AGR numbers and kids

[tonijustine]

I am an AGR member and will be taking my 6 year old son on Spring break in March on the Cardinal (on points) and the Capitol/Hoosier State home.  I used my AGR member number to earn the points on our CL/HS leg for both the accommodation and the rail fare.  I get points on the total I spent for the two of us on the ticket.  However, there is a space for me to input his (currently non-existent) AGR number.  Should I get him a number, too?  If I do and I add his AGR number to our reservation, does he earn points in addition to my points?  I may be mis-remembering things, but somewhere at one time I think I read that he would, but I couldn't understand how one could double dip?  Did I misunderstand?  If he too can earn points on this same leg, how does that even work?

Thanks!

 

[Bob Dylan]

The Second person that is an AGR Member  on a ticket earns their  Rail Fare Points only, the First name listed gets the Accommodation points and their Rail Fare points.

 

[PRR 60]

I get points on the total I spent for the two of us on the ticket. 

To clarify, I do not believe that you will earn points for the second person's rail fare regardless of whether that person is an AGR member or not.  Either that person earns the points as an AGR member, or if not an AGR member, no points are earned for that portion of the total fare. For example:

• Person 1 - lead person on the reservation
  
• Person 2 - second person on the reservation
  

Sample calculation:

• Rail fare 1 ($100) - Person 1 earns 200 AGR points
  
• Rail fare 2 ($100) - Person 2 earns 200 AGR points (if not a member, no points earned)
  
• Accommodation charge ($500) - Person 1 earns 1000 AGR points
  

Sample AGR earning:

• Person 1 - 1200 points (even if person 2 is not an AGR member)
  
• Person 2 - 200 points
  

At least that is how I understand it.

 

[SarahZ]

Sample AGR earning:

• Person 1 - 1200 points (even if person 2 is not an AGR member)
  
• Person 2 - 200 points
  

That's how I remember it. Since I took many more train trips over the year, I'd book our yearly trip to ABQ in my name and make him Person 2. That way, I got the largest number of points.

 

[cpotisch]

Huh. I would have sworn that you can only have one AGR number on each reservation. I guess we may have misread it or something, but I would have sworn that last time we were booking a sleeper ticket for two people, we tried to put in the AGR numbers for each person and it said that you could only have one. Am I hallucinating?

 

[SarahZ]

To be honest, I could be remembering incorrectly, or the rules have changed in the past four years or so.

 

[TinCan782]

Huh. I would have sworn that you can only have one AGR number on each reservation. I guess we may have misread it or something, but I would have sworn that last time we were booking a sleeper ticket for two people, we tried to put in the AGR numbers for each person and it said that you could only have one. Am I hallucinating?

When  I book a sleeper with my name and AGR number, my wife's AGR number  is included with her name as the companion. That way, we both get points... me the basic rail fare plus the accommodation charge; my wife gets points for her basic rail fare charge.

 

[cpotisch]

Huh. I would have sworn that you can only have one AGR number on each reservation. I guess we may have misread it or something, but I would have sworn that last time we were booking a sleeper ticket for two people, we tried to put in the AGR numbers for each person and it said that you could only have one. Am I hallucinating?

When  I book a sleeper with my name and AGR number, my wife's AGR number  is included with her name as the companion. That way, we both get points... me the basic rail fare plus the accommodation charge; my wife gets points for her basic rail fare charge.

I see. Well in that case we must have been doing something wrong when we got that error, AND have I guess been missing out on points for every companions’ rail fare on every Amtrak trip we’ve ever taken. Crap. 

 

[SarahZ]

 

[pennyk]

I see. Well in that case we must have been doing something wrong when we got that error, AND have I guess been missing out on points for every companions’ rail fare on every Amtrak trip we’ve ever taken. Crap. 

You should call and add your number to your most recent reservations.  

 

[cpotisch]

I see. Well in that case we must have been doing something wrong when we got that error, AND have I guess been missing out on points for every companions’ rail fare on every Amtrak trip we’ve ever taken. Crap. 

You should call and add your number to your most recent reservations.  

The issue is that I only have one trip coming up (#98 on Tuesday), and the rail fare for one person is only about $110, and therefore only nets something like $4 worth of points. That’s not only unusable on its own, also not nearly enough to even be transferred to another account. hboy:

 

[tonijustine]

Thanks everyone. That makes sense and I will probably discuss with my husband about getting our son enrolled. I hate giving out personal information on a kiddo that round so we may just forgo the extra points anyway. But now I know...

 

[the_traveler]

Huh. I would have sworn that you can only have one AGR number on each reservation. I guess we may have misread it or something, but I would have sworn that last time we were booking a sleeper ticket for two people, we tried to put in the AGR numbers for each person and it said that you could only have one. Am I hallucinating?

You would have 2 separate AGR numbers on each reservation. The AGR number for the parent (0000015) would be on that reservation and the AGR number for the son (000000238) would be on his reservation. 

In the above example, AGR account 0000015 would receive 1,200 points, while AGR account 000000238 would receive 200 points.

Although it may not seem like much, it all adds up. I usually travel with my sister, and she got (in this example) the 200 points. I believed I redeemed an award from her account! (Remember awards can start at 800 points now.) I think I eventually transferred like 3,000 points to my account!

 

[cpotisch]

Here’s a question: for tickets purchased using the AGR World Card, do we still get the bonus 2 points per dollar spent on the whole thing, regardless of whether or not the companion has their AGR number in there? Or are the points provided by BoA still tied to the numbers on the reservation?

 

[Ryan]

The points for the credit card are tied strictly to the cardholder with no regard to who is traveling.

 

[cpotisch]

The points for the credit card are tied strictly to the cardholder with no regard to who is traveling.

Thanks, that’s what I thought but just wanted to make sure. In that case, I don’t think it’s worth it to call, create an AGR account for myself, and then retroactively add it to my reservation, for $4 worth of points, which will require roughly 7 more long distance trips to be usable. For next time, but it’s been a busy day, it’s 12:22 AM now, and it’s’ just not worth it.

 

[trainman74]

Thanks everyone. That makes sense and I will probably discuss with my husband about getting our son enrolled. I hate giving out personal information on a kiddo that round so we may just forgo the extra points anyway. But now I know...

Note that if you do decide to enroll him, it's against the terms of service to enroll people under 13 online, so you'll have to call the Guest Rewards phone number (1-800-307-5000) to do it.