Hi!

As brand new UAL MP member I thought about trying iDine when being in NYC next month. I already found some very interesting restaurants on the iDine website.

Question now: do all these restaurants that can be found online do automatically credit miles for MP when paying with the registeres credit card or just some of them? If there are any restrictions, what are these?

Thanks for your help!

If they credit at all, they SHOULD credit automatically. But in some fraction of cases, it doesn't work, and then you have to call them (which might be costly from Germany?) to get the name of the person to fax the receipt (or credit card statement) to them to get it manually added. There is no pattern to this; it just happens at random sometimes. (In each case where I've had it happen at a restaurant I've eaten at several times over time, it only happened for SOME of my visits to that restaurant.)

You do have read the website carefully while logged in, and make sure you know whether that restaurant awards miles every day or only certain days of the week. And also, if you're considering visiting more than once, make sure it says "unlimited visits" in the description, NOT "one visit per month". Those are the two main restrictions (plus not spending more than $600 total in a month at any one restaurant).

Keep in mind that you'll only earn 3 miles per dollar spent on your first 12 dines this year, and after that you'll earn 5+5 (total 10, but posted as 5 normal and 5 bonus) miles per dollar spent. So you may want to do as many cheap dines as you can at the beginning (read other recent threads here about that, about getting cups of coffee or whatever, for example:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=582883

) to get to the higher earning level as soon as you can.

Also keep an eye out for Double Rewards restaurants where you can get 20 miles/$ once you are elite.

Wow, that was extremely helpful! :-:
(By the way, it is really nice to be in this forum, everyone is so friendly and doesn't answer like "ever heard of the existance of search-engines?!" when a newbie asks a question, really great! ^ )

So, well, to sum it up: As I live in Germany, I will do the enrollment by e-mail and hope this will be completed asap. Afterwards I log in and search nice restaurants in NYC. As I understood you can only see from the website if and when a restaurant gives credits?
As I'll spend a whole week in NYC on vacation, it shouldn't be a too big problem to reach Elite-status soon, I mean, if it's already enough to buy one coffee here and some little snack there...
Talking about Elite... is this status valid from then on or is it just like in FFPs just valid for one calendar year?

Yes. (Except maybe there's also some way to get listings over the phone -- from iDine/RN cetnral in Florida, not from the individual restaurants -- but that's not as easy, and anyway in your case not very practical). Most people at a restaurant that participates know nothing about the program; it's supposed to be "hidden" from them who is actually iDining until long after the fact, and it's supposed to "hidden" from the diners who aren't "in the know" which restaurants participate.

And you may have to be logged in to see all the restaurants and all the details about them. Although I'm not aware of any specific examples, they claim that you have access to more restaurants when logged in (because they treat not logged in as the lowest of 3 levels), and even more then you get to be Elite.


It is valid through the end of the NEXT calendar year. So in this case, if you make Elite on this trip, you'll stay Elite through the end of 2007 (assuming the whole concept of Elite status, as well as iDine/RewardsNetwork itself*, stays around till then!). Then as long as you do 12 dines in 2007 (while you're still Elite), that would extend your Elite status through the end of 2008.

*On the lifetime of Elite status: The concept of Elite status doesn't have a published expiration, but they keep publishing an expiration for the 5+5 bonus (in other words, the 10 miles per dollar you earn as an Elite is treated like a 5 miles you'll always get as an Elite, plus a "limited time" Elite bonus of another 5 miles). So far, every time they've gotten near the expiration, they've extended it, but then, they've only had this Elite status concept for about a year so far, so not much history yet to judge how long they could keep extending it.

As to the life expectancy of iDine/RewardsNetwork itself: Read the threads below (probably stiill on the first page of threads in this iDine section) about the "class action" "lawsuit" to see the wide variety of opinions, ranging from "it will be around for many years" to "it may not last out this year"!

Your elite dining status will be good through 31 December, 2007.

Yes, you will qualify by using any 12 transactions, no matter the cost. You are correct that once your account has been set up you will see the exact days that the restaurants give credit. Places that are not available every day usually are off-the-scheme on weekends. You will see an X under the listing to indicate no miles on that day. Most of them have a restriction of $600/month maximum for miles, and a few have a restriction of "one-visit-per-month"; that is a calendar month, so a visit on 31 August, and 1 September would both earn miles. You might also see a few places where the diner must make a specific reservation via Rewards Network in advance to get miles. They are rare, but do exist. As a tourist that sounds like it would be more trouble than it is worth.

You should be careful to save each credit card receipt in case a transaction does not post. However, you can get credit by sending a copy of your credit card statement with the missing transaction showing, if necessary. If a visit has not posted a week after the credit card charge, you can contact Rewards Network to ask about it. In most cases, they will ask you to fax a copy of the receipt(s) to their office. You should see the missing miles appear at your Rewards Network account about a week after your fax was sent.

Good luck!

Points

You don't have to fax it. I don't have access to a fax machine (for free) so I just copy the Idine receipts that haven't posted and I snail mail to RN in Florida.

I have been emailing a screen shot of my online CC account activity.

Hi again!

Thank you very much for all your helpful answers!
The only "obstacle" to take now is the enrollment. According to customer service they do NOT accept any registration by e-mail, so it seems like I have to call them.
Can anyone tell what they will ask? Do I have to tell them my credit-card-number already or is it enough to tell my address and MP-number, so that I will register my CC later by myself in the online-profile?

As service numbers I got "1 800-555-5116 or 305 892 3300". Is there any difference between them? I'm not very familiar with US-numbers (area-codes etc.), sorry.

Thanks again for all your help! :-:

In the US, phone numbers of "1-800", "1-888", "1-877" and "1-866" are toll free when calling from the US! Since you are from Germany, you must use the local Miami number (the 305-892-3300 number).

Maybe I'm missing something, but you should be able to enroll right on the website, no need to call in.
Another caution; some of the restaurants participate only on certain days of the week. It's happened to me a couple of times and I hate it when I find out I went to the right restaurant but on the 'wrong' day .

Anyhow, I was in NYC last month and did a round of Reward Network restaurants and would personally recommend the following enrolled restaurants:

Angels (Italian, Upper East Side)
Roxy's, Maxie's (Both Deli's/cheesecake places and are right in Times Square)
TioPepe's (Mexican/ Spanish, in Greenwich Village)
Ferrara (Italian pastries, expresso, gelato, in Little Italy)
S. Dynasty (Chinese, not far from Grand Central Terminal)

It's not just days of the week. Restaurants will sometimes exclude special days like 4th of July, Labor day, etc. Always good to check online before dining (if possible).

Hello!

Unfortunately, enrolling online is only possible for US and Canada residents And I live in Germany, so seems I like I have to call.
Thanks for the list of recommended restaurants, I'll give them a try ^

Thank you for the help! I did not know that American toll-free-numbers cannot be called from abroad, I think in Germany it is possible. So I'll go for MIA