drewdawg199

I keep seeing the ad on this site and others for the 6,000 bonus point offer for the Amtrak Mastercard, but I wanted to make sure others know that if you log into your Guest Rewards account on their website, you should see an offer for an 18,000 point sign up bonus, I've seen better offers, but for a card with no annual fee, its literally free points, enough for a decent trip at the least. After clicking on the application, the details show that its only 16,000 bonus points, but either way, thats a good amount of points for doing nothing.

UA Fan

I have never seen such an offer, there is a link for 16K though somewhere in the AGR forum.

Rumpled

The awards vary and are targeted. I've received an offer for 12k.

AGR Insider

Hi drewdawg199:
The discrepancy in points offered to you between the AGR site and the Chase card application page will be corrected shortly. However, the error is only in what the application page is displaying and your bonus points would be awarded appropriately. The AGR program will recognize the member and the offer targeted to them and will award the correct amount of points after the card is activated. Rumpled is correct, some members may receive different offers for the card targeted to them. The base offer is the 6,000 point offer advertised on Flyertalk.
Thanks,

Michael Blakey
Sr. Director, Amtrak Loyalty Marketing/CRM

ByeByeDelta

I'm holding out for Chase to copy their 100,000 mile bonus for the British Airways Signature Visa to the AGR MasterCard.

darben

What do you have in that pipe Bye Bye Delta? And will you share it with me

GadgetKen

The Chase AGR MasterCard high bonus point offers are definitely targeted. I just got my first bill on their website, and arranged to pay it electronically from my checking account (saves the stamp and handy if I'm traveling outside the US at the time it's due).
AGR bonus points were posted immediately: 9,000 points each were posted as "Chase 18K enrollment offer" and "Amtrak 18K enrollment offer" plus 971 points as "Chase Credit Card Purchases".
That enough for 3 round trip NE Regional coach tickets from WND or WNL to WAS. Haven't decided on whether to use the first free ticket for the Cherry Blossom Festival, July 4th festivities and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival or a quiet Labor Day Weekend. Tough choice.
Because it has no annual fee, is associated with a well known bank, earns AGR points, and has lots of benefits (including some travel ones I rarely see like $1,500 in trip cancellation insurance, free baggage loss and delay insurance, and full month car rental insurance), I think the credit card is a good deal even if someone doesn't get a targeted offer like I did, and just gets the 6,000 bonus point standard offer.

mommycrawford

I responded...got the card...made a purchase...paid bill. Chase statement acknowleges 8,000 points, but AGR website says nada!?!?

I am hoping they will post!

kaottic97

Well, we are getting close! I just logged in to my AGR account and found an offer for 36,000 bonus miles -- 18,000 upon first use, and another 18,000 after spending $2,000 in the first three months of cardmembership. I was not thinking about opening another account for 18,000, but for 36,000 -- I think I'm on it! I'm pretty sure this is targeted as well, since I had to log in to my account in order to see it. I'm not sure if I'm going to hold out for 100,000 bonus points, though!

drewdawg199

thats an awesome deal. I was going to bite on the 18,000 but now I may wait.

GadgetKen

The targeted offer for 36,000 points would be enough for a pair of RT business class Acela tickets(8,000*4)...and still have 4,000 points left over. Or combine the 36,000 points with 4,000 earned AGR points for a free round trip ticket to Hawaii on Continental through OnePass 5,000 point certificates. Good for people who consistently have a high credit card charge level. Since I don't always, I'm more than happy with the 18,000 points I got (which is triple the standard offer).

On the delayed Chase post to AGR that was mentioned, contact AGR if it doesn't post in a reasonable amount of time. There's a missing point request form on the AGR website (log in to your account first before trying to access it) or you can just call AGR and/or Chase. Glitches sometimes happen...

alanh

Just to clarify, to transfer miles out of AGR you must have Select status or have the credit card and spend $200 on Amtrak travel on it in the calendar year. There's a limit of 25K for credit card holders and 50K for Select members.

There's no limit on transferring miles from Continental to AGR.

AGR Insider

Hi mommycrawford,
It can take up to 8 weeks for the bonus points to post to your Amtrak Guest Rewards account. When they post, you will see two awards of 8,000 points each. If it’s been over 8 weeks since your first card purchase and points haven’t posted yet, please contact us at 1-800-307-500 so we can look into it.

Thanks,
Shelby
Amtrak Guest Rewards Support

jt23

My Amtrak e-mail offer today had the word 'unprecedented' in the subject line, which initially made me think I was going to be able to drive a train or something.

GadgetKen

The Essex Steam Train in my home state actually lets you do that if you take a class (I might try that some day) http://www.essexsteamtrain.com/throttle.html

alanh, thanks for clarification on AGR to OnePass rules. Intend to use my AGR points for trips to WAS, but couldn't resist checking how many AGR points it would take to get to Hawaii.