Does this actually work? Can I just buy these tickets and gain select status in the process or do I actually have to ride the trains so that my ticket(s) will be collected?

Sorry, I confused the 2 ??s: Getting Select status with the 50 ($2) tickets vs. merely getting out-transfer privileges by buying $200 in tickets, then refunding them.

The tickets have to be collected by a conductor - and be submitted for processing - before you get the AGR points. And I highly doubt that many will collect a number of your tickets (some might). I think they value their job more than you getting a few more AGR points!

And besides, they changed the rules a couple of years ago, that you can not earn additional points for the same train #. So your 1st $2 ticket would earn the 100 point minimum - but tickets #2-50 would earn -0- points!

So why bother getting the card at all?

The_traveler,
Ingy#3 suggested a sneaky way to try to get Select status, which includes out-transfer privileges.
Craz#4 suggested a cheaper & easier way to get out-transfer privileges, which Ingy#11 rejects because it requires getting their stupid credit card, which Ingy does not want to bother doing. Capisce?

Called Amtrak and tried the conversion to Choice Privileges and was told that it required $200 worth of Amtrak spending, not just credit card spending. It would have been nice if we were informed of these changes ahead of time. With the cancellation strategy, do you have to wait for the credit card statement to come out at the end of the cycle to cancel or does AGR know within days of a booking that you've spent at least $200 on the card ?

Steve4, a potential Trading Partner of mine called AGR & was told it takes a month or more for the $200 qualification to show up on the AGR acct. !

I have about 1500 AGR points, no MC, no trains near my town, so I'm about to forget the whole AGR program as now stupid with these new restrictions!

So it sounds like they're looking for the points posting at the Amtrak purchase rate on the AGR account. If that is the case, then making a purchase at the end of one statement cycle could make the qualification appear quickly.


1500 points wouldn't let you transfer anyway. All transfers have always been in 5K blocks.

i am not sure I understood this? can you please clarify the process?

Thanks

well I guess the answer will be to book a Dec train down to Florida, wouldnt want the exact train I wanted to sell out and be forced to have to ride a different one

of cause I tend to make such purchases the day after my monthly CC statement closes, what a coincidence

His idea was the utilize the 100pt minimum for every ticket. If you take 50 train rides, then that would yield 5000pts needed for Select. But you only get points for train tickets that have been redeemed, not just bought. So you'd have to convince the conductor to accept them and submit them for processing. However as a previous poster mentioned, it won't work because you won't get the 100pt minimum for more than the 1st ticket if you use more than one on the same train.

Basically, if you really want to cash out of AGR, your better off with the MasterCard.

The "buy 50 $2 tickets and then bribe the conductor" routine is not going to work because, as previously stated, you get points for traveling on amtrak and not just buying amtrak tix (similar to airlines' ff programs). Imagine buying a bunch of airline tickets for yourself and handing them all to the gate agent at once.. then asking for mileage credit. Sounds ridiculous? There ya go.

Actually, someone here purported getting a number of tickets lifted for the same train trip. Guess what? AGR clamped down on that and set up some new rules.

A hate to break it to people, but Amtrak Guest Rewards is actually here to reward Amtrak guests, not as a conduit for your travel point schemes. While I don't think that anyone disagrees that they do a sloppy job of it, there's no reason to complain when you try to exploit a loophole, they clamp it shut, and you get stuck. Especially months after the fact, when there was time to do something it.

True statement. While I feel there is some good value in redeeming for train travel, especially as I am oftentimes traveling with a bike or 17' kayak (Amtrak only charges me $5 for the kayak, whereas I couldn't even get it on a plane) I was hit for the first time not being able to convert AGR points to Choice. Historically I would happily convert my 5,000 AGR to 25,000 Choice and even when it went down to 15,000 I would still do it occiasionally as I thought there was some value to be had for me.

The problem I have with the $200 spend on Amtrak travel to redeem for a hotel reward is that I have so many freaking AGR points, why would I ever pay for Amtrak travel?!?! I redeem AGR points each and every time. AGR is reaching the end of its useful life for me. Other than train travel I don't feel that there are any redemptions of interest.

Choice is quickly hiking award costs in much of the world. There are still some good deals to be had, but I'm spending Choice points as fast as I can. I am transfer-eligible, but won't be transferring any more points to Choice.