S.P.A.M. - Amtrack offer back - MyPoints

I got an e-mail today offering 2000 MyPoints for an order over $30 and 500 points for an order under $30. Cheapest I found for the 500 was Berkeley, CA (BKY) to Richmond, CA (RIC) on May 28th for $2.55. Figured it's well worth it. Anyone need a ticket to Richmond, CA? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

-- Also offered 10 points to enter a contest and 5 points just for reading so $2.55 for 515 points.

a76marine, you beat me to posting this offer. I read the TOS on the email and at Amtrack and no where does it say that our little fares will not qualify. I'd say all of us who got the email do this tonight. They most likely will wise up faster this time. If I find a cheaper fare I will let you all know.

Off to do this now.

You don't need the email... it's under
Shopping
Travel

The icon mentions the 2000 point offer but when you click on it you also get the 500 point offer.

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View from the Wing (http://www.webflyer.com/blog): A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

Under rail sale, after searching:

Tacoma to Olympia.
$2.40.
Boo ya.

I didn't get a popup confirmation...

The Feb-March thread on the offer had lots of deals even better than above....
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum122/HTML/002154.html

Gleff: I tried to duplicate some of those fares in our old thread without success.

The best fare I found was SEA-Eugene on rail sale. From there I chose VAN - PDX. Total fare: $1.80. I checked lots of combinations within rail sale. Kind of like a scavenger hunt. But after a while it just didn't seem worth it to keep checking. But, I'll bet someone on this forum will come up with something half that price. Keep in mind that on the old thread Amtrak wouldn't sell a ticket for less than a buck online.

My husband and I now each have a one way ticket and 1000 points between us. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I thought Amtrak had learned its lesson the hard way. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I didn't get a pop up either. Anyone else?

Just purchased my ticket, too. Thanks gleff! No pop-up window either; we'll see tomorrow (or maybe the day after for me since it's late) if I've wasted $1.80. It also doesn't mention if the points post overnight.

And FWIW b/c I didn't want to spend any time looking, I just bought a senior fare LAX-BUR... $2.07.

I got the Tacoma-Olympia for $2.40....giddy-up...

Hi, I was wondering what are the benefits of buying the cheap amtrak fares?
For an under $30.00 purchase, you get 500 points - which is at best worth about 5 dollars?

It seems more hassel than it's worth - unless you are planning on doing a big trip on Amtrak and can earn the 2000 points.

It's not what they're worth, but the acquisition cost that you need to look at. For most of the MyPoints retailers, it would normally be $250 to get those 500 points (or $1000 for 2000 points). This is an extremely cheap deal in my mind.

Thanks for the heads up on this.

[This message has been edited by cavman75 (edited 05-07-2003).]

Wife got her $1.80 ticket and 500 point pop-up window! Yeah! I tried to buy mine next and Amtrack page crashed. Will try later.

Thanks

[This message has been edited by philemer (edited 05-07-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Bluehen1:
It's not what they're worth, but the acquisition cost that you need to look at. For most of the MyPoints retailers, it would normally be $250 to get those 500 points (or $1000 for 2000 points). This is an extremely cheap deal in my mind.</font>

What? First off, of course it matters what they're worth! Why on earth would anyone buy a train ticket they didn't need if the MyPoints you receive with the purchase is not worth more than the purchase? Secondly, I don't think it is such a great deal. I value MyPoints at about 1/2 cent each. Any of the tickets bought at $2.50 or more that are destined for the waste basket are bad deals in my view.

What day(s) & time are you using to get the $2 rates for Tacoma/Olympia & BKY/RIC?

[This message has been edited by bigbroinca (edited 05-07-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by wbflyer:
Hi, I was wondering what are the benefits of buying the cheap amtrak fares?
For an under $30.00 purchase, you get 500 points - which is at best worth about 5 dollars?</font>

Hey, I'll trade you $1.80 for $5.00 anytime. It's about building my Hilton Honors account.

And the points did post overnight.

I did not get a pop-up either. And it says the Amtrak offer good only (once). Since I did use the offer a few months ago when it was worth 2500 points does that mean no points this time?

Montreal, Both my husband and I did the deal in March as well. Points given for all transactions we made.

I wonder why some people did get a pop-up window and others, like myself, did not. I'll keep the confirmation e-mail Amtrack always sends just in case points don't post overnite. I've found MyPoints quite fair in my dealings with them to date, so no reason to even jump to conclusion that I may be out of luck.

I found a Winter Park to Sanford, FL ticket for $1.30, but didn't get a pop-up either. Crossing my fingers for some points to transfer to Hilton.

As to the value question, I only have two options to earn points with Hilton since I don't have their credit card and I use my Diners Club points on Starwood properties. I can stay at the hotels or pick up Mypoints. Since 500 Hilton points would cost me at least $166.00 as a Gold (with the cheapest rates I've ever gotten) - $1.30 seems like a deal. My only other option is to buy points directly from Hilton at $12.50 (I believe) per 1,000 - so, again this looks good.

Overall, I've acquired about 20,000 mypoints and transfered them to Hilton for a grand total of $30.30. Not enough for a hotel night at a premium property, but it certainly added to my bottom line when I used points last week for a 3 night stay at the Waldorf-Astoria.

No points for me and I've waited 2 nights. No pop-up, no points. Yet another e-mail to MyPoints, which will probably result in another frustrating week or two of messages until they finally post my points. I am starting to agree with wbflyer.

Just did the 1.30 special. There was no pop up.

paradocs,

No pop-up window and as I feared, no point posting overnight. Anyways it was only buck 80 anyways so didn't lose much http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

When you are on the Amtrak site does your mypoints information appear at the top of the screen??

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Steph58:
No points for me and I've waited 2 nights. No pop-up, no points. Yet another e-mail to MyPoints, which will probably result in another frustrating week or two of messages until they finally post my points. I am starting to agree with wbflyer.</font>

I have not received points and I booked on Wednesday afternoon. If I recall correctly, I did have a mypoint URL but did not get a pop-up window. It did take like 1 minute after I purchased the ticket to get the confirmation window (and email). Luckily, I bought tickets for an upcoming work trip so I'll be reimbursed (no skin off my back). Of course, I'll still request the 2000 points from MyPoints. Hopefully, I'll get them.

Yes, the MyPoints info was at the top of each page and it's also on the Amtrak confirmation page I printed out. I sent an e-mail to MyPoints asking if this was an overnight or 30-day offer; of course, no answer as yet.

Since you guys have already mailed them your concern let's not bombard them with emails. Please post your response (when you get one from Mypoints) so that the rest of us can act accordingly.

Thanks!

I received a response (2 in fact). The first said that it would have been impossible for me to access an Amtrak offer via MyPoints since they'd terminated their relationship awhile ago. Then, I noticed a second message from MyPoints which said sorry for the first message and that it was in error. They said to forward my e-mail Amtrak confirmation and they'd give me the points.

Who did you talk to Steph? I too received a reply today but it told me I had to keep waiting. I had informed them that a "friend" had alredy received points yet I had not but the guy who responded to me obviously did not pay any mind to that. I had e-mailed points@mypoints. Which address did you use? Thanks.

Try mops@mypoints.com

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by a76marine:
Who did you talk to Steph? I too received a reply today but it told me I had to keep waiting. I had informed them that a "friend" had alredy received points yet I had not but the guy who responded to me obviously did not pay any mind to that. I had e-mailed points@mypoints. Which address did you use? Thanks.</font>

I tend to get good response from membercare@mypoints.com.

Just in: A response!

"Please note that Points earned at participating sites are credited to
your account as soon as we receive confirmation of the transaction from
the vendor. This means that Points for making a purchase or registering
for an online service, may take up to 20 business days to post to your
account balance. Points then become available to spend 30 days later.

If you have waited through the specified time period and still have not
received your Points, please contact us again at membercare@mypoints.com
so that we may investigate the matter for you.

Thank you for your patience and valued membership.

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend.

Best regards,

Shona H.
MyPoints Member Care"

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles (http://home.earthlink.net/~pgary/MilesFrame.html)

[This message has been edited by pgary (edited 05-11-2003).]

Yeah, sounds nice, but why did my points post overnite in the last Amtrack promo and not this time? Didn't they verify purchase with vendor last time?

I too have sent them an e-mail as nowhere did I read when walked through the links that it would take up to 30 days to post as they most times note with some vendors.

Ok, just received the email but I already purchased a ticket through banner ad. I have already emailed them and asked where my points were. They gave me usual line that said the points would post within the days that was mentioned in the offer. When I told them the banner ad (and corresponding webpage) did not list a time frame. They then responded back with- uh, ok, then it will take about 30 days. (I purchased a ticket over $100 so I'm expecting a nice sum of 2000 points).

Luckily, I have several trips to DC and NYC in the next month so I responded to the offer again but this time through the email. This time I got a pop-up that said the 2000 points would be added to my account overnight. We shall see if this gets done.

Wouldn't it be beautiful though that I get points from both the banner ad AND email? That's 4000 points (and it's all free since my work will reimburse me)! Ok, I'll wake up from dreaming...

Both my wife and I got the email and did the offer (under $30). The only popup was for 5 points for clicking. Neither of us got a popup for confirmation of the 500 points, and no spot to click on the receipt either.

We'll have to see tomorrow...

I just got the same message from customer service that now I must wait 20/30 days to receive the points. Anyone want to take bets on if I/we get them after waiting the required time without having to send 2-3 additional e-mails???

To get the 500 point pop-up confirmation make sure you choose "Save To Profile" or "Save Itinerary",(I can't remember the exact words). You do this after you have already bought the ticket, you get the pop-up after you click the save button. My points posted the next day, (like the pop-up said).

Whoo Hoo! I got the 2000 points overnight(assuming from the email offer). I'll see if I get the banner ad points now... (but have to wait another 20 days).

I couldn't find any fares less than $7 under the current Rail sale- anyone find any new ones?

BTW-don't forget to look carefully at the Amtrak email for a 10 point sweepstakes as well. I almost missed this the first time I read the email.

After 5 days I finally received an answer from Mypoints on my inquiry about not receiving my 500 pts. for the Amtrak purchase. They said my 500 pts. would post w/in 5 days. YEA!

I emailed forwarding the reservation. I was told that the 500 pts would appear within 5 days. They did.

But my QUESSTION is this: can anyone confirm the experience of DAC. I tried it, but as I did not have a preexisting account, I could not look up my reservation online, let alone shuffle it off into that account, for the possible pop up. I am not sure whether there are still $1.3 tickets about, but it would be good to know for next time . . .

Can one score on these Amtrak points if no email has been received? Can you just go to the Amtrak site via MyPoints link and qualify? thanks.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by UpgradeMoi:
Can one score on these Amtrak points if no email has been received? Can you just go to the Amtrak site via MyPoints link and qualify? thanks.</font>

Edited to add:

It's under Shopping &gt; Travel.

It's a good thing MyPoints limits the award to "once." Otherwise, I'll bet Amtrak's trains would start selling out very quickly. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

SGM

[This message has been edited by StarGoldmember (edited 05-18-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cure:
But my QUESSTION is this: can anyone confirm the experience of DAC. I tried it, but as I did not have a preexisting account, I could not look up my reservation online, let alone shuffle it off into that account, for the possible pop up. I am not sure whether there are still $1.3 tickets about, but it would be good to know for next time . . .</font>

I didn't have pre-existing account either, i had to create one, guess I should have mentioned that.

dac

Thanks for the post.
I booked RIC (Richmond CA.) to BKY (Berkley CA.) for $1.92 on 5/28. I used the Senior Discount and Code H315. No Pop Up, guess I will wait and email them soon. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I Also did Tupperwear using $5.00 gift Certificate and got 800 pt Pop Up.

Those scumbags at mypoints just told me that I won't receive my points for Amtrak tickets ($220 worth of rail fare) because I paid with my wife's credit card.

[This message has been edited by PaulGQ (edited 05-20-2003).]

Tried to do a transaction w/Amtrak and received this:

We were unable to process your request at this time.


Error occured while accessing
"/mp/dynahelpers.p_loginredirect"
at Tue May 20 09:14:07 2003

OWS-05101: Execution failed due to Oracle error 6502
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error
ORA-06512: at line 5

PL/SQL Cartridge SERVICE: MyPoints_Web_Application/pmpdb
PROCEDURE: dynahelpers.p_loginredirect

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anbhc:
I couldn't find any fares less than $7 under the current Rail sale- anyone find any new ones?</font>

Booked 1 Way Fullerton - Anaheim $ 2.63

Just beat all those other fares.

Under Rail Sale pick Miami to Jacksonville
Save
Then adjust it to Kissimmee to Orlando
$1.00
And, yes, I got the pop-up confirmation of the 500 points.

Gables, were you logged into your Amtrak account at the time or do something like DAC did? Trying to grasp what the trick is . . .

Actually, I did log in first, and I used the link from the MyPoints e-mail (not the one off the site itself).

Hope this helps.

I went to the mypoints site and linked to Amtrak and it just wouldn't sell me a tix...it was super slow loading up and it kept going blank on me.

I just gave up after several hours of on again off again pursuit of mypoints points...anybody have a suggestion for me?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by zud_the_hut:
I went to the mypoints site and linked to Amtrak and it just wouldn't sell me a tix...it was super slow loading up and it kept going blank on me.

I just gave up after several hours of on again off again pursuit of mypoints points...anybody have a suggestion for me?</font>

Yeah, give up. I bought tix on the Amtrak/ MyPoints link when offer first appeared earlier this month and have yet to see any points. A polite email to MyPoints cust. svc advised waiting until 20 business days had passed before resubmitting my request for missing point credit. Those 20 days are almost up.

BTW, what's up with the 20 "business" day run anyway? For a site that runs 24/7/365 what day isn't a business day?

There will be no giving up. A promotion was offered, a purchase was made, points will be provided!

[This message has been edited by afrugal1 (edited 05-27-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by a76marine:
I got an e-mail today offering 2000 MyPoints for an order over $30 and 500 points for an order under $30.... </font>

Made my purchase on 5/13 of a $1.80 ticket.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by afrugal1:
There will be no giving up. A promotion was offered, a purchase was made, points will be provided!</font>

It took 4 emails, each attaching a pdf of the confirmation/purchase page showing the mypoints link in the url, with the final email threatening to file a notice with the Better Business Bureau and the California Attorney General's office. The points showed up yesterday. But, as is ever the case with my dealings with MyPoints, they have never responded to any emails.

Interesting. I too had troubles with MyPoints over the Amtrak offer, but since was my first real problem didn't sweat it for the first while. After all, they had always responded to my previous requests for credits with timely e-mails, so never expected I'd have to hound them this time around. But I had to and did with daily e-mails until finally saw my points post and no response from MyPoints.

I hope this trend towards declining customer service does not hint at something amiss at MyPoints because I was generally quite happy with them up until now.

My optimism diminishes with each post I read here.

I got the 5 points for reading the Amtrak email last month, but saved the email and bought the $39 ticket later on. No confirm at that time although I did click through.

I'm giving it 30 days until I contact Mypoints about it (from past experience as they repeat that like parrots). I just hope they don't ttry to weasel out of it claiming that it wasn't "booked through Mypoints" as I do not have any proof of that.

Does anyone know of a current mypoints Amtrak deal?

It took a while & I had to contact both Amtrak & My Points, but I finally got credit for my last Amtrak purchase.

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"Hang up my haishirt, put my scourge in place, and pray, Laurent, for Heaven's perpetual grace."

Moliere, "Tartuffe"

Addendum:

The 2000 Mypoints came through about 7 biz days after customer care accepted my paste of Amtrak's reservation addressed to the same e-mail box as I use for Mypoints for an explicitly non-refundable ticket clearly made during the promo period.

I would not count on seeing any more Amtrak promos - this stuff must have been a nightmare for Mypoints!