the_traveler has it exactly right: the fee-free Hilton AMEX, registered with iDine, earns both miles and points. A nice bonus, IMO.

It's more general than that:

If you use a card that earns you something (miles, points, cashback, whatever) everywhere, and then you use it for AAdvatnage Dining, you will earn the AA miles from AAdvantage Dining, and totally separately earn the whatever something (miles, points, cashback, whatever) that the card always gives you.

Thus if you use a hotel-affliiated card (except Priority Club*), you'll earn points for that hotel, plus the AA miles. If you use an airline-affiliated card, you'll earn the normal card miles for that airline (which can be AA or certain others*), plus the AA miles from AAdvantage Dining.

*The only restriction is that some airline credit cards, as well as Priority Club hotel credit cards (Priority Club is the frequent stay program for InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Express, Candlewood, etc), you get automatically enrolled in the Rewards Network dining program for that airline or credit card, and you can't enroll one card in two different Rewards Network dining programs at the same time.

But in this example, since Hilton HHonors doesn't participate in a Rewards Network dining program, there's no problem using its card to earn HHonors points while earning AA miles. Similarly, Best Western, Choice, Starwood, and Marriott are among other hotels at which this would work, and Southwest and Frontier are among the airlines that it would work at (because those are airlines that don't participate in Rewards Network operated dining programs). And cashback (or card-specific rewards points) cards from Citi, Chase, Amex Blue, Amex MR, Discover, etc, would also work.

So which card to use with AAdvantage Dining depends on what else you most want to earn. If your whole goal is to maximize AA miles, then you might want to use an AA-earning card (an AA credit card, a Starwood AMEX, or a Diners Club). But all those have annual fees (except an AA Citi Bronze, but that only earns 1 mile/2$), while the hotel cards don't, so if there's a hotel chain you already stay at and you just want to top off those points (or keep them from expiring, in the case of HHonors which expires after a year of no activity), then a hotel points card might be better for you, especially if your main goal with AA is simply to keep existing AA miles alive.

another newbie question
 

i signed up for iDine because of the DL promos and i happen to be going to a party tomorrow at one of the DL idine places. however, the place is really a (martini) bar and not a restaurant although it does serve food. if i only have drinks on my tab, will i get the miles? (and, yes the bar/restaurant does award miles w/ the card i have registered and on fridays.)

this is really crucial as a lot of places in the DL idine network in DC are more bars/lounges then restaurants. if i asked people to go get dinner at them rather then grab a drink, i think they would look at me funny.

The bad news first: Delta's current promo for triple miles excludes Friday and Saturday transactions. Base miles only on those days.

The good news: If it's listed, you can earn points there. There are participating joints that emphasize the fact that they're primarily (if not exclusively) drinking places. Moreoever, you can get credit for actual "souvenir goods" such as shirts, hats and mugs. The only restriction I've seen (or heard of from other dining veterans) has been regarding no credit for takeout/catering; if so, that should be clearly indicated in the listing.

It's been interesting watching this baby grow over the years. People get miles for gift certificates, buying a few drinks, dropping in for desert - and when my nephew wanted a couple of tee shirts form a brewpub, I got miles for the tee shirts and a six-pack of good ale to go.

The variety of iDine venues is growing. In the Sacramento area, lots of diversity in the foods offered, soul food, Vietnamese, and on and on - as well as more bars and pubs; some of these venues offer food, but offer drinks or entertainment as the main course, and we have recently seen at least two gay and one lesbian venue added to the list - one or two of these at elast have been around for a long time, so we're not talking about a new resto who secured opening money by advance meal sales.

jmsfla2002, just sign up for the promos and read them carefully, and double check the days and credit cards acceptable for miles earning. One resto might take AMEX, but whoops, not for miles earning; another might not award miles Friday and Saturday, while even those claiming to offer miles anytime every day might decide Easter or Mothers' Day will be excepted. You wil normally be able to keep on top of it by checking weekly.

If the days would be OK, then most likely:yes.

Being that I am in the midst of an AA gold challenge, if i signed up for idine, can I use these miles as part of the 5,000 needed? I am only 150 miles off!! :mad:

Ummm, no. Only flight miles count for that.

The only partner (as far as I'm aware) where dining counts towards status would be Priority Club hotels.

Hi, Stefan,

Just saw this today - and wanted to add one thing and clarify: the best card for someone who wishes to accumulate many AA miles would be... the Starwood AMEX card, as one can get a 25% bonus when exchanging Starwood points for AAdvantage miles (and of course, they still get the AA miles.) (N.B. Please check the Starwood forum for the exact details of this program.)

(For me, I use the HHonors points a lot, so I like splitting my iDine "take" with 10 miles and 5 HH points per dollar.)

Perhaps for many, but it depends on several factors including where you will use the card. The Starwood AMEX is an AMEX, which is not as widely accepted as a MasterCard (especially if a lot of your spending is either overseas or with certain types of small merchants who only take MC/Visa).

Also, if only a fraction of your miles come from credit card spend (say, because you can't put your rent/mortgage or many of your utilities on a card -- without paying astronomical fees -- and have no business expenses you can charge), the other benefits of another card may be of more value to you is it takes you quite a while to get to each 20k. In the case of the Citi AAdvantage, there are certain special discounted redemption rewards (if you're into redeeming for domestic coach seats). In the case of Diners Club, there is the ability to transfer to many hotel programs (especially useful, compared to SPG Amex, if a lot of your redemption stays are in smaller cities where SPG has a weaker presence than some other chains), plus the "universally primary" rental collision insurance (primary in the US, primary overseas, just plain primary, which most so-called "primary" rental coverages aren't).

OTOH, SPG Amex does have the lowest annual fee of the three (so in some cases that may be the deciding factor, even if you rarely get to 20k).

For me, it has nothing to do with what I use "a lot", and more to do with what value it has at the value earned. I may use Priority Club points a lot when I visit NYC (15k per night just across the river, one PATH stop away from WTC) or Choice points in Europe, but that's only because I can earn those points iridiculously fast with some of their promos. But at the "creepy crawly" rate that I'd earn them from card use (or, for that matter, from hotel stays without any promos), they accumulate so slowly they're not worth very much.

Meanwhile, now that Scandic is dropping out of HHonors, I don't know what I'm going to do with my HH points (given that I'm not interested in week-long resort stays, and other than that Scandic used to be the only consistent easy-to-find "deal" for HH points that I knew of).