Tips and tricks to maximize earnings
 

N.B. There is now a number of valuable tips below on maximizing your dining experiences - you may want to spend a few minutes reading all of the tips in this thread.

It has been mentioned in other threads, but I'd like to summarize - and feel free to chime in!

When preparing to dine, you can check the dates a week out from the day you are searching. Logging in before you search is important, because it will reveal properties open to your level of iDine participation (e.g. engaged or elite.)

Once you have become interested in a property, it will reveal what days are OK for miles-earning, as well as the monthly limit - usually up to $600 monthly spent in legacy restaurants, $1,000 in newer ones, with no limit on the number of dines to achieve this limit. A few restos have no limit, and a few limit the diner to ONE dine per month.

Next, click on "details." This will show logos of the credit cards the property accepts for awarding miles on a dine. Occasionally, it will show a credit card that the restaurant actually does not accept - often enough, Discover Card. If a card logo is NOT showing, it does not mean the resto doesn't accept it (usually, applies to American Express,) it merely means if you use the card you will likely not get miles for that dine (though some of us have called or submitted proof of dine and had the miles awarded, I concur with NJUPINTHEAIR iirc, who said it's not a good idea to try regularly; IMO if we abuse this, they will likely become rigid about not accepting.)

A few restos also require you to go to a chart and make a day / time request for miles award dines - these places have a few "slots" for iDine diners, and when they fill, they are gone. When you use these, THIS DOES NOT CREATE A RESERVATION FOR YOU, it merely confirms you will get miles; you may also want to make a booking at the property.

Some Rewards Network dining programs are offering extra miles for filling out the feedback form on their site at times. Be sure to check it out.

A couple of other tips I use, but YMMV, of course:

I am also enrolled with a Hilton HHonors AMEX; this renders all the airline miles due as well as 5 HHonors points per dollar spent. I suspect similar products, such as Starwood AMEX, would work as well (and for *wood and AAdvantage members, would even work better because of the extra conversion bonus.)

Slightly off topic, but possibly beneficial to some of us: I often check OpenTable.com, and have an account there. If the property is listed, I book via OpenTable.com, and get 100 of their points per dine, though there are a few that render 1,000 points for a booking, which are convertible to credits when one reaches a specific number of points. ("OpenTable members can earn Dining Rewards Points for online reservation they make and honor. Points are redeemable for OpenTable Dining Cheques which can be used at any OpenTable restaurants.")

OpenTable.com is useful in the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. The usual lowest "reward" category you get is a USD$20 OR £15 OR CDN$ 26Dining Cheque for 2,000 points, etc. and there are higher categories. See this link. Caveat: Points expire if there is no account activity in 12 months. They send you checks spendable at OpenTable restaurants; the restaurant is instructed to process these as they wold traveler's cheques.

Be sure to read here, because members will post new tips. Be sure to check when you go to your program dining site, and of course, don't forget to register for every bonus offer - even if you think you won't qualify, it's easier to sign up and not use it than to find yourself looking back and giving yourself a dope slap when you read this Forum., ;) (I've done this with AA, and received many thousands of miles I was presumably ineligible for according to the bonus offer TOS, e.g. must be flying First or Business fares, but a glitch in the programing awarded bonus miles to those who received upgrades.)

I just look at it this way: why get miles alone, if I can get miles, points and an occasional "Cheque" I can use for a dining discount? I enjoy seeing that "Program to date total Miles Earned: 433,196" increase, even more when I can see the HHonors points counter go up too...

in addition to opentable.com, there is dinnerbroker.com. it works basically the same way, although it appears to have fewer participating restaurants and the search function is not as robust. when want to make a reservation, i try opentable first, and then dinnerbroker.

one significant difference between opentable and dinnerbroker is that the latter allows points for referrals. you can PM me with your name and email address, and i will gladly refer you: you get 200 points for signing up, 100 points for each completed reservation, and i get 100 points after you complete your first reservation. there is no downside to being referred (you get the same 200 point signup bonus regardless), but of course i wouldn't mind the points.

check restaurant website
 

As my dines are on my own dime, I am interested in saving money as well as getting miles. I have found that if you go to the the "details" section of an idine restaurant listing you can access the restaurant website (if they have one). I have benefitted in many ways from checking the website:

You may not always get miles on a discounted meal, but I have never been denied my IDINE miles when using a coupon.

Hidden chains
 

Piling on to what BOGO said about chains:
Quite often there are chains of restaurants that do not all have the same name -- and they honor gift cards bought at one another.
Maybe someone else has a better way to find this information, but I've been doing it by the crude method of checking the web sites of all restaurants in a given local that have web sites.
For example, there is a steakhouse in my home town called Carver's Creek. It is part of a chain called Paragon Steakhouse (paragonsteak.com) with 25 locations. So I could buy a giftcard at the local participating location in order to get miles at a restaurant at a travel destination that does not participate in idine (caveat: I have not confirmed this with Paragon, so take this as something to check out with them or any other "hidden" chain). See also JDiver's post #17 in the thread about chains.

Another example are the various casual restaurants that are under one corporate parent and therefore accept one another's gift cards. For example, Darden Restaurants is the corporate parent for Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze. Find one of those that participates in idine and you can get miles for a gift card good for all. Sometimes you have to dig a little to find such connections -- I found the Red Lobster etc reading the T&C about gift cards. Some are obvious on each brand's web site.
Others:
Metromedia Group offers a multibrand gift card: Bennigan's, Bonanza, Ponderosa, Steak & Ale

Macaroni Grill, Chili's, On the Border and Maggiano's all are one (which is interesting because I see Chilis in airports quite often)

Moe's Southwest is under the same corporate umbrella, www.ravingbrands.com, as 8 other restaurant chains, though I can find no info on whether they accept each other's gift cards.


Another thing I often do when there is a promo such as AAdvantage's current one giving 250 miles for each >$15 dine: does it freeze well? A local Italian place makes a portobello lasagne that actually is better after being frozen, and wouldn't you know the takeout bill comes to precisely $15 for one order? I will pass by it anyway at least 6 times during this promo, netting not only the miles but also stocking up on some easy and tasty dinners.

Another tip (if you belong to more than one idine program) is to check after logging in to the specific program that you plan to use - to see if the location is participating and/or giving miles! Most (+95%) of the locations are on all programs, but some may not be! It would be a bad surprise if you just check (say) your AA account and see XYZ participates, but after you dine and it doesn't post to your (say) NW accouunt - because they don't participate with NW idine! :(

This happens if you're "elite" with one program but only "engaged" with another. An example is for me I'm elite with UA but engaged with CO. A location is listed on UA but not on CO! So even though it is listed on the UA idine site, I would not get miles when I dine with CO idine (because it is not available for earning for engaged members).

Most programs have more locations available for elite members.

I find that quite a few locations in my area do not award points on weekends - to avoid that, I buy gift certifcate on thursday in preparation - I can not fathom eating at a points place and not getting "paid" for it. During the AA promo - instead of going in and buying 1 $60 -I have been going in each day and buying 1 $15 - essentially earning (15*10 + 250 + 15) 415 miles per buy - when I redeem them, I will be comforted knowing my $60 got me 1660 miles.

One other tip is to check a restaurant's status frequently if you dine there often. Restaurants tend to come and go from Reward Network very quickly, so you can't count on one being there unless you check.

If you plan to to eat at a place you like, buying gift card could help. Please try to make sure that they will stay in business!

absolutely brilliant!
 

Thanks so much for posting the idea of freezing! I have very limited IDine opportunities in my home area, but a couple are good Italian restaurants. Hadn't thought of doing this.

This idea will really help me out this year. I have been struggling just to get to 12!

Edited to add: it works! I now have a pizza place not too far away where I can do take away dinners. Thanks!!!

Any others?

CALL to verify before major spends... or / and print out the listing
 

Ah, yes, it has been stated before, but it's worth a repeat to advise folks to not rely exclusively on the RN web pages for program currency, particularly with restaurants that seem to fade in and out on periodically.

read more here, where

atxtraveler reminds us of this issue when posting a big spend failed to take because, after the resto was checked online, the OP was chastised and hung out to dry by a RN staffer for not calling and verifying, and KhalilSheikh reminds us we can also print out the page for verification purposes when we may be denied a dine by RN for this reason.

A tip that might be obvious to some people on this board is to enroll in OpenTable. Search for 1,000 point reservations - cross reference those with iDine restaurants and wham! 1,000 OpenTable points is equal to $10...so save up your points until you reach the 10,000 point threshold and get the $100 OpenTable certificate.

Now the beauty of an OpenTable certs is that they are like cash - so you use a $100 certificate at a bar for a $5 beer and get $95 cash back in your pocket. OR, you can obviously use the certs towards a big restaurant bill. I was able to get enough of these $100 certs changed into cash in a month to pay for rent.

:D

Yup - and as crabbing said in Post #2, "in addition to www.opentable.com, there is www.dinnerbroker.com."

booking via OpenTable (no cost) earns you 100 OpenTable points per dine completed, and this is their awards situation:

United States
2,000 OpenTable Points = $20 OpenTable Dining Cheque
5,000 OpenTable Points = $50 OpenTable Dining Cheque
10,000 OpenTable Points = $100 OpenTable Dining Cheque

Canada
Redeem 2,000 points and get a $26 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 5,000 points and get a $65 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 10,000 points and get a $130 OpenTable Dining Cheque

United Kingdom
Redeem 2,000 points and get a £15 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 5,000 points and get a £37.50 OpenTable Dining Cheque
Redeem 10,000 points and get a £75 OpenTable Dining Cheque

Caveat: dining points will expire if your account has been inactive for 12 months.

It's not huge, as it takes 20 100 point bookings to get $20, though as ECOTONE states below, the 1,000 pointers are great (would that I could ask for £15 instead! ;)) but you can spend the cheque at any Open Table affiliated restaurant as if it was a traveller's cheque (that's how it's processed by the restaurant) - but it's free money, so to speak.

Be sure to look for the 1,000 point reservations - think of it as getting $10 cash back for your dine...a great perk if you're on a business trip. There have been many trips where I've gotten 2,000 points/day from lunch and dinner bookings. Another trick is making a late reservation at a restaurant/bar and when you get there, just say you're party has decided to just get drinks - some places won't honor the OT points, but in my experiences about 95% of the time you get the points.

I've set up OpenTable "runs" so to speak that have netted me close to 5,000 points in a single evening. It can be hard to properly space them out so the OpenTable system allows the bookings - but a little creativity is all it takes! The tendency for 1k bookings will be early in the evening and latenight...so, you can easily get a 5pm snack (1k points), a 7pm dinner (1k points), a 9pm drink (1k points) - and add in a brunch and an extra cocktail in the early afternoon and you're set!

It adds up very quickly.

Open Table
 

Thanks to the posters here for making me aware of opentable.com. Had never heard of it. ^

However, is there a better way to search for restaurants in the area I will be staying in? I travel for business and often use the search by zip code feature in iDine which I find very useful. However there doesn't appear to be such a feature in Open Table which makes it very tedious looking for a restaurant near my hotel especially when I don't know the area.

Would appreciate any tips in this regard.