sergio

The Idine program works with paying with a credit card; however, would they pay if you present evidence that you paid with cash?

Points Scrounger

Clearly stated that members must pay for their meals with those credit cards linked to their Rewards Network accounts to receive miles. Paying with a credit card that was not on file with them as of the date of the transaction isn't kosher either.

sergio

Thanks for the reply. I guess they don't get paid by the restuarant otherwise.

Amanda

You could pay with a debit card. That's a round about way of paying in cash.

Stefan Daystrom

Huh?

You don't seem to understand how iDine works.

What happens is that they scan a database to find the restaurant transactions at their participating restauarnts that were paid with any card registered with them. You can have multiple cards registered with multiple airline FF programs within iDine, so not only does the card number determine THAT you earn miles with iDine, it also determines WHICH of the programs you're signed up at iDine it earn you miles (or whatever) with.

If you pay by cash, there's no electronic record of who it was that paid, which of iDine's programs if any they chose to steer that dining to, etc. How in the world do you expect them to correlate all that? (By hand, in 2004?!?!?!)

So the purpose of the card in this case is to provide a number which links you, the restaurant, iDine, and the specific airline program (or whatever) that you've chosen to earn with at iDine. Without this number nothing can happen (since restauarnts are not set up to take any other identifying number from you, such as an FF account, in the abscence of you paying with a card).

Now, notice all above I said a "card", with a number. Someone else here said it works with debit cards, and that makes sense, because debit cards have numbers that look just like credit card numbers. The reason iDine needs cards is for the numbers and for the numbers to show up on the database of payments made to the restaurant. So either a credit card or a debit card should be able to work, as long as it uses a numbering scheme that's compatible with iDine's systems. (iDine only deals with the numbering schemes of Visa, MC, Discover, Amex, and Diners Club.)

kalman911

jeez Stefan, take it easy brotha.. Sergio's just asking a simple question and it seems like he got the answer......