Chase Credit Card Points

[Trainmans daughter]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, as I suspect it has. I'm new to figuring out AGR points, so I'll probably repeat other topics in the future.

My question today is this: My mother-in-law recently got an Amtrak Chase card with the intention of transferring her points to me. However, she just noticed the small print says "Points earned are not transferrable........." So does this mean she can't give me her points? I so, is there any way she can give me her points earned through that card?

 

[Ryan]

She can, but you have to pay a fee to do that.

Better to just use her points to redeem an award in your name.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

Thanks, Ryan. So what did they mean that points are not transferable? And what do you mean to use her points to redeem an award in my name? How does that work? (See, I told you I was new at this AGR stuff)!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I think he means your MIL buys the ticket with her points but in your name.

 

[the_traveler]

The points can be transferred to another account, but there is a cost involved. (There is also a yearly limit of 10,000 AGR points that you can receive.) Or you can redeem an award from your account, and issue it in anybody's name, and there is no cost! It doesn't matter if your MIL redeems an award for herself, you, her friend or me (no I don't want an award) - there is still no cost!

So the option is

1. Have her transfer 10,000 a year to you for say $100 - I'm not sure what the cost is without looking, or
2. Have her accumulate enough points in her own AGR account to redeem a (say) 35,000 point award, and have it issued in your name for $-0-!

Personally, I would opt for choice #2! Also, if you go with choice #1, that would restrict your opportunity to buy points for yourself (if you chose to do so). An AGR account is limited (except for the credit card and by shopping) from buying AND/OR receiving more than 10,000 points per calendar year! :excl: So if she transferred 10,000 points to you in 2013, you could not buy any more yourself for your account in 2013!

 

[amamba]

So your MIL's points will be transferred from her Chase AGR card to her personal AGR account. Once the points are in her AGR account, she can either just use them to redeem an award in YOUR name - or she can transfer the points to your AGR account. However, to share her AGR points to your account there is a fee.

So the better idea is to just have her make a redemption, from her account, in your name. There is NO problem in doing this.

 

[AlanB]

The points can be transferred to another account, but there is a cost involved. (There is also a yearly limit of 10,000 AGR points that you can receive.) Or you can redeem an award from your account, and issue it in anybody's name, and there is no cost! It doesn't matter if your MIL redeems an award for herself, you, her friend or me (no I don't want an award) - there is still no cost!

Actually, 10K is the limit for buying points as a gift for someone or for yourself. One's AGR account can only buy or receive as a gift of purchased points 10K per year.

Existing points that are transferred between AGR members have an annual limit of 100K per year.

 

[AlanB]

So your MIL's points will be transferred from her Chase AGR card to her personal AGR account. Once the points are in her AGR account, she can either just use them to redeem an award in YOUR name - or she can transfer the points to your AGR account. However, to share her AGR points to your account there is a fee.
So the better idea is to just have her make a redemption, from her account, in your name. There is NO problem in doing this.

Actually an even better choice, assuming that her mom is willing, is for her mom to call AGR up and state that she'd like to make her daughter an "Authorized User" on her account. The agent will ask for a bit of information, name, phone number, etc. Once that's done, Trainman's Daughter can simply call AGR whenever her mom has enough points in the account to use, provide the account number and needed info, and book her own trips using her mom's points.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Ooo, ooo, anyone want to make me an authorized user on their AGR account? :giggle:

 

[the_traveler]

Nah, but I need more points! I'm all the way down to "only" 13x,xxx points!

 

[Trainmans daughter]

Thank you for all the advise and ideas. I have a bunch of points and have purchased my limit for 2013. I'm trying to get points for a round trip from SAC to FBG. That's 3 zones each way! Also, since my granddaughter will be with me, I'd like to have a roomette all lthe way. So that will take a lot of points!

I'm thinking maybe my MIL could buy coach tickets for us, then I could call Amtrak and pay for roomette upgrades using my points. Would that work?

 

[the_traveler]

Technically you can, but the upgrade is based on the fare that you paid. However, since your fare was $-0- the upgrade is the full price! Thus you are essentially throwing your points away!

Also remember that a sleeper award costs the same for 1 or 2 passengers, and includes the rail fare, meals and room for both passengers! I know it's more than 2 zones, but 2 coach awards would cost IIRC 16K, while a Roomette award for those same 2 would be 20K - and include the room and meals!

 

[AlanB]

Thank you for all the advise and ideas. I have a bunch of points and have purchased my limit for 2013. I'm trying to get points for a round trip from SAC to FBG. That's 3 zones each way! Also, since my granddaughter will be with me, I'd like to have a roomette all lthe way. So that will take a lot of points!
I'm thinking maybe my MIL could buy coach tickets for us, then I could call Amtrak and pay for roomette upgrades using my points. Would that work?

Ok, first as noted by Traveler, the sleeper already includes the coach or rail fare tickets. So you wouldn't want to buy coach tickets and then upgrade them. There would be no point, other than being wasteful.

Now, do you have enough points for a one way trip? 3 Zones in a roomette would require 35,000 points.

And then, does your MIL have enough for a one way trip yet?

Finally, between the two of you, do you have enough points combined to get to the 70K you'd need for a round trip?

If the answer to the first two questions is yes, then you book one way and your MIL books you guys for the other way. She does not need to be traveling with you to book you guys into a room, she just needs names and the age of the granddaughter if under 16.

If the answer to one of the first two is no, but you can say yes to the third question, then look at who has the most points that gets closest to the 35K. Then transfer from the other account. So for example, if your MIL has 25K and you have 10K to spare after you use up 35K for one direction, then you should transfer that 10K to her. The idea here is to transfer the least amount of points, since you must pay a penny a point to transfer. So you don't want to transfer 25K and pay for that, when you can transfer 10K and pay less and still have your MIL book the trip for you with her points coupled with a few from you.

Now, if you don't have 70K between the two of you, then you're not taking this trip on points at all. Also remember, that MIL can buy 10K this year if need be or you can buy & gift her 10K this year (can't do both it's one or the other) and that could get you to your goal of 70K. Failing that, you'll have to wait until you collect enough points or pay for the room in one direction, or consider coach in one direction.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

I sure have a lot to learn! I didn't know the 35,000 points for a 3-zone roomette award included the rail fare. I thought it was the cost of the upgrade from the 10,500 coach class award.

I currently have 39.388 points and have enough Hilton Honors points for 4,000 more. My MIL is just getting started on points with her Chase card. We plan on using that card for a lot of purchases and then paying the card bill in full each month. That should add up pretty fast.

I just might be able to take my granddaughter to see her Virginia cousins sooner that I thought. She is the reason we started traveling long distance by train, since her mom won't let her fly.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[the_traveler]

Personally, I think the transfer exchange rate from HHonors to AGR is poor, at best. I personally would not transfer them. I have about 150K points in HHonors, and would rather use them for hotel stays. (As an aside, if you're traveling overseas, you will get the best value for the points. A room that costs $150 here in the US may cost $300-500 overseas, and they may costs the same number of points! :excl: )

And you're correct that the points on the AGR MasterCard can add up fast. I use my card for everything I was going to buy anyway, including "luxuries" like food and gas :giggle: , and usually earn 1,000-2,000 AGR points every month!

You have enough points right now for a one way, 3 zone trip in a Roomette for both you and your granddaughter! Even if you MIL has only 20,000 AGR points, you could redeem a 2 zone award, and then either buy coach for that 3rd night or buy a Roomette for cash! :excl:

 

[Trainmans daughter]

You're right about the exchange rate from HH to Amtrak being poor, but I hardly ever stay at a hotel anymore. When my mom was sick, I logged about 25-30 nights per year for 6 years going to the Bay Area to help care for her. Since she passed last June, I have only stayed in a hotel once. So I might as well use the points for something good!

I'm really excited to discover I have enough points for a one-way trip. Not enough to get back yet, but some days that doesn't seem so bad!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Meeting the minimum spend on a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus could net enough points for a three zone AGR award in the span of a single month.

 

[Ryan]

This man speaks the truth - I've converted all of my spend to to Sapphire Preferred, I love that I can transfer the points (on a one for one basis) into AGR and a whole host of other places.

 

[oregon pioneer]

Everyone's said so much about this -- I only have a few things to add:

You can try to buy points for your MIL during a point bonus period, and get up to 13,000 (usually) or 15,000 (I've heard of, but never seen this yet) points by buying the 10,000 maximum, with a 30% or 50% bonus. Like I said, I've heard about the 50% but never seen it in my 3+ years in the AGR program. On the other hand, 30% happens every year at a couple of time periods, so I buy the max for the year when I see 30%.

A one-zone roomette award (this includes rail fare, room and food for up to 2 people) is 15,000 points. A two-zone roomette is 20,000 points. This adds up to the same number of points as a three-zone roomette, so you can use this to your advantage two ways (at least, anyone have more suggestions?):

1. You can use it to break up the trip into manageable points-awards from two AGR accounts, and
2. You can use it to break the trip at any zone-line station (ATL, WPT, DEN, ABQ, ELP etc) in order to take a break from the trip, or in order to route your trip on a train that the Amtrak reservation system would not otherwise let you take from your origin to your destination in a single trip.

OK, is that perfectly confusing? Just ask, ha, ha, lots of us here to answer more questions!

 

[the_traveler]

The 50% bonus happened last year (2012), and was the one and only time it happened since AGR began over 10 years ago. I personally am not holding my breath for another 50% bonus to happen! :excl: (You may turn more blue than a Smurf while waiting. I used to work in a factory on the machine that made them. So all I saw for 8 hours a day was blue! )

 

[shelzp]

Watch for a good fare from Chicago to Fredericksburg and pay for that section so you'll only be using 20000 points.

 

[alben]

To get more Amtrak points, be a member of Chase Ultimate Rewards. Many different Chase cards earn Ultimate rewards. You will need a Chase Sapphire Preferred, an Ink Bold, or an Ink Plus to transfer the points to another program, such as Amtrak Guest Rewards. All those cards have great sign on bonuses.

You can even buy UR points. Increment of 1,000 UR points for $25. Max of 5,000 UR points a month. If you do the math, you could conceivably buy 40,000 UR points over the course of 8 months for a total of $1,000, which would buy you a 2 zone deluxe bedroom. Not neccessarily the best value, but not terrible either.

The best way to earn points is pay your cell phone, landline, and cable/internet with the Ink Bold card, as it earns 5X points. My expenditure in those categories is $300/mo which is 1,500 UR points a month = 18,000 points a year.

Of course, the only way to make this work, is to do normal spending on these cards, and pay your cards in full when the statements come.

 

[alben]

You're right about the exchange rate from HH to Amtrak being poor, but I hardly ever stay at a hotel anymore. When my mom was sick, I logged about 25-30 nights per year for 6 years going to the Bay Area to help care for her. Since she passed last June, I have only stayed in a hotel once. So I might as well use the points for something good!
I'm really excited to discover I have enough points for a one-way trip. Not enough to get back yet, but some days that doesn't seem so bad!

To be honest, transferring Hilton Hhonors points to Amtrak would be a poor use of Hhonors points. If you get an Hhonors Amex card you are then entitled to AXON rewards through Hhonors. I just used two blocks of 145,000 Hhnonors points (290,000 points total) to get 8 nights in Hawaii at Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and Hilton Waikola Village on the big island. Top notch resorts.

 

[railbuck]

Watch for a good fare from Chicago to Fredericksburg and pay for that section so you'll only be using 20000 points.

A good fare from Toledo or Cincinnati or Atlanta to FBG would be just as useful, as a 2-zone redemption would cover everything up to one of those stations.

 

[Ryan]

You're right about the exchange rate from HH to Amtrak being poor, but I hardly ever stay at a hotel anymore. When my mom was sick, I logged about 25-30 nights per year for 6 years going to the Bay Area to help care for her. Since she passed last June, I have only stayed in a hotel once. So I might as well use the points for something good!

I'm really excited to discover I have enough points for a one-way trip. Not enough to get back yet, but some days that doesn't seem so bad!

To be honest, transferring Hilton Hhonors points to Amtrak would be a poor use of Hhonors points. If you get an Hhonors Amex card you are then entitled to AXON rewards through Hhonors. I just used two blocks of 145,000 Hhnonors points (290,000 points total) to get 8 nights in Hawaii at Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and Hilton Waikola Village on the big island. Top notch resorts.

If SHE has no use for the HH points, then transferring them to a program that she does use would be a good use of those points for her. Everyone values points differently.