Frequent Flyer and Hotel Loyalty Dining Programs have been around for awhile, but it’s only in the context of the US Airways Grand Slam (since Dividend Miles Dining is one of the hits) that I finally got around to signing up for any of them.  Many of the programs have bonuses for signing up as a new member if you spend a certain amount within the first 30 days or so (and complete an online review in some cases), so it certainly makes sense to take advantage of the bonus. Here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros

• Nice new member bonuses for most programs until December 31, 2011

• Earn miles or points for dining; every mile/point counts!

• Decent earn level after you reach VIP and provide a valid email: usually 5 points per dollar spent

• You can link ANY credit card to a given dining program; it does not need to be a cobranded card for the same airline mile or hotel point program

• If you have most of your miles in one program, pretty simple to just make sure pay with the credit card you attached to the program whenever you dine; if the restaurant is part of the program you’ll automatically get miles/points

• Generally miles post within a few days (unlike the mileage shopping portals, where it can take weeks)

• Decent filtering and sorting of restaurant results by distance, cuisine, price, etc.

• You can double dip by linking your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card which gets 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent

Cons

• I live in NYC, and never have I seen listed in one place so many restaurants that I have zero interest in dining at

• You can only attach one credit card to one program; if you attempt to use it again when signing up for another program, the new program will be attached, but the old one will not.

• You will only earn the maximum number of points (usually 5) per dollar spent *after* you complete 12 or more dines (try to keep them cheap, like a drink from a takeout place). You must provide an email address both for the VIP and Online Member level, so you may want to use an “extra” one

• Since iDine powers most of the dining programs, the restaurant list is exactly the same (I guess this could be a pro for simplicity, but am still bummed by the lack of *good* restaurants)

• Although theoretically you can get a Restaurant.com certificate and combine it with a dining program dine, in practice I’ve found very little overlap between the restaurants that are in both programs (and of those, virtually none that I want to dine at)

• No integration of other reviewer restaurant ratings, e.g. from Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable or MenuPages

Ok, so I admit I’m probably too picky about my restaurants (it does go back to my philosophy to not do things you don't enjoy just for miles/points though--at least not without a HUGE bonus involved), and hopefully many of you will have better luck finding places you actually want to dine at, using the various dining programs.

Airline Dining Programs

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Dining

Bonus: 500 Miles

Terms: Spend at least $25 on a single dine within 30 days of joining

Expires: Create profile by 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 5 Mileage Plan miles per dollar spent

AAdvantage Dining

Bonus: 1000 Miles

Terms: Spend at least $30 on a single dine within 30 days of joining and complete a post-dine online review within 30 days of your dine

Expires: Create profile by 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent

Delta SkyMiles Dining

New Member Bonus: 1000 Miles

Terms: Spend at least $25 at any combination of participating restaurants within 30 days of joining

Expires: Create profile by 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 5 Skymiles per dollar spent

Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining

New Member Bonus: 300 Points

Terms: Spend at least $25 on a single dine within 60 days of joining and complete a post-dine online review within 30 days of your dine

Expires: no expiration specified

Usual Earning: 3 Rapid Rewards points per dollar spent

Other bonuses are available: 500 points “First Step bonus after you’ve earned 1500 points in Rapid Rewards Dining, 300 points “Thank You” bonus for every 1000 points earned after the first 1500, and 10 points for every review.

United MileagePlus Dining

New Member Bonus: 1000 MileagePlus Miles

Terms: Spend at least $50 on a single dine within 30 days of joining, but no later than 12/31/11

Expires: 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 5 MileagePlus Miles per dollar spent

US Airways Dividend Miles Dining

New Member Bonus: 1000 Dividend Miles

Terms: Spend at least $25 on a single dine within 45 days of joining and complete a post-dine online review within 30 days of your dine

Expires: Create profile by 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 5 Dividend Miles per dollar spent

Hotel Dining Programs

Hilton HHonors Dining

New Member Bonus: 1000 Hilton HHonors Points

Terms: Spend at least $25 at any combination of participating restaurants within 30 days of joining and complete a post-dine online review within 30 days of each dine

Expires: Create profile by 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 8 Hilton HHonors Points per dollar spent

Priority Club Rewards Dining

New Member Bonus: 1000 Priority Club Points

Terms: Spend at least $30 on a single dine within 45 days of joining and complete a post-dine online review within 30 days of your dine

Expires: Create profile by 12/31/11

Usual Earning: Up to 8 Priority Club Points per dollar spent

Getting back to original objective, to find a restaurant that would both earn me a Grand Slam hit and the 1000 Dividend Miles New Member bonus, I finally settled on a Turkish place within a mile of my place. I sorted the list by "Member Rating" and it's one of the top ones, and also seems to have good reviews on Yelp and MenuPages. Only problem--it leaves the program at the end of the month, so I guess we'll be dining there this weekend.

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