to the iDine rep, that's what I was told. Perehaps she was more referring to restaurants that are in the general iDine program vs. any mileage program. Of course, the United guide will be a good indication of the NW guide, but it wouldn't hurt to doublecheck.

I think she was referring to the regular program, as my wife is enrolled in that one, and I am now enrolled in the NW program for obvious reasons.

Thanx for the tip re the UA site, to this untrained eye, that duplicates the restaurants in the NW program in my general area. Thus, I think that is the way to proceed.

Does anyone know, are the UA & NW programs run by the same people who run the DL program?

Yes, they are run by the same people. ALL THE DINING FOR MILES have the same restaurants. The only difference is with the iDine program, where one can earn a cash rebate after dining.

iDine is the direct result of Transmedia merging with Dining a la Carte. So this program has a little more restaurants in its directory than the dining for miles.

Otherwise, ALL the dining for miles programs (NW, UA, CO, AA, USAirways, etc.) have the same restaurant listing. I know becuase I belong to all of them, including iDine.

According to IDine & AAdvantage dining, most of the restaruants are the same but NOT ALL.

If you look closely, some are in one program but not others.

I questioned this too but then got customer service on the phone and they pointed out some differences and they were correct.

Can someone explain this dinning for miles? Is there 1 program that you can use and then decide where you want your miles to go? Thanks

Also, is there a web site that talks about these dinning deals?

[This message has been edited by starbaby84 (edited 02-23-2001).]

In case you missed the story last month:

Transmedia Network Ends Signature's Exclusive Right to Market Dining Rewards Programs to Airline Industry
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010108/fl_transme.html

A Brief Explaination of the programs:

Each airline is a bit different, but you sign up and when you eat in a participating restaurant you get miles. Your first visit to a restaurant each month (some may allow more then one visit) gets you some amount of miles per dollar charged, usually ten miles to the dollar. You get a book four times a year listing the restaurants.

You register credit cards, and when you charge your meal the system tracks it to give you credit. The advantage of the miles programs over the ones that pay cash back is they usually don't have an annual fee to join.

Check your favorite airline's website, or register a different credit card for each airline (you can't have one card in two programs) and off you go.