I have been using it for miles, but is the discount better?

This theory applies if you have AA status, because after 3 visits in any month you will also get 500 miles as a bonus on top of regular miles. So with that in mind, and I'm not sure what the breaking point would be, but IMHO, if you just do cheap lunches then miles is the better way, but if you do very expensive dinners then I would say cash rebate is a better option.



[This message has been edited by andrzej (edited 04-27-2003).]

Redbeard: we touched on this subject on 4-20-03 in this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/008617.html

You'll find a couple of comments there.

I prefer the miles as that is one of my hobbies and has served my family well. To me a little cash back is not a thrill.

I was doing it for dollars and switched for miles. Getting a $20 or $30 or whatever check each meotn (sometimes more, sometimes less) just got deposited into the bank and that was it. With miles I know they have to be used for travel. I feel like I'm actually benefiting from the program. The other way of course I was benefiting too, jsut never felt that way because it was never enough for a big purchase or anything.

Of course, asking the question in Flyertalk may not get you many unbaised answers.

If you value your miles at a penny apiece at the moment they enter your FF account, your breakeven point for comparison against iDine Prime is $500 spent per year.

If you value your miles at 1.5 cents apiece on the day they enter your account, then you need to spend $1000 per year in iDine to make it worthwhile to switch.

I tend to value my miles at the time I use them as 1.5 cents apiece - maybe a bit less. Since my miles tend to sit there for a while, I think of them as about a penny apiece when I'm comparing them to liquid cash. (One could argue that they are worth even less when traded for cash, but I allow myself 1 penny because this is kind of a hobby. )

The wildcard for me right now is Lifetime Gold on AA. I'm at 900+ lifetime on AA, so I'm channeling all mileage-earning energies to them right now. Once I cross a million, I'm switching to iDine Prime. I spend about $75/month in iDine, so it's really a no brainer once I'm earning "normal" miles as opposed to these "really special almost-to-one-million" AA miles.

When Transmedia merged with Dining a la card - I think it was called and became IDine, for no fee I could get 15% off, or for $49 I could get 20%. That meant the first $250 of dining went to pay the fee. At the time Diner's Club had their program at 20% and some restaurants were in both. No EXTRA fee for this program which has been discontinued. I've heard that they will be using the IDine program???and therefore I imagine 20% without paying the extra $49 fee, but I'm not sure. People have paid more than 1 or 2 cents a mile - for example paying taxes at 2.4%, or buying cereal that they aren't going to eat or buying flyertalk subscriptions that they don't need. So it really depends on whether you have been willing to spend more than 1.5 to 2 cents a mile elsewhere as a comparison. My mission has been lifetime platinum so miles are more important to me and I try to visit an IDine restaurant when it's possible as a choice. When I reach it (within the next month)I will probably switch to another family member (after 3 cheap meals to get 500 bonus miles) so another family member works toward lifetime status. When Diners Club has their program and if indeed it is the same restaurants for 20% off, I might just go for the money.

------------------
Ms.DtG

They have something new, however, which is Hotel rewards. The cashback is up to 15%, but only 5 miles per $ instead of the 10 you get for meals.

The sign up fee is $49, but they have a "give the gift of IDINE" for people who are already members - they can gift a 1 year for $19.95. At that rate, a 1 night hotel stay rebate could pay for the membership.

Anybody out there have a membership and want to "sell" a gift?

I checked the hotels being offered and the rates, and at this time I will have to say ot's not worth it. They charge rack rates, so even when you get the discount, you are still overpaying.

I'm sure that some of the rates are rack - but I just booked a room on SPG.com that had a discounted rate that was identical to the one on IDINE, and I saw a couple some for hotels in San Francisco that I know were well below rack rate. I don't say they were lower than what you could find elsewhere. I also find their hotel search engine verrry slow - and the selection of properties so far pretty limited.

But it might improve as they get more hotels on board.

Two quick questions:

Are there ever bonuses for joining IDine?
Can two credit cards be linked to the same Idine account?

You can link up to three different cards.

Cash. Miles are being slowly devalued, either explicitly (i.e. AA and CO raising mileage award levels) or implicitly (i.e. possible liquidation of your miles in UA chapter 7). Assuming a $50 meal, you get $7.50 cash with the 15% rebate, or 500 miles (worth $7.50 @ 1.5 cents/mi.) I don't go out of my way to dine at these places (most of which are hurting in my town), so I won't receive any bonuses based on monthly usage.

I have been an idine member for 3 months now and here is what I think. I have spent $404 so far in meals (all work related and reimbursed) I have received $26.31 back or $75.31 less the $49 membership fee. So at this point I would have 4,040 miles or $26.31. Now to really judge you need to extrapolate for an entire year. That would give me $1,616 spent or 16,160 miles or $268 (assuming I only use 20% rebate restaurants) For me the money is better than the miles in this case. Since the average airline needs 25K for a free ticket. Fortunately for me my airline HP only requires 20K.

Anyone else have an opinion?

It says that on the page where you add cards to the account but I currently have 4 on my account and havent had a problem...i wonder whats up with that.

Now that DC has joined the IDine program, I make sure I eat in three restaurants to get my 500 bonus as I am AA platinum. Sometimes those are restaurants that don't take DC. I have been using DC whenever I can since I've achieved my AA lifetime platinum status and I have enough miles - I'm liking the 20% or 40% back. When a $25 breakfast ends up being $15 - for 3 that's pretty good. A lot of IDine restaurants don't take DC. A chinese restaurant that was listed for 40% listed in the DC directory first said they didn't take DC, but I said to try the card, and sure enough it went through. The gal said that she didn't realize that the restaurant took DC. The nice thing about DC is that there is no extra fee for the program, so the savings is right away.

------------------
Ms.DtG