Hi All

I'm giddily rackping up the 250 bonuses and got something in the mail the other day from idine. It's a list of the restuarants in my area that are participating. I noticed that theres one on the list that isnt online ...
A) did anyone else get one of these pocket guides (basically an ad for the 250 AA promo)
B) has anyone had this experience or one similar, restaurant listed online or on the "flyer"/pamphlet but not vice-versa?

Wondering which one would be accurate without having to call the sometimes unreliable CSR #

Thanks
Tofoi

It's very possible that the restaurant in question dropped out of the program in the time between the printing of the pocket guide and when you received it.

Yes, it has happened to me a few times. But I noticed that online it said something like "... xyz will be leaving the program on June 1 ...", but xyz is showing as a participating restaurant in the pocket guide that I receive on June 15!

I know you don't want to, but I would call and ask the status. If you think they are unreliable (not my experience) then call back and ask more than one CS rep.

...in fact, a CSR told me once that she couldn't confirm future participation of a property until it appeared on the website

Always check the website. I've never had any problem if I've gone by what that shows.

And be sure to check the specific web site for your program. I have Skymiles, AA Dining and Priority Club accounts and the eligible properties for each are different. Priority states that a benefit of it highest level program (more than 10 charges) is access to all possible properties.

Also, be sure the search by Zip Code (only), not by address or by name of region.

There's one restaurant less than a mile from me which doesn't show up in a 1-, 3-, or 5- mile radius search around my home address, because they have a weird address something like 11251-53 (because techincally they have two entrances with two consective street numbers). This confuses the address search into thinking it's clear across town. But if I search on my zip code (they're in the same zip code as me), it finds it just fine.

Meanwhile, I've occasionally seen cases of a restaurant miscategorized into the wrong region (when it wasn't even near the border between two regions!), so again a restaurant could particpate but not be found under a region search just because someone put it in the wrong region. (Apparently the regions are not done automatically by zip code!)

Thus in my experience, a zip code search is a bit more likely to make restaurants show up even if they're not showing up in other types of searches.

I can vouch for that "wrong region" statement.

In the RI listings, under "Washington County" is a location in Tiverton, RI - which is in Newport County and over 20 miles away. (Narragansett Bay is between the 2 counties.) However, if you look for that restaurant under "Newport County", you will not find it listed at all!

It has been listed that way for a long time. I guess idine or the restaurant doesn't care.