Response to change: anybody else Idining like a wild banshee?
 

Although not really premeditated, I’m finding that my response to the program being gutted is to get while the getting is good. So far in January, about a dozen dines and approaching 6,000 miles. Anybody else going hog wild?

Not quite, but I am thinking of getting in 12 dines each on my 3 airlines in case their "bonuses" and "merchants" are any good.

Yes, I am idining as much as possible and will continue to do so until the changes come through in July. Year to date I have about 2500 miles coming per month for dining with 2-3 family members. Then there will be 1000 AA bonus elite miles added per month.

Jailer: you must be dining clients to be so far ahead of me? I have been using Idine for all it's worth for several years now. I just wish I could use it more for business!

I am going to be really missing the program when the draconian changes set in!

I'm taking clients out very, very frequently and averaging ~2-3K miles per month. I'd average more, but there are just some restaurants and bars that are just too irresistable to avoid when traveling- and since the quality of some iDine places lag... :p

True pdocs, and a lot of those clients are inmates, who have Idine pizza brought in once a week on my dime. I wish I could have found mile o’pizza close to more than just one of our halfway houses, but still a sweet deal.

Jailer: are you serious? :D :confused:

Well, I am going to make sure I get at least 3 dines/month for the 500 pt AA bonus until then. I'll do it by buying gift certs for my fave restaurant when I need extra dines. Then start using the GCs after 7/1 when the points go down. :(

Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott to Captain James T. Kirk (insert Scottish lilt here): “Capt’n, I canna give ya even a wee bit more. If we don’t drop to impulse the warp infusion coils will seize and the engines will blow us to Kingdom Come.”

“Dammit Scotty, give me more power, the treaty with the Klingons goes into effect July 1st, and I want to grab up all the territory for the Federation while I can.”

“Sirs”, says Cadet Newman, “I’m just an extra and my chances of surviving this episode are slim anyway (here Spock calculates 1,283,417 to 1). I’ll go into the core and manually infuse the anti-matter.”

Twenty dines and 8578 miles in January. I may have to throttle back to impulse or my gut is gonna blow.

No more than 12 per month
 

With four of us as registered members, it takes 12 visits per month of each of us to get the AA 500 bonus miles so it's still 12 only (granted we do actually 6 visits - split the bill in half over two cards). Doing this all last year has allowed us to qualify as an Elite member for the new program and HIGHER bonus level. I hope that the 500 bonus miles stays after February as that is when the current AA elite bonus program ends.

Gift Cards
 

To try for the status, and "bank" some miles, I've been buying a few electronic gift cards at a few places in the program.

I'm also frustrated by how fast restaurants in my area (LA) come and go in the program, buying a gift card gives me a little "insurance" against restaurants either leaving the program or stupid rules like needing a reservation or specific day rewards.

But the reality is that I'll likely stop my habit of consulting iDine/Rwards Network before dinging come the changes this summer. Too bad, it was good while it lasted.

And so the sun sets on the idine pig-out. Thought that I'd get 10k per month, or 60,000 miles before the idine gutting, but with idineries unexpectedly dropping like flies prior to the change and with me somewhat losing interest, I only managed 47,742 idine miles. Unless they conjure up some unforeseen promos, I’d be surprised to get another 10k for the remainder of the year. T’was grand while it lasted.

Well, the promos WERE foreseen (see another thread about how I foresaw something close to what happened a couple months ago), and they mean that pretty much ALL restaurants have become 10 milers for at least the next year (or until they drop out, of course) -- but only for those active enough to qualify for the top tier of each dining program.

And as to idineries unexpectedly dropping, maybe it had something to do with them "knowing" (not explicitly, but through a new cost restructuring at their end) that they'd have to become 10 milers on July 1 or else drop out? :)

Anyway, I guess you have to resume your pig out right away, because you may only have one more year to do it, right? :)

Jailer: My family is up to about 32,000 YTD.

I suspect your interest in the program will go through a serious renewal. (I think I even saw you say so on the other thread).

Curses to Idine: they have spoiled my plans to go on a diet.

In retrospect, maybe getting that second mortgage to buy Idine gift certificates wasn’t such a good idea after all.

So, in a day of FT ups and downs, the LatinPass folks frown while the Idiners smile. I say show some solidarity and take a LatinPasser out to eat.

Anyone else notice that while logged in to dining the individual restaurants are back down to 5 miles per dollar? Just as most of them were before July 1.

However, on the home page it still tells me about the elite member bonus valid thru 6/30/06.

Weird!