# AGR and United Mileage Plus EWR only?



## NW cannonball (Nov 5, 2012)

I see on both the United site and AGR site that there is some kind of point reciprocity agreement between AMTK and UAL.

Only if you fly United to EWR and connect to some specific Amtrak stations - except if -- etc --

Having trouble understanding the terms.

Has anyone tried this? Either to get AGR points or United points?

My situation is - I have just enough United points from a recent trip to Japan to get a one-way domestic (t&c restrictions and all that) and not many AGR points just now.

Want to visit daughter down in Hampton Roads sometime soonish. Maybe flying to EWR and catching the Regional down to NPN or Norfolk.

But the terms and conditions on both AGR and United sites seem fairly restrictive as to destination stations - I think it's possible to work around that for my needs.

Anyone out there tried this offer?

[edit] Or maybe just flying USAIR to PHF and taking the train home would work better for points and price?


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## Devil's Advocate (Nov 5, 2012)

It's still not entirely clear to me which account you're favoring over the other. Are you trying to earn United points on Amtrak? Or are you trying to earn AGR points on UA? In any case, unless you're dealing with Amtrak connections to or from Philadelphia, Wilmington, Stamford, or New Haven, United probably won't have a placeholder codeshare to work with. Tickets honoring this agreement are apparently too complicated for Amtrak to book and must be booked with United instead. As a result you're going to have to work within United's rules. I suppose you could manually add another trip to the end of a United codeshare trip but that seems like a lot of work for rather little benefit, unless you're just shy of a redemption on AGR. US Airways is part of the same global alliance as United, so you should be able to put any US miles into your United MP account. Although UA's Mileage Plus points cannot be transferred to Amtrak (excepting a tiny number of orphaned codeshares) they can still be used for seats on over thirty other airlines, and that's where I'd use them if it were up to me.


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## NW cannonball (Nov 5, 2012)

Yeah, I'm unclear on this, but it's a rather limited offer. I could use either kind of points AGR or United - but the restrictions and booking difficulties -- maybe not worth the trouble.


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## PRR 60 (Nov 5, 2012)

NW cannonball said:


> Yeah, I'm unclear on this, but it's a rather limited offer. I could use either kind of points AGR or United - but the restrictions and booking difficulties -- maybe not worth the trouble.


If a train ride and AGR points are important, I would just go with the plane one way, and the train the other. That makes both bookings routine. Using UA into EWR when you really want to get to PHF is heading the wrong way and would add a lot of time and ticketing nonsense to your trip.

Use the train heading home. Take a NE Regional to WAS, the Capitol Limited to CHI, then the Builder home. Heading west the connections are reasonably secure. Eastbound, not so much.


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## NW cannonball (Nov 7, 2012)

PRR 60 said:


> NW cannonball said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, I'm unclear on this, but it's a rather limited offer. I could use either kind of points AGR or United - but the restrictions and booking difficulties -- maybe not worth the trouble.
> ...


Thanks, yes, -- with the awkwardness of the offer and all - think I'll fly east and train west.


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