So far I’ve covered the Delta Skymiles Dining and Rakuten Dining plans, but how do they compare? Which is the better plan for my long term rewards? In this post we will compare the Return on Expense (ROE) for these plans, and for good measure add Hilton Honors Dining.

It’s easy to compare these plans as each uses the same backend service for the restaurant catalog. This means when you enroll your card in one plan, it can’t be used in any other using that service. So no stacking your rewards with these restaurants!

Rakuten has a straight 5% cash back reward.

Delta uses a two-tier model. The basic membership earns 3 PPD and if you get 11 or more visits in a year, you become a VIP and earn 5 PPD.

To make things even MORE confusing, Hilton Honors Dining has a 3 tier membership. If you opt-out of emails from the plan, you get 2 PPD, and if you opt-in for emails you get 5 PPD. (who is giving up the 3PPD just because of email?!?!?!) . And when you have 11 or more visits in a year, you go up to 8 PPD.

It’s easy to see that even at Delta Skymiles Dining’s basic tier you make out better than any other plan, let alone if you hit VIP status, you earn DOUBLE the value.