2 Millionth AGR Member Promotion

[AAARGH!]

My name is Dave ... and I'm an Amtrakholic.

Hi Daaaaaave.......

 

[Bob Dylan]

My name is Dave ... and I'm an Amtrakholic.
I've heard there may be a cure in PDX or LAX or CHI or BHM or SAS or DEN or ABQ or BOS or WAS or SAC or ...! So I must keep riding to them until I find it! :lol: (I hope I never do! )

Since AA is already take, guess were AUers!!!Im also an Amtrakholic,will keep riding until Im cured,which as Mark Twain said is:

"The ideal life is to run out of breath and money at the same instant!"Hope when my time to go arrives(and it will,just not till after

8/20 please! :lol: )that it's in a bedroom on the EB or CZ or CS or even,gasp,coach on a milk run to one of the Amshaks weve

seen pics of on this forum!What a way to go!(Do funeral homes give points if you use the AGR MC? :lol: :lol: :lol: )

 

[Upstate]

Since AA is already take, guess were AUers!!!Im also an Amtrakholic,will keep riding until Im cured,which as Mark Twain said is:"The ideal life is to run out of breath and money at the same instant!"Hope when my time to go arrives(and it will,just not till after8/20 please! :lol: )that it's in a bedroom on the EB or CZ or CS or even,gasp,coach on a milk run to one of the Amshaks weveseen pics of on this forum!What a way to go!(Do funeral homes give points if you use the AGR MC? :lol: :lol: :lol: )

Umm, yeah, please hold off on those death wishes until you get to the Amshack. I really don't want to ever occupy a sleeper that someone died in. That would be kind of creepy.

 

[the_traveler]

The ideal life is to run out of breath and money at the same instant!

What's this "money" thing I keep hearing about? :huh:

I just keep using the AGR MC to get points. :lol: Do they actually expect you to pay for these purchases with this "money"? :huh:

 

[Ryan]

Sort of wanted to ride back on the B&O, but I just didn't feel like getting up extra early to get #67. Still time to change my mind.

I'll be on 67 that morning, taking a bit of a detour on the way to work as well.

 

[alanh]

I'm going -- TUS-MRC. A friend will drop me in Tucson and meet me in Maricopa.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Sort of wanted to ride back on the B&O, but I just didn't feel like getting up extra early to get #67. Still time to change my mind.

I'll be on 67 that morning, taking a bit of a detour on the way to work as well.

I booked a ressie on #67 as well, and am going to shoot for that, at which point I'd cancel the one on #151. I could come back on the "Marcela Express" train #406, but it's been a year since I've ridden Camden, so that'll be my aim.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Well,I am going from Atlanta to Birmingham and back on 8/20. Hope there are no freight derailments this time, but if they are, I will consider staying with the train.

 

[Upstate]

I guess I will roll the dice. Charlotte to Salisbury and back on the evening round trip for $14.40 AAA Gives me an excuse to give the Piedmont a try if only for 43 minutes

 

[jack615]

I am going to be on the rails Thursday as well, going to be doing a round trip from Boston to Providence down on the Acela and then back on a regional, not that long of a trip, but easy way to get some points plus the bonus ones ill be getting out of this promotion.

Jack

 

[AAARGH!]

I'm doing a nice loop, starting on the 20th in Pittsburgh. I'll take the Capital Limited to WAS and a Regional to BWI. The next day I will take another Regional from BWI to Philadelphia where I will pick up the Penny back to Pittsburgh.

Add three different motel stays at three different Wyndham brands, and I'll get an additional 10,000 points beyond the regular points, AGR Select bonus points, Summer Power Points AND the 2MM points!!!!!! Woo Hoo!

 

[rrdude]

I dunno, looking for some input from you experts......... Only thing I can really swing is BWI - Balt/Penn RT, and at $30.00 (too late to book with NARP or AAA rate

What do you all think, is it worth it?

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

I dunno, looking for some input from you experts......... Only thing I can really swing is BWI - Balt/Penn RT, and at $30.00 (too late to book with NARP or AAA rate
What do you all think, is it worth it?

You're paying $30 for 100 rail points, 100 Summer points and at most another 100 or so 2MM points. That is 10 points for every dollar. When you go to use those points you had better get more than 10¢ per point.

Of course its like the lottery, we could all be horribly wrong in our calculations and you could get 3,000 2MM points,

 

[Rumpled]

I dunno, looking for some input from you experts......... Only thing I can really swing is BWI - Balt/Penn RT, and at $30.00 (too late to book with NARP or AAA rate
What do you all think, is it worth it?

I'm no expert, and you get to decide if it's worth it.

But you'd get 100 points each way; plus the summer bonus (you are registered for that, right?) another 100 points each way and I'm guessing about 50-200 points for this promotion.

So that's at most about 6.7 cents per point. Can you make it a worthwhile trip, grab a meal?

That's what I'm doing - I should do better than 3.2 cents per point.

The standard 2 points per dollar works out to 50 cents per point earned. You'll beat that nearly 10 fold.

 

[Rumpled]

ALC (posted just when I did) rrdude is talking RT; so he can nearly double his points and halve his cost per point.

 

[rrdude]

You all are right, it might be a little "high", but then again it will force me to take an afternoon off, and do a little "pure" train watching, I haven't done THAT in literally decades.

DONE DEAL! Ya talked me into it!

 

[rrdude]

kk, we'll see what haps. Paid $30.00 for it using the AMTRAK MC, already registered for the 2MM Promo, and the Summer Promo. Should be interesting........

Check my math guys: 30 for using the AMTRAK MasterCard

100 for coach travel BWI-Balt Penn

100 for coach travel Balt Penn - BWI

300 for Northeast Regional (this is one time right, not each leg of the trip?)

estimated 200 for 2MM promotion

-----

730 (if 2MM promo is accurate) ??? Am I missing something?

 

[Upstate]

kk, we'll see what haps. Paid $30.00 for it using the AMTRAK MC, already registered for the 2MM Promo, and the Summer Promo. Should be interesting........
Check my math guys: 30 for using the AMTRAK MasterCard

100 for coach travel BWI-Balt Penn

100 for coach travel Balt Penn - BWI

300 for Northeast Regional (this is one time right, not each leg of the trip?)

estimated 200 for 2MM promotion

-----

730 (if 2MM promo is accurate) ??? Am I missing something?

The Amtrak MC gives 2 points per dollar spent on Amtrak so it would be 60.

You wouldn't get the 300 for the NE Regional.

From the T&C of this promotion:

Northeast Regional travel must be a minimum of $35 per qualifying trip one-way or $70 per roundtrip.

You would get the 100 bonus for coach on the summer promotion for each ticket.

 

[the_traveler]

So you would get

100 + 100 for BAL-BWI

100 + 100 for BWI-BAL

60 for using the CC

plus whatever the lottery will give us from the 2MM

So, you'll earn at least 460 points for your $30!

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

From the T&C of this promotion:

Northeast Regional travel must be a minimum of $35 per qualifying trip one-way or $70 per roundtrip.

You would get the 100 bonus for coach on the summer promotion for each ticket.

They obviously had people taking short trips in mind.

 

[RTOlson]

The problem is that the Capitol is non-reserved, so I'll just have to show up at the Chico bus, give the driver my ID, buy my round-trip ticket in Sac, and hope that I get credited with my AGR points.
Does anyone see a problem with this?

I don't think there will be a problem -- as long as the ticket clerk adds your AGR number to your ticket. I think as long as the AGR number is added before you pick up your tickets, it will be handled routinely.

I'm planning on traveling out of Chico on Thursday too. Unfortunately, the bus doesn't quite work out for me so I'm going to drive to Sacramento and do what I'm calling a NorCal Triangle™ ...

- SAC to Stockton ACE Station (SKT) aboard southbound San Joaquin

- Walk to the other Stockton station (SKN)

- SKN to Martinez (MTZ) aboard northbound San Joaquin

- MTZ back to SAC aboard Capitol Corridor

Three legs + three hours aboard a train = $34.50

For that $34.50, I'll receive a minimum of 500 points plus whatever comes from the 2M promotion.

200 (leg 1) + 200 (leg 2) + 100 (leg 3, which falls outside of summer bonus)

I'll also get to travel between Sacramento, Stockton and Martinez by rail, which is new for me. Plus, I'll be able to double-check the San Joaquin menu which has been a topic of discussion. I'll also be able to check out Martinez and the Lincoln Bicentennial exhibit in Sacramento.

I'm looking forward to Thursday.

 

[rrdude]

Opps, forgot about the 2 points per dollar spread. Man, I HATE reading the fine print on these promos, but I guess that's the only way.........Grrrrrrrrr

I guess 460+ is what I'm getting, plus a few hours of "Forced" train-watching..........

Really we should "take side bets" on what the actual allocation of the 2MM will be. Closest to the actual (in the spirit of "The Price Is Right" game show) WITHOUT going over wins........ a kewpie doll, and our admiration.......

I'm guessing it will be 387 miles

 

[Ryan]

From the T&C of this promotion:

Northeast Regional travel must be a minimum of $35 per qualifying trip one-way or $70 per roundtrip.

You would get the 100 bonus for coach on the summer promotion for each ticket.

They obviously had people taking short trips in mind.

Crap, I never noticed that - I've been doing short trips last week and this week with the bigger bonus in mind. Still, 200 points for 12 or 18 bucks isn't that bad a gig, and the real point is to get over the top on select (I'm getting close!).

 

[jis]

The bonus points do not count towards Select qualification. Only base travel points count towards that.

 

[Cascadia]

I booked Bellingham to Mount Vernon Washington and return, a couple of weeks ago for tomorrow's promotion. It lets you book that as a round trip even though the time between trains is about ten minutes.

I think I will cancel it though, I'd have to be out catching a bus at 8:00 a.m, taking the chance on missing the return train and taking a bus back much later, and then I have to be at work at noon. Sounds like too much of a scramble in the morning to be fun.

I don't have a clue how much the promotion points will be, the trip would cost me 18.00, when I get a bug to do this I should do the "buy points" math again, I did it before and it compared favorably.

Most likely if I don't cancel this I will wake up tomorrow saying to myself "What was I thinking?"

lol.

It's really scenic between here and Mount Vernon for that little half hour trip though! The train goes at the base of a cliff by the water almost the whole way, and you look out into islands that are like a wilderness.