Amtrak Guest Rewards

One of these days, maybe all of the reward plans will simply go adios. Lest we forget we all pay for 'em, whether you participate or not, and even if, with an exception or two out there, you pay for purchases with currency.

The only ones I redeem are the five different hotel plans in which I'm enrolled. The redemptions there are straight forward; you either have enough points or you do not. Obviously, being in five plans means no one dictates where I am going to stay. But for United and Amtrak, there just seem to be too many "hoops' to jump through - all this zone stuff with Amtrak. United's points, I just give away. Would do same with Amtrak's if they had a list of charities with which to benefit.

The most "redeeming" grace the reward plans offer is that when booking transportation or lodging, all of your personal, TSA ID in case of airlines, and credit card information is on file. "Not exactly" looking forward to, on a planned trip to Brooklyn for May, having to enter all the crap for both Jet Blue (United doesn't offer ORD-JFK non stops) and Best Western (my Niece says that is closest to her "pad"; not too many, if any, major brand chains in Bklyn yet) will be an "annoyance". Anther annoyance will be "fending off" all their surely "aren't you in our reward plan; you are just a click away?"

Signed: Andy Rooney

We don't actually know if Chase dropped Amtrak or Amtrak dropped Chase. The only official word is that Chase is not accepting new applications for the Amtrak card. Existing cardholders can continue to use the card and earn AGR points. An announcement about the Amtrak card will be coming from AGR "in the near future."

Boo! Well, at least it enabled me to experience an otherwise unaffordable sleeper cross country journey while it lasted!

My biggest fear is Amtrak will go to a revenue based reward redemption in the near future from the zone based one we have now. The fares are setup that way now like Southwest fares.

Mr. Norman I think you have outdone yourself! "Signed Andy Rooney", its making me laugh on a Friday night at 9:30p. when all I want to do is to tumble into bed…
Thanks for the humor and the ……evidence of a very sharp mind with your wit.

There's a card deal reshuffle going on right now; I have an AGR MasterCard too and per Chase, I was told that existing cardholders will be grandfathered to earn points and everything; rumor mill says that Chase might introduce a new card that would have different earning rules.

Anyone have any idea how much Amtrak was making off it? I know credit card miles can be a big revenue generator for airlines, so hopefully Amtrak gets another bank lined up.

Or they may just be in the process of flipping from MC to Visa, like they are doing with the various United Chase cards.

I accumulated enough points through the credit card & work travel for a Southwest Chief sleeper r/t KC to Flagstaff last summer, so I'm not complaining.

Setting up a forum for discussion of the major changes coming to Amtrak Guest Rewards in the fall.

Some of the changes coming:

-Elimination of "zone" based redemption
-Redemptions based on value of ticket
-2 new credit cards

The Big Unknown:

Will the current Mastercard continue to work forever? Or will Chase phase them over to something else.

Still a lot of information not confirmed, but some are saying it's a major devaluation of the program.

Google (sort of) cached an Amtrak marketing/sales presentation detailing the AGR change and some others: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regarding AGR specifically:

Amtrak Guest Rewards 2.0 will be simplified
– Improve program relevance across the country:
– Eliminate the travel award “zone chart” by aligning redemption point requirements with fares.
– Amtrak Guest Rewards members will be able to book, modify, and cancel reward tickets themselves on Amtrak.com or mobile.
– Make the program more relevant and attainable to more audiences by making both earning and redemption a function of price
Amtrak Guest Rewards Co-Brand Credit Card Partnership
- The Amtrak Guest Rewards team will launch two new co-brand credit card products on September 12, 2015 with a new issuing bank.
- Business Goal: Re-launch higher value AGR co-branded credit cards, driving member engagement and long term growth in AGR revenue.
- The AGR co-brand credit card drives:
– Brand attachment- Through expanded AGR rewards and benefits, new cardholders grow their loyalty with AGR and deepen their affinity with the Amtrak brand
– Increased Amtrak travel- Annual lifts increase by 49% and rail revenue increases by 33% after a member acquires a credit card
– Revenue - Amtrak will benefit from the partnership through a revenue share model

I feel this will be partially good, partially bad. Crossing my fingers that they don't ruin it, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm going to be very curious to see how this plays out.

Personally I've always found the zone thing to be "just annoying enough, w/o being too annoying".

i.e. I hate the idea of points per mileage/fare type setup.
And while getting to Chicago was a 2 zone trip for me, I think that was a 'fair' level if annoyance. i.e. I'd trade off the few times I'd take longer distance trips and have to pay more points for the simplicity of zones the other times.

Personally I've loved the current points and credit card. We'll see how the new stuff plays out.

I have an AGR card so I asked if the rewards points would be ending. The rep said no. However she added that if there were to be any changes they would notify me well in advance.
I also called AGR about the possible change in the zone system. The rep said they had heard nothing about a change.

As someone who uses the AGR Mastercard as their main credit card, whatever changes, I definitely hope it won't result in a devaluation of the programs "points." For how it's set up, I've come to like the current system.