# Am I eligible?



## George K (Sep 8, 2014)

So....

I booked our cross-country trip about 6 weeks ago (departing Sept 19). It's me and my daughter traveling from Chicago to Portland (Empire Builder), then SF (Coast Starlight), and back to Chicago (Zephyr).

I did not, at that time, enroll in the guest rewards program - did it this morning.

Am I outaluck for rewards?


----------



## SarahZ (Sep 8, 2014)

Call Amtrak and ask them to add your AGR number to your reservation. I've had to do that before; it only takes a few seconds.


----------



## Orie (Sep 8, 2014)

I signed up for AGR for my trip on the Palmetto. But I forgot to link the two accounts! I linked them as soon as I remembered to when I got into Savannah. Two days later the points were posted. I think they post points after the trip, so as long as you link the accounts soon you'll be good


----------



## AmtrakBlue (Sep 8, 2014)

It's when you travel, not when you book. Just make sure to add your AGR #'s to the rez's. Since you're traveling within 90 days of signing up, you'll get the bonus points too.


----------



## TinCan782 (Sep 8, 2014)

I joined AGR shortly after taking an Amtrak trip. I requested, after the fact, and they granted me the points for the trip. Probably two weeks at the most between the trip and joining AGR.


----------



## the_traveler (Sep 8, 2014)

Also be sure to register for the *DOUBLE POINTS* promotion!


----------



## George K (Sep 8, 2014)

Thanks for all the replies! I just spoke to Linda at Amtrak Guest Rewards. She encouraged me to sign up for the Mastercard that I can use for travel points as well. She applied my entire trip to my rewards.

9000 points today!


----------



## shelzp (Sep 8, 2014)

If you do online shopping be sure to log on to AGR and see if you can shop through their portal! That's where many of us get the bulk of our points. Unfortunately for me amazon and eBay don't participate but my other two favorites of Nordstrom and WalMart (might not seem like they go together but I love both stores) are part of the program. I value my points at about 4 cents each so when you get five points per dollar it works out to 20% off the purchase right away. Someone here didn't appreciate my fuzzy math but that's the way I see the transaction. AGR will sell you points for 2.75 cents each so getting them for free with online shopping is a great way to pile them up. I'm already an online shopper so it's a no-brainer for me.


----------



## George K (Sep 8, 2014)

I buy a TON of stuff online. A lot through Amazon (they give me 3% on my card when I use it at their site).

But....

...it may be worth applying for the AGR card if it's so lucrative.


----------



## Orie (Sep 8, 2014)

George K said:


> Thanks for all the replies! I just spoke to Linda at Amtrak Guest Rewards. She encouraged me to sign up for the Mastercard that I can use for travel points as well. She applied my entire trip to my rewards.
> 
> 9000 points today!


If I can ask, what exactly happened with the agent? I ask because I signed for the card then booked a trip the next day. I wonder if I can get the trip applied on the card instead. The reason I didn't wait is because I'm on a vacation now and the card is being sent to my home address (and the trip is my way home from said vacation).


----------



## jebr (Sep 9, 2014)

George K said:


> I buy a TON of stuff online. A lot through Amazon (they give me 3% on my card when I use it at their site).
> 
> But....
> 
> ...it may be worth applying for the AGR card if it's so lucrative.


3% cash back is a better deal. I have the AGR card (recently.) I still use my AmEx for gas and groceries and my Discover on whatever the 5% thing of the quarter is, as I consider 2% cash back to be better than 1 Amtrak point (even though one Amtrak point I'd probably buy for 2.75 cents any day of the week.) But 1 Amtrak point, to me, is better than 1% cash back.

The online portal has some amazing gold mines, though (and don't require the AGR credit card, either! Just purchase through the link in the portal.) MagazineLine is 20 or 25 points per dollar. Always renew your magazines there...I got over 1,000 points just for ordering Trains magazine for the year.


----------



## shelzp (Sep 9, 2014)

George K said:


> I buy a TON of stuff online. A lot through Amazon (they give me 3% on my card when I use it at their site).
> 
> But....
> 
> ...it may be worth applying for the AGR card if it's so lucrative.


I do have the Amtrak card but you can use any credit card for purchasing through AGR! I use a different one on Amazon myself.


----------



## the_traveler (Sep 9, 2014)

Just for holding the AGR MasterCard, you receive a *5%* bonus on redemptions!  You do not even have to ever use it even - just have it "in your wallet". You must have the full amount of points for the trip redemption, but you immediately receive 5% of that amount back into your AGR account!


----------



## George K (Sep 9, 2014)

Well, this has been quite the education. It's easy, _really_ easy, to pile up points. My round the county trip week after next will earn about 15,000 points. That's enough for a free roomette within one zone! I applied (and was approved for) the AGR MasterCard, so that'll help a lot too!

Question about redeeming points: I got a brochure about "Amtrak Vacations." These appear to be all inclusive vacation packages, with overnight hotels, etc. Is it possible to apply points to those programs?


----------



## the_traveler (Sep 9, 2014)

No. Amtrak Vacations and Amtrak really are 2 separate companies.


----------



## VentureForth (Sep 10, 2014)

Unless you pay for it with your AGR Mastercard - but you'll only get 1 pt/$.


----------



## BCL (Sep 10, 2014)

George K said:


> Well, this has been quite the education. It's easy, _really_ easy, to pile up points. My round the county trip week after next will earn about 15,000 points. That's enough for a free roomette within one zone! I applied (and was approved for) the AGR MasterCard, so that'll help a lot too!
> 
> Question about redeeming points: I got a brochure about "Amtrak Vacations." These appear to be all inclusive vacation packages, with overnight hotels, etc. Is it possible to apply points to those programs?


They seem to be a licensee of Amtrak, but otherwise an independent travel agency. They seem to have a special relationship with Amtrak, but I don't believe AGR points can be applied to their packages. It's a company called "Yankee Leisure Group" that operates "Yankee Holidays" as well as "Unique Journeys" in addition to Amtrak Vacations.

http://www.ylginc.com/

As far as I can tell, all Amtrak Vacations brochures and information must be approved by Amtrak and are considered property of Amtrak. Yankee Leisure Group is just the provider.



> http://www.amtrakvacations.com/terms-and-conditions.aspx
> 
> Products and services described in this brochure are subject to change without notice. Call your Travel Agent or Amtrak Vacations at 1-800-AMTRAK-2 for information. This Amtrak Vacations brochure and its contents are copyrighted by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak®). ©Amtrak 2013. Acela Express®, Amtrak®, Amtrak Express®, Amtrak Metropolitan LoungeSM, Amtrak Vacations®, Auto Train®, California Zephyr®, Capitol Corridor®, Capitol LimitedSM, Cardinal®, Cascades®, City of New Orleans®, ClubAcela®, Coast Starlight®, Crescent®, Empire Builder®, Hiawatha® Service, Lake Shore Limited®, Pacific Surfliner®, Pere Marquette®, San Joaquin®, Silver Meteor®, Silver Star®, Southwest Chief®, Sunset Limited®, Superliner®, Texas Eagle®, U.S.A. Rail® Pass, Viewliner® and YOUR CAR, YOUR STUFF AND YOUSM are service marks of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. The Downeaster is a service mark of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority.


----------



## George K (Sep 15, 2014)

Orie said:


> George K said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for all the replies! I just spoke to Linda at Amtrak Guest Rewards. She encouraged me to sign up for the Mastercard that I can use for travel points as well. She applied my entire trip to my rewards.
> ...


When I applied for the card, I called AGR and she said that she couldn't apply the travel purchase to the card, because I hadn't gotten the card yet! On FridayI called the card service, and they expedited shipping. I received the cards this afternoon.

Called AGR and spoke to a very helpful lady who was able to speak to a supervisor. The charge on my Discover card has been credited, and the AGR MasterCard has been charged.

So, how many points am I going to get for this - I'm leaving on Friday!

12,000 for signing up (and spending $500 in 3 months).

My share of the fare is about $2100 (my seat and roomette).


----------



## the_traveler (Sep 15, 2014)

If your Amtrak tickets get charged to your AGR MasterCard (that is you paid for then with this card), you will earn 2 AGR points per dollar!  So if for instance your tickets were $340, you would earn 680 AGR points!

A little known fact is that if the charge is coded "Amtrak", it also earns 2/$!  Examples are if you buy wine with your dinner, you buy a burger at the cafe car or you buy a meal if you‘re in coach! Note that buying points does not earn 2/$ since they are actually purchased from Points.com and not Amtrak or AGR.


----------



## George K (Sep 15, 2014)

It's amazing how fast you can add up points.

I just changed payment methods for several things I pay every month:

Cable: $200

Cell Phone (5 lines): $220

Land Line: $40

Dish (at my other house) $100

That's over 550 points every month.

I suppose I should put my utilities on it as well!

Also, you can purchase 10,000 points per calendar year. I already did that, so I can buy another 10,000 in January!


----------



## the_traveler (Sep 15, 2014)

George K said:


> Dish (at my other house) $100


I just buy new dishes or use the dishwasher!  (I know what you mean.)


----------



## Dan O (Sep 15, 2014)

George K said:


> It's amazing how fast you can add up points.
> 
> I just changed payment methods for several things I pay every month:
> 
> ...


They do pile up fast, unfortunately too fast right now w/ a kid in college (takes CC and doesn't charge extra). His 18 months of college is paying for a 2 zone roundtrip roomette trip. Plus, the other bills that are on the AGR card. I won't be piling up points but am really looking forward to CC bill that is under $2k per month.

Dan


----------



## neutralist (Sep 16, 2014)

Manufactured Spending via college tuition is your friend, especially if you are anticipating grants and subsidized loans.

Otherwise, use it to pay your estimated federal income tax is another way to rack up points.


----------



## crescent2 (Sep 18, 2014)

When I first joined AGR, another way I got some points was to exchange from another points system, although the exchange rate wasn't very good. I wasn't using the other points and have used AGR, so it worked for me.


----------



## jtoddander (Sep 20, 2014)

Someone should compile and post the various ways of earning extra AGR points. Aside from the AGR MasterCard, I have seen some people reference the Chase Ultimate Rewards cards that allow 1:1 point transfer to AGR account. They have very attractive bonus offers that I have already used.

FYI...Barclays Bank does A Wyndham credit card that has no annual fee and awards a modest number of bonus points after using card once...with no spending requirement.

That modest bonus was enough to earn me 2400 or 2500 AGR points and all I needed to do was make a minimal charge on something I was going to put on another card.

What other programs out there offer good deals to get AGRA points?


----------



## George K (Sep 20, 2014)

I got in touch with the people at chase freedom. They told me that my 30,000 points were not transferable because the rewards programs are different.

Damn.


----------



## Bob Dylan (Sep 20, 2014)

George K said:


> I got in touch with the people at chase freedom. They told me that my 30,000 points were not transferable because the rewards programs are different.
> 
> Damn.


Take the Cash if you signed up for that option! What I did!!


----------



## jtoddander (Sep 20, 2014)

A little secret...if you have another Uktimate Rewards acct (e.g, chase sapphire preferred which often iffers 1st year without annual fee) you can then merge your chase freedom points into that account..they then become eligible to transfer to air and rail programs


----------



## jtoddander (Sep 20, 2014)

That what I did..


----------



## jtoddander (Sep 20, 2014)

Similar situation with Amex...their program is member rewards...there are two levels...the lower level cannot be used for travel...but if you have both programs you can merge the two and use for travel

Amex program is not affiliated with Amtrak...you would then need to transfer into another program before finally transferring to AGR


----------

