gnaget

I don't target Idine restaurants. However, there is a Thai restaurant that I frequent. I usually had bad luck and used it for a $10 lunch in the beginning of the month. I updated my cc and since the beginning of the year the points have been rolling in but this month I only see one entry for April 6.

The profile says 1/month and $600 cap. What's the scoop on this?

CheapSk8

Some restaurants have various caps. If you use a card for a different program, I think you can get around this. (i.e., use your AA program cc once, then your UA program cc once, etc.)

gardener

Also if you create an online profile the once a month cap is magically lifted for many (but not all) restaurants.

pgary

Also, creating an online profile can make you eligible for lots of bonuses. See the iDine section of the Other Programs I Like page of my website below.

pinniped

If a restaurant has a once-a-month rule, it means once per month per program. This is a great reason to have several iDine programs running (if you don't have reason enough already) with different cards. If I'm in a once-a-month place early in the month for a cheap lunch, I'll use my backup card knowing that my iDine Prime credit card will get a bigger reward later in the month.

Fortunately, most restaurants near me have gone to unlimited visits.

Just out of curiousity, how do you use iDine without a profile? Isn't that the first thing you have to set up when you log in?

gardener

1) It is possible to join over the phone. Then they used to send out books listing all the places except by the time they reached you they were out of date.

2) My Holiday Inn Priority Club Visa came pre-signed up for their iDine program, which sucked so I switched that card to another program. I think my US Airways DM Visa also came pre-signed up for DM Dining but I can't really remember.

3) And of course, you can do restaurant searches without a profile. They used to even have a fax back service to list restaurants in a certain area IIRC.

Stefan Daystrom

That's the point: When/if you log in.

But it's possible to be enrolled in iDine without ever having logged in. For example, some FF programs that are affiliated with both a credit card and with iDine automatically enroll you in their iDine when you sign up for their credit card, but you have to go create the profile yourself manually.

Also, iDine apparently was around long before everyone would do everything online, so you could (and I think still can) enroll by phone and check for restaurants by phone, so while I don't know how likely this would be specifically for an FT regular, there might be some people popping in who did the signup by phone and who now do searches online but have never bothered to log in online, not realizing the search results may be a bit better if they do.

gnaget

Actually, I just checked and something from April 21 has posted, so I guess the 1 per month rule has been lifted.

I had a long hiatus where I did not have an active cc registered with UA I-dine. I didn't really think it was worth the hassle when I got it once a month and it's pretty much only this one restaurant.

I did try to sign up with US Air on the Idine site but it never worked. Dunno why.......

Maybe I should sign up AA. I have maybe 22k miles with them. I probably need to add some activity to keep it alive and suddenly I may even have an award ticket!

pinniped

OK - I guess that makes sense. I didn't realize that you could get automatically signed up: I assumed the only way (in 2004) to enroll was to proactively go to the iDine website.

I remember way back in the day enrolling in AA iDine over the phone and then getting the little books every few months. I had assumed that entire process was dead and gone - I haven't gotten a book in a long time and my current AA iDine account was set up online.

JDiver

To maximize iDine ("Rewards Network AAdvantage Dining Program" for my program, as Reward Networks has gone to its corporate name to include their Hotel program,) it's important to set up a profile - it gets you notification of special offers, such as the one during 2004 Q1 that earned you double earned miles (to a max of 5k bonus miles) for your first three dines after registering for the bonus, plus the monthly bonus. As of May 1st (that I noticed,) if you don't have a profile, you get a reduced award, e.g. five miles, whereas if you DO have a profile you receive the full award - e.g 10 miles per dollar spent - at a number of restaurants.

Creating a profile also releases the "once a month" rule in a number of restaurants; I have had a couple of favorite restaurants I ate at 2 times a month, on average (one closed last month! its popularity with me wasn't enough to save it... and another changed hands, and is no longer a favorite.) You can also check your rewards earned on line, and change the credit cards you have in your profile.

It's also fairly important to (download the new files to yor PDA or) check the listings for the area you intend to dine at the beginning of the month, because that's when some of the restaurants change their terms and conditions (and re-check on occasion - but you can often appeal denials when restaurants infrequently drop mid-month.) Example: a favorite restaurant we were going to visit dropped out of iDine May 1. In the old "book" days, you could often call and get the miles credited to your account if the book wasn't out yet and the beginning of the month of the new book had begun. Can't do that anymore, you are supposed to check online or call first.

Checking on line regularly reveals some restaurants that offer 20 miles per dollar spent (seems like a number in the Boca Raton, FL area,) which days they give miles and which not (some restaurants do not give miles Friday and Saturday, for instance,) and some restaurants even have "slots" you need to sign up for on line - show, eat and pay and the likelihood is no miles. (Plus that cuts down the chances of getting the 500 bonus miles when you dine out on the program three times a month.) Some restaurants will not allow iDine points if over seven people dine in one group / one bill, and of course, most restaurants will not give miles for over $600 spent per month per member (nope, I have no idea what happens if you switch credit cards...)

Sniping for bonuses, etc. has earned me 25,765 AAdvantage miles January - April this year (NOT including the 4,998 bonus miles for the "double miles" bonus, yet unposted.) :burp!: I'd have eaten out anyway, now I have a one way upgrade to Europe, Japan or S. America, or a free domestic or Mexico / Caribbean ticket. And I'll bet there are folks who have done much better than I have.

"¡Juntos, comemos!" (Yo mero)

Stefan Daystrom

At the beginning of the month is not necessarily enough. I had a favorite restaurant near a hotel I was staying at each week where it was easy to get $25 solo on seafood dishes last month (during the AA double program where you needed $25). I did a check on that online in the first or second week of April, and there was no indication of anything wrong (still allowing unlimited visits). I did an iDine there on the 12th that came through fine. I did what I thought was an iDine there on the 19th. On the 26th I was about to do another one that evening, and just happened to be checking the listing when I found it missing. Went back to check my rewards, saw that the latest one was from the 12th, clicked on the restaurant name (Bella Marri's in Garden Grove/Anaheim CA) and it said "this restaurant does not participate". I called up iDine cuustomer service and they told me the restaurant had dropped out of the program on the 13th of April! (So that expensive-only-because-of-an-iDine-promo dine I did there on the 19th won't ever go through, sigh.)

I don't remember EXACTLY when I had previously verified they were there, I just know it was already in April. So I can't prove that they were listed as participating past the 13th early that month, because I don't know if I included the 13th or later in my check of it then.

But if restaurants can leave the program on the 13th, just how many times a month do we need to check???

Stefan Daystrom

I wouldn't recommend signing up at the main iDine site. You should sign up for each program throught the particular airline's site. For example, for AAdvatnage Dining:

http://aa.rewardsnetwork.com

Second, you cannot sign up for multiple programs using the same credit card. You need to use a different credit card for each program. iDine checks the credit card you try to register against ALL the other iDine (Reward Network) programs and if it's already in any of them, it won't let you use it for a different program.

Points Scrounger

A week or less, I'd appeal the decision in writing. I had a rep agree to ask a supervisor for permission to credit me in a case like that - the miles were granted while I was on hold.

Stefan Daystrom

Correction: That was of course the UA 250 bonus program where you NEEDED $25 that was going on last month (April). I got confused because I used the same restaurant back in March for the AA double program where $25 was not a requirement, but obviously the bigger the bill the more you'd get out of doubling, so I ended up having a $25ish dinner at the very same restaurant then.

JDiver

When I was checking the list today, I also decided to log on to see my account information, as well as more comprehensive information on the restaurants I was looking at / for.

As usual, many restaurants changed from "one monthly visit" to "unlimited monthly visits," though in most cases still with the $600 monthly maximum. A few restaurants changed thenumber of miles earned per dollar - one from 5, to 10.

But the eye-opener for me was a restaurant suddenly appeared on the list! This restaurant did not appear when I quickly browsed without logging in - but after I logged in, it suddenly appeared!

Creating a profile, logging in when checking the site and checking it regularly are still three important actions to maximize the iDine program.

BTW, if anyone has an idea of how I can d/l the Pocket PC version and make it usable in a WIndows program, I'd appreciate the information.