New Amtrak Guest Rewards Master Card - Fall 2015

[Ryan]

Gaming the system, duh!

(sorry, couldn't not swing at that hanging curve ball)

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

Printman, just happened this year due to doing three separate LD sleeper trips plus a few on the Illini/Saluki for day trips from Carbondale, IL which is just over 200 mile drive from Nashville plus I did a rail fanning trip driving to Champaign and Galesburg in Illinois this past April. My points were all from paid travel. Those sleeper trips in Bedroom are expensive. Just so you know, I have been riding Amtrak sleeper LD since the 1970's and only made Amtrak Select twice in all that time. Just happened that I did LD trips on the CONO and Zephyr New Orleans to Emeryville in January and May/June and did a couple Illini/Saluki trips in April. The May/June trip mostly in Bedrooms was NO to Glenwood Springs, Glenwood Springs to Emeryville, and then Emeryville back to Denver. I have also purchased paid on my Chase AGR MC for two LD trips in 2016 which helped add up to the needed points to be Select. By the way if you would like to see photos from my May/June trip New Orleans to Glenwood Spring to Emeryville and back to Denver check out my photo galleries here:

Amtrak Adventure May 2015.

Feel free to check out all my photo galleries and I invite you to sign up for my travel blog if you find that interesting. Sign up links are on the Photo Galleries website.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Me thinks the post office has already started forwarding my mail even though I told them (via the website) to start doing that next week. Maybe it will be in my new mailbox tomorrow when I sign the lease and get my keys.

 

[Dog Rancher]

Wife and I both got denied by BA. So we both applied and got Chase Sapphire cards instead and will use the Sapphire card on our travels to burn up the 180,000 Chase AGR points we accumulated over the past 18 months. So BA can suck it.

 

[City of Miami]

This morning I received an email from AGR (not BofA) saying my new cc is on the way.

I applied through the AGR link = maybe that explains it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Wife and I both got denied by BA. So we both applied and got Chase Sapphire cards instead and will use the Sapphire card on our travels to burn up the 180,000 Chase AGR points we accumulated over the past 18 months. So BA can suck it.

More Comedy from the Marx Brothers @_BOA! The Chase Sapphire Select requires excellent Credit to get, so BOA's crack Credit Card Department really missed the boat on this! ( and many others! )

Guess they're so busy sending out duplicate contradictory E-mail and canned letters to new Customers ? Is this any way to run a Railroad, er Bank?

 

[printman2000]

Wife and I both got denied by BA. So we both applied and got Chase Sapphire cards instead and will use the Sapphire card on our travels to burn up the 180,000 Chase AGR points we accumulated over the past 18 months. So BA can suck it.

More Comedy from the Marx Brothers @_BOA! The Chase Sapphire Select requires excellent Credit to get, so BOA's crack Credit Card Department really missed the boat on this! ( and many others! )

Dog Rancher may be speaking about the Preferred card, but did not use the word Preferred. Chase also offers a Sapphire card (without the Preferred) that is not as hard to get. Could be that card.

 

[Dog Rancher]

It was the $95 a year Sapphire Preferred card (free for the first year). I'm starting to travel a lot more for my business and it looked like a more full-featured offering. I know BA doesn't give a **** but I put all my business expenses on the Chase AGR card. Probably between $7k and $12k per month depending on the month.

The good news is we have enough miles to do the LSL to the EB, the CZ, SC, and the SL to the CS. Then that will probably do it for us and Amtrak. Sad.

 

[StanJazz]

If you do your spend before Chase drops Ultimate Rewards transfers to AGR you could transfer $40,000+ points to AGR. It is unknown how long the transfer option will last.

 

[Dog Rancher]

If you do your spend before Chase drops Ultimate Rewards transfers to AGR you could transfer $40,000+ points to AGR. It is unknown how long the transfer option will last.

Just to be clear, we could earn points on the Sapphire card and transfer them to AGR? And while it may end someday, it's still an option?

Edit: I see what you're saying about the 40,000 points. I forgot we get that bonus after the $4,000 spend in the first 3 months. I always have a flurry of business spending at the beginning of a quarter so the $4k will take me about 3 minutes.

 

[printman2000]

Just to be clear, we could earn points on the Sapphire card and transfer them to AGR? And while it may end someday, it's still an option?

Yes, That is correct. It is also what I currently do.

 

[Dog Rancher]

Just to be clear, we could earn points on the Sapphire card and transfer them to AGR? And while it may end someday, it's still an option?

Yes, That is correct. It is also what I currently do.

Thank you for that heads up.

 

[Dog Rancher]

Just to be clear, we could earn points on the Sapphire card and transfer them to AGR? And while it may end someday, it's still an option?

Yes, That is correct. It is also what I currently do.

Are there any other tips you can pass along? I do most of my business travel on UA and DL.

 

[printman2000]

Just to be clear, we could earn points on the Sapphire card and transfer them to AGR? And while it may end someday, it's still an option?

Yes, That is correct. It is also what I currently do.

Are there any other tips you can pass along? I do most of my business travel on UA and DL.

I put everything I can on my Sapphire Preferred card and pay it off monthly. I have earned enough points to pay for our sleeper trips the past two years and have enough for two or three future trips.

Just check with everything you pay and see if they accept credit cards.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

That's minor league advice. :lol:

Step up to rookie status in the majors with Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, and Freedom all tied to the same Ultimate Rewards account. Be sure to tie these cards to secondary earning options like MileagePlus Dining for a free doubled-dip.

 

[Ryan]

^^^ What he said. I'm finally achieving the trifecta the easy way with the AGR -> Freedom conversion.

Your UR points will also transfer into UA for your business travel and a bunch of hotel partners as well.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

Update: After receiving and activating my card Thursday I called AGR to pay for tickets "on hold". The card was denied stating Verification Code did not match code on file with the bank. After several phone calls to BofA with them assuring me the verification code I read off back of card was correct and seeing on line that I had two pending payments to Amtrak for the same amount, Amtrak when I called this morning again said my payment was denied for using wrong verification code. After another call with BofA I finally called AGR and this time(fourth try) the payment processed. Never had this problem with any other credit card and last AGR rep says he was baffled but thankfully when he entered the payment of this fourth try all went through without a hiccup.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I wonder how many times Amtrak and BOA will charge you for the same booking!

...but think of the points!

:giggle:

 

[The Davy Crockett]

DA or Ryan,

Would you please elaborate on Freedom?

Edit: As in the new Chase CC being forced on holders of the Case AGR Card? And are the points worth it compared to the BOA card? (which I've not applied for either) (Okay, I can be slow, like 50 & 51)

Thanks!

 

[Ryan]

Chase Freedom offers Ultimate Rewards points that the Ink and Sapphire Preferred offer.

Those points can be transferred to all of the travel partners (Amtrak (for now, at least), UA, WN, BA, Bunch of Hotels, etc) if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

Freedom is nice because it has 5x bonus categories every quarter. One of them last quarter was gas stations, so buy gas on that card for the quarter and get 5 points/$. This coming quarter Amazon is one, so I'll earn 5p/$ on a bunch of Christmas shopping.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Thanks Ryan! :hi:

 

[jis]

Now for hilarious but otherwise harmless mistake at the Chase end. I noticed that they had assigned a new card number for the Chase Freedom Visa Card, so I called to verify when I would receive it. I got an incredibly confused agent. She mistook a replacement card that was sent to me in August for the sending of the Visa Card. When I mentioned several times that what I had received was a replacement Mastercard, and I don't believe Chase sent me a Visa card in August, she refused to believe me. She said that she is canceling that card as lost, a card that was never sent mind you, and she is sending me a new card with a different number which I should get in five days. Go figure!

Who am I to question bureaucracy and get in trouble. I was informed that I can continue to use the current card that I have and it will accrue Freedom Card points, until the new card arrives. At that point I should start using the new card and destroy the old card.

 

[Bob Dylan]

She ( Mae West) talked to her Supervisor( WC Fields) and when you dared to question her, they called in the Manager ( Groucho Marx)who told her what to do and to say to you!

The night shift is the Three Stooges Supervised by Laurel and Hardy!

 

[jis]

I called again to see what is going on after I found that all my Amtrak related cards had been canceled. The agent could not figure out what happened. He brought on a lady from Security who finally figured out what happened and said we will need a Supervisor to fix this. So onto the Supervisor....

She agreed that this was ridiculous, and she fixed the whole mess. I will have my Freedom Visa by Tuesday, and my temporary Freedom Mastercard a.k.a ex-Chase AGR Mastercard will continue to work until I get the new card. I am now a satisfied customer.

 

[printman2000]

Anyone else use text alerts on their new BoA card? I have all my Chase cards setup to text me anytime a charge happens. Works great. So far with BoA, it does not text me until the transaction moves from Pending to a final charge. I am hating that and wondering if it is by design or an error.