I recently wrote about sign up bonuses for a couple of airline dining programs.
While dining programs are a great way to earn extra miles/ points (which can extend the expiration date of a loyalty program), you need to remember to link credit cards to your accounts.
Miles and points earned from participating restaurants also don’t cost you anything extra. You are getting rewarded for a spend you were most likely making regardless…
This brings me to a question that I had on the post mentioned above in the comments.
Reader Denny wanted to know:
“Can you use the same card for both programs and eat at a place that works for both dining programs and double dip?“
While this was an interesting question to ask, I was afraid to give the bad news that no, this is not allowed.
Considering that all dining programs that I know of are run by Rewards Network, I figured there had to be an official rule written out regarding this idea.
According to the Rewards Network member agreement, “A Registered Card may relate to only one Program“.
So what happens if you do register one credit card for more than one dining program? Rewards Network’s agreement states: “If a Registered Card is registered in a second Program, we will cancel that Registered Card’s participation in the first Program“.
And here is the other important piece of information. Since the card was now cancelled with the first program, it is up to you to register a new one if you don’t have more than one card on file if you still want to earn miles/ points with it.
Another thing to remember when it comes to airline and hotel dining programs is that “You are responsible for registering a new payment card with us if your Registered Card is no longer valid“.
I have to say that I’ve been guilty in the past of forgetting to update some of my Rewards Network dining accounts with new credit cards or updated expiration dates.
A great way to double dip when dining out is by using OpenTable. Earn points for dining reservations. Earn 100 points per reservation and some places even offer 1,000 points. 1,000 points gets you $10 off at participating restaurants.
Do you try to take advantage of airline and hotel dining programs?
I am less sophisticated. But I have membership in 4 of the dining programs. When any of them are running promotions I use the card for that dining program. I suppose if 2 are running at the same time, I could do split tender and claim 2 bonus at once for the same meal.
Juno- I mentioned that the card gets unregistered from the first program. Didn’t know that they send an e-mail notification!
AndyTLe- So true! OpenTable has been greatly improving the restaurant options available while I find Rewards Network to be pretty blah, at least close to home.
DaninMCI- That stinks! I don’t know much about the Microsoft program. Is it worth a closer look?
No only that but you can’t even link that same card to the new Microsoft points scheme as it’s also run by the same network.
I’ve double dipped with OpenTable and Rewards Network for years. Helps narrow down restaurant choices.
as soon as you register a credit card, that is registered with another program, it automatically unregisters that credit card from the first program. You’ll get an email notification about that.