Advantage Dining Program... which credit card?
 

I'm right in the middle of filling out my application for the AAdvantage Dining Program. I am stumped about which credit card to register. Do I have to register my AA Citibank Visa or could I register my Starwood or Delta Amex? If I register a non-American Airlines Visa card will I still get the AA frequent flyer miles as well as the Delta Skymiles or Starwood points?

You can use all of them. A Visa branded check card also works if you don't feel like putting a $5 meal on a credit card.

Yes, you'll get your miles from the card as well.

The Dining points and the credit card benefits are independent. Register whichever card you choose. The card still gets whatever benefits it's supposed to get, and the dining gives the dining points.

Cheers.

While you should register all your cards, beware that not all Idineries take Amex so check out the restaurant details before dining.

Thanks for your quick and informative responses!

One more question. Is there any added advantage (no pun intended) to attaching the AA Visa card over any other branded card?

As already mentioned, there's no reason to not register ALL of your credit cards in the program. If you register your AA Visa card and use that at a participating restaurant, you'll receive the miles for dining with a registered card (ANY registered card), and you'll receive whatever benefit -independent from the I-Dine program - that the AA Visa cards provide you.

So... is there an advantage? If you AA Visa card awards 1 mile/$ spent (as an example), for a $75 meal, you'd ean 75 miles by charging on AA Visa, PLUS miles by using that registered card at a participating restaurant (the number of miles earned through I-Dine is dependent on your I-Dine status ... there are 3 levels, IIRC)

There was a banner ad on the Citi site yesterday that mentioned some perk for signing up for AAdvantage dining and using your Citi AAdvantage credit card. I'll have to go to the site and see if it's still there for the details. I'll edit when I do.

Edit: The perk is that you get an additional 500 mile new member bonus (in addition to the current 1500 mile bonus) when you sign up and register your citi aadvantage card:

**Exclusively for Citi® / AAdvantage® cardmembers, earn a total of 2,000 bonus miles when you enroll in the AAdvantage DiningSM program for the first time between 7/1/09 and 8/31/09 with your Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card and dine within 30 days of joining (minimum spend of $25). 1,500 AAdvantage(R) bonus miles will be awarded by AAdvantage Dining in accordance with terms above. The additional 500 bonus miles will be awarded separately by the American Airlines AAdvantage® program 6-8 weeks after qualifying dine.

none other that getting dining points, plus your regular $1/point using an AA Visa/MC/AMEX card which can be beneficial if you are trying to rack up RQM's asap.

Not at all.

I use my Hilton HHonors AMEX Surpass card where I can (most, but not all, places,) so I can get the AAdvantage miles and the 3 HHonors points per dollar spent - and where possible, use OpenTable to make the reservation so I can get their 100 - 1,000 OpenTable points - oh, and use any available coupons for discounts, etc.

E.g. a recent dine at our local Il Fornaio - free dessert coupon (we share one dessert,) 1,000 OT points (equivalent to a $10.00 rebate,) AA miles and HH points. Much tastier! :D

You might even choose to enroll in two programs and register cards accordingly.


Now that this has been discussed in the American AAdvantage Forum for a while, it will ship out to the iDine / Rewards Network Forum, where it is more appropriate.

/Moderator

All cards should be registered, but not necessarily with the same program.

I find the dining programs one of the easiest ways to keep accounts from going dormant. So while I have one card registered to AA dining, I have others registered to Delta, NW, and Hilton.

Holy cow! How did I never know about these programs? It's not like I prefer making dinner to making reservations. ;) This afternoon's to do list includes attaching my credit cards to the different programs -- that is after I check out who has sign up bonuses. Too bad Jetblue doesn't participate ... yet.

Thanks again for all the info!

"Double your pleasure, double your fun..."
 

And go out on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. :)

Save your receipts until the miles post.
If more than a week passes (edit to be consistent with PS's info in post 14) without the miles appearing, scan the receipt and email it to this address, along with your name and the relevant FF number.

[email protected]


Actually, this address is for AA, I don't know the emails for the others.
But there is a form linked from the rewardsnetwork.com page that lists your awards. IME, all I've gotten from that form is an auto reply saying they'd look into it. Only email or phone to customer service has ever worked for me to get credit for a dine that their system didn't automatically capture.

Edited to add: in the process of following up on a missing dine, rewards network CS sent contact information for missing dines that I have not seen before, which seems to be generic. At least, I had not seen the email address, I think the postal is on the web site.
[email protected]
or fax 305-892-3364, Attn: Reward Claims
or mail to
(name of your program) program Member Services
300 South Park Road Suite 300
Hollywood, FL 33021
Attn: Reward Claims

Instructions:
"... we ask that you please mail or fax us a copy of the restaurant receipt or credit card statement ....
For verification purposes, it is very important that the last four digits of the credit card number is visible, as well as the date and amount spent at the time of dining. Please be advised if a debit card was used, you must send a photo copy of the credit card showing the last 4 digits. Our system is designed to issue rewards based on the registration of the credit card number."

I believe these days you can contact them if the dine hasn't posted after one week.

I think that's right, and contacting sooner rather than later is important. The printing on those receipts fades fast and it's annoying to have to redact a scan of a credit card statement. I'm in the middle of an uncharacteristic series of unresponsive CS responses for a dine that took place in June. I shoulda scanned the receipt for the first inquiry because now the receipt is just about faded away.

While we're at it, another source of advice for a newcomer to rewardsnetwork is:

www.freefrequentflyermiles.com

Click on "Other programs I Like," then on "Dining."
For example, it contains how-to advice on fast-tracking yourself to elite status so you can get more miles per dine.