# 10% rebate with your onboard food and beverage purchases



## printman2000 (Jun 4, 2019)

Got an email last night from AGR saying my Amtrak Mastercard now has additional benefit...

Hungry for more benefits? Now, when you use your Amtrak Guest Rewards® Platinum Mastercard® for onboard food and beverage purchases, you'll receive a 10% rebate in the form of a credit on your next bank statement. From freshly brewed coffee to a quick bite—with perks like this, enjoying our onboard menu is more rewarding than ever. 

In addition to the rebate, you'll earn 2X points on your purchase. When you spend more, you earn more.


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## TinCan782 (Jun 4, 2019)

printman2000 said:


> Got an email last night from AGR saying my Amtrak Mastercard now has additional benefit...
> 
> Hungry for more benefits? Now, when you use your Amtrak Guest Rewards® Platinum Mastercard® for onboard food and beverage purchases, you'll receive a 10% rebate in the form of a credit on your next bank statement. From freshly brewed coffee to a quick bite—with perks like this, enjoying our onboard menu is more rewarding than ever.
> 
> In addition to the rebate, you'll earn *2*X points on your purchase. When you spend more, you earn more.



Actually, onboard (food and beverage) purchases are (or were) *3* points per dollar...did that get reduced with this rebate you mentioned?


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## pennyk (Jun 4, 2019)

I did not get an email but went to my account. I have a World Mastercard, whereas OP appears to have the Platinum Mastercard. It appears that Amtrak purchases are still 3 points per dollar plus a 20% rebate for onboard food and beverage purchases for the World Mastercard.


> Now serving: a 20% rebate when you order from the menu. Use your Amtrak Guest Rewards® World Mastercard® for onboard food and beverage purchases and you’ll receive a 20% rebate, in the form of a statement credit. From pizza to sandwiches to your beverage of choice, enjoying our onboard menu is more rewarding than ever.


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## TinCan782 (Jun 4, 2019)

pennyk said:


> I did not get an email but went to my account. I have a World Mastercard, whereas OP appears to have the Platinum Mastercard. It appears that Amtrak purchases are still 3 points per dollar plus a 20% rebate for onboard food and beverage purchases for the World Mastercard.


Just saw that too...3x points and 20% for World Card and 2x points and 10% for the Platinum Card.
https://www.amtrak.com/apply.html


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## pennyk (Jun 20, 2019)

I just returned from a trip to NYC and back on the Silver Meteor where I used my AGR World Master Card 4 times (twice in the dining car for wine and twice in the cafe car for ice tea). Shortly after the charges were posted to my account, I received credits for "onboard food and beverage rebate." The credits were 20% of the total respective credit card charge (including tip).


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## neroden (Nov 29, 2019)

This is a curious little rebate. 

It's almost worthless because the amount one spends in the cafe car is so small. Maybe if they actually offered full-service dining car service on the East Coast to coach passengers, I'd be able to use this rebate for more than pennies.


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## Anderson (Dec 24, 2019)

neroden said:


> This is a curious little rebate.
> 
> It's almost worthless because the amount one spends in the cafe car is so small. Maybe if they actually offered full-service dining car service on the East Coast to coach passengers, I'd be able to use this rebate for more than pennies.


I'd actually argue that it isn't worthless in two main situations:
(1) Frequent Regional travelers/"Amtrak commuters". It knocks the edge off the price of a cup of coffee, in particular, if you're not in Business Class (on the Regional).
(2) LD travel. Again, it takes the edge off the cost of F&B on an LD trip, and it makes a dent in the cost of buying a drink with dinner. _More to the point_, I've maneuvered my tips onto the card for several years (usually by buying a drink with dinner), so I'm basically being rebated on my tips.

My guess is that (1) is the main market. It's not likely to single-handedly offset the cost of the card, but I can see a situation where it makes a substantial dent in it (you've only got to spend $100/yr to get $20 back off of it). TBH, if they hadn't axed the diner on the _Meteor _it probably _would_ cover the cost of the card for me (consider that I was generally having dinner on the _Meteor _at least once a month for most of the last decade, and figure a tip in the $10-15 range (depending on how the rounding worked, and bearing in mind that on some trips I'd be using a tip at one meal to cover 2-3 meals' tips), and then throw in some miscellaneous spend on Regionals (or on other LD trips) and it had a good chance of tallying up closer to the $395 needed in on-board spend to offset the card.

Edit: Also note that this was/is slick accounting magic: The revenue is still likely being credited to the train in question, but the rebate is very likely going to come from the credit card side of things. It's a wonderful trick to try and move more cash into the OBS account. It is also in line with what Delta offers on their CCs (though to be fair, said offer is mostly irrelevant from my POV because of my travel patterns).


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## jis (Dec 24, 2019)

This appears to be pretty standard practice on all US major airlines as far as I can tell. Another airlineism coming to Amtrak, and not a bad one IMHO.


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## the_traveler (Dec 24, 2019)

It’s a nice treat to reduce the cost of cafe food.

On a recent trip, I did not have time to get breakfast before I left. So I grabbed some from the cafe. The rebate reduced my cost from $8.xx to $6.xx - a semi reasonable cost.


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## Bob Dylan (Dec 24, 2019)

Ditto! Nobody pays List Price now days! lol


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## neroden (Dec 27, 2019)

Totally worthless benefit now. It amounts to pennies in the cafe car; not even worth the hassle (cash is faster). There is no food to buy in the Eastern dining cars any more. Cafe selection is bad enough (and getting worse) that I tell everyone to bring their own food all the time now.

Gimmicks are not going to make up for bad food selection.


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## pennyk (Dec 27, 2019)

This rebate has worked well for me - especially when purchasing a half bottle of wine and adding a tip. I have benefited even when purchasing ice tea from the cafe car. Pennies add up (for me).


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## Bob Dylan (Dec 27, 2019)

pennyk said:


> This rebate has worked well for me - especially when purchasing a half bottle of wine and adding a tip. I have benefited even when purchasing ice tea from the cafe car. Pennies add up (for me).


"A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned." Benjamin Franklin


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## TinCan782 (Dec 27, 2019)

I usually only purchase a couple of bottles of beer each afternoon to take back to my room. I'll take what I can get from the rebate; no rebate and I would still make my beer purchase.


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## the_traveler (Dec 27, 2019)

neroden said:


> Totally worthless benefit now. It amounts to pennies in the cafe car; not even worth the hassle (cash is faster). There is no food to buy in the Eastern dining cars any more. Cafe selection is bad enough (and getting worse) that I tell everyone to bring their own food all the time now.
> 
> Gimmicks are not going to make up for bad food selection.


While it may be “just pennies” (as you say), they add up.

$2 for that breakfast. If I were getting a sleeper on Western trains and while meals are included, I order wine. That way I can charge the wine AND the tip! So for $10, I get another $2 back. So if I do that for lunch and dinner, and I’m traveling on say 8-10 train nights - that’s $20! I could go out and have dinner at my destination with my “just pennies” rebate.

If you go to the cafe or dining car and pay cash “because it’s easier”, I’m just wondering how much of a rebate you get back from the LSA?


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## neroden (Dec 30, 2019)

I notice that everyone who thinks this is worth actual money seems to be ordering wine, which is expensive, so 10% on wine adds up. Or they're charging their tip in the dining car to the card -- it's kind of rude and troublemaking for the staff to do that when your meals come with the sleeper and you are not ordering wine, so I don't.

Fair enough. Call it a benefit for wine drinkers, or for coach passengers using the dining car.

I'm a teetotaler. I can't have the sandwiches due to allergies to various bread ingredients. So the 22 cents rebate in the cafe car on the packets of peanuts really doesn't add up to anything. The 55 cents on the cheese and cracker tray might add up, after a trip across the country and back, to a couple of dollars. Maybe $10 a year. It amounts to nothing.

If they still had dining cars on the Lake Shore Limited, *where I used to ride coach and eat in the dining car regularly*, then this would be a valuable perk. But for the cafe cars, it really doesn't amount to much.


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## me_little_me (Jan 7, 2020)

neroden said:


> I notice that everyone who thinks this is worth actual money seems to be ordering wine, which is expensive, so 10% on wine adds up. Or they're charging their tip in the dining car to the card -- it's kind of rude and troublemaking for the staff to do that when your meals come with the sleeper and you are not ordering wine, so I don't.


Rude to the staff that the tip is put on a credit card with the wine? Excuse me! Possibly the staff should refuse to accept such tips and process the card without a tip. This way they don't have to do anything extra to earn the tip and just miss out on the money altogether. That's much less rude to them?

I don't drink either and would not think to do that but I have no qualms about someone who wants wine to include the meal tip on the CC to avoid having to have enough cash or ask to exchange large bills.


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## Devil's Advocate (Jan 7, 2020)

me_little_me said:


> Rude to the staff that the tip is put on a credit card with the wine? Excuse me!


Looks like he's saying it's rude to put a tip on a card when you're _not_ ordering anything extra like wine or beer. He doesn't seem to have a problem with people who buy wine and then tip on top of that. I think the main crux of his point is that outside of those who order wine or cocktails it's not worth considering this rebate when buying non-alcoholic drinks and snacks.


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