It’s been a while since I’ve written about the AAdvantage Dining program and the reason for that is pretty simple. I haven’t been writing about the program because it’s been a while since I’ve used the AAdvantage Dining Program.
See, a few months ago I moved from Chicago to New York and since moving I haven’t found any good participating restaurants. When I first moved I found a few place near where I worked, but all of them were quite expensive. Sure, the participating restaurants near me looked great, but I typically wouldn’t spend that much money dining out.
How I’ve Historically Used The AAdvantage Dining Program
For those who may not know about the AAdvantage Dining program I want to quickly explain how it works. The AAdvantage Dining program is a loyalty program that awards members airline/hotel miles (in this case AA AAdvantage miles) for dining out. When you visit a participating restaurant you earn miles/points with the program, but also with the credit card used.
The more you dine at participating restaurants the more rewarding the program becomes. The program becomes most rewarding at the “VIP” level which members earn when they opt-in to email marketing and dine at 12 participating restaurants within a 12-month period.
Once you reach “VIP,” you’ll earn 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent at a participating restaurants. Again, this is in addition to any miles/points you may earn with a credit card. So, for example, if you dine at a participating restaurant as a VIP member and pay with the Citi Prestige card, you’ll earn 5 Citi ThankYou points and 5 AA miles per dollar spend. So, a $10 purchase would earn you 50 Citi Points and 50 AA miles. In total, that’s about $1.5 back in points and miles.
AAdvantage Dining Reminder Email
As I mentioned above, I used to use the AAdvantage Dining program quite frequently in Chicago. There were a ton of lunch spots around my office which participated in the program. However, here in New York, there are far fewer… or so I thought.
When I first moved here I remember searching the area around where I work for restaurants with very few results. After searching a few times I all but gave up on trying to dine at a participating restaurant. After several months I started to get various email from the program reminding me to update my credit card information, etc. as I clearly wasn’t using the program as often as I once was.
I mostly ignored these emails, but one that I received recently caught my eye. The email, as seen below, reminded me to give the program a try.
At first I didn’t think much of it, but as I read the email I noticed the following:
It was at that point that I clicked the link and again searched near my office. Quickly I noticed several restaurants, many of which I’ve walked past a dozen times, which were somehow on the list. These restaurants definitely were not on the list a few months ago. While I tend to ignore emails like this I actually found this particular email quite useful.
Final Thoughts
The AAdvantage Dining program, and any dining programs for that matter, is probably the most underutilized miles/points earning opportunity out there. Everyone knows that you get credit card rewards, but far fewer realize that you can stack airline/hotel miles on top of those purchases through dining programs. In this case, I can earn 10 points on a qualifying restaurant purchase which is far better than any single card benefit today.
The lesson learned here is that if you aren’t already signed up for a dining program you absolutely should look into it. It doesn’t matter which program you chose (American, United, Marriott, Hilton, Southwest) as long as you know that you can only pick one. For example, you couldn’t sign up for United and American and hope to earn miles at both. Instead, your card can only be linked to one program and the linked card triggers the rewards. You could link card A to one and card B to another, but that’s a topic for a different day.
Further, the other reminder is that even if you’ve looked at the list of participating restaurants before, it’s important to look often as restaurants join or leave the program frequently. Just because a place is on there this week doesn’t mean it will be included next week. Likewise, who knows which restaurants will pop up in the future. All I know, is that tomorrow I have a new lunch place to try near my office and I’ll be earning a few extra AA miles for doing so.
