mooper

Amtrak is offering 100 free Amtrak Guest Reward Points for linking your Amtrak account to your Facebook account. The points aren't too valuable, but as it takes about 15 seconds, it might be worth your time. The points post instantly, and if you don't like the idea of having your accounts linked, you can decouple them immediately after joining them and you'll keep the points.

https://amtrakguestrewards.com/faceb...igin=memberweb

Enjoy!

diceman

Thanks. This was nice to extend out my expiring miles 3 years to 2015!.

mooper

Welcome. And great point about the expiration that I overlooked. Edited the OP to note that.

bosnyc

You might want to double check. I always thought expiry was 36 months w/o paid trip (or having the credit card). You need the cc or physically take a trip to reset the clock.

mooper

The terms do say paid trip, as you suggest, but I assume that points from other sources would count too. If anyone knows definitively otherwise, please post and I'll make any correction needed.

Corridor!

Thanks for the tip! Points are points. I would also enjoy a long train ride1

augustus21

AwardWallet listed my Amtrak points as extended for another 3 years when it applied the 100 points.

diburning

I think the rules say paid trip, but no one knows for sure since Amtrak doesn't tell you when your points expire. However, they do send you a postcard telling you your points are about to expire (I think it's a month) before they do, giving you a chance to take a ride to extend the expiration.

By the way, thanks! I just claimed my 100 points.

jaguar

I was concerned about my Amtrak points expiring - so I got a Chase Amtrak credit card with no annual charge and Amtrak waives the expiration rule as long as I keep the credit card.

nerd

Why would you assume that points from other sources count when the rules specifically state otherwise?

mooper

I'm not assuming they count. I'm assuming there's a decent *chance* they might, for two reasons:

A) Many companies word their terms based upon the core/original activity (in this case, buying train tickets) and fail to later update them to take into account promotions and various other earning activities that come along later.

B) Many report that Amtrak doesn't enforce expiring points at the 3 year mark when no trips have been taken. Alternative earning sources could be a reason for this.

It would be most prudent to not assume they'll extend expiration, but it can only help if they do. Easy, free, instant 100 points either way.

nerd

Well, you did say you assumed they count, but I see you've elaborated.

I pay pretty close attention to this board, and I've never seen anyone report that. I have seen several people report that their AGR points have expired, and wondering why.

But I could have missed something. That aside, it appears that the program works just as the rules say.

CMK10

Hooray for instant posting! By the way, this amused me, the poll was asking "Why did you link your accounts?":



Guess most of us just want the precious, precious points

AlanB

Based upon past reports here and at other forums, it would appear more like that 3 years is not a hard & fast rule. In other words, it's not an automatic function that runs every day looking for those who haven't traveled in 3 years and automatically kills the account.

It would appear that it's a housekeeping chore that gets run every so often, no pattern that I can discern, that kills accounts with no activity in 3 years and not linked to the AGR credit card. So one could find their account going bye-bye a couple of months after passing the 3 year mark or if one is unlucky enough, it could happen the very next day if that's the day that they pick to run the housekeeping chores.

One thing that remains clear however is that the only way to avoid having one's account closed and losing all points is to either have the AGR CC or be sure to take a paid trip at least once every three years. I have never seen any promo that extends the life of one's account, and buying points doesn't help either, nor does an award trip extend things.

mooper

To be more clear, some report that their AGR points did *not* expire after three years of no paid trips. The cause may not be certain, but it *could* be that they take into account alternative earnings, or maybe its just that they don't enforce the terms rigidly regardless.

I've clarified the wording in the OP to state "might" so no one is inclined to count on it.