Amtrak Guest Rewards

First Class has never in my experience included cafe car food. Only sodas and newspapers (if available) on short haul trains and dining car meals on long distance trains.

I'm considering applying for the Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card and since the station I am closest to is Rochester NY the map indicates that i am in the NEC Zone. Is this truely a fourth zone for redeeming points or is it part of the Eastern Zone?

joshuahouse wrote:Is this truely a fourth zone for redeeming points or is it part of the Eastern Zone?

The Northeast zone is part of the Eastern Region.

pretty much the most value you can get with 3,000 points is to go from Newport News or DC to Boston. If you leave these confines, it costs 5,000+ points to travel anywhere else on the east coast, such as Florida.

Thank you both very much. It is a trifle confusing on the map since the three regions are called regions and then you have the NEC listed as a seperate zone.

The redemption table shows that the 3,000 mile coach award is good for the Northeast Zone, which includes Newport News to Portland/Montreal/Niagara Falls. The awards table is just a tad misleading in that the 3,000 mile award is good in Reserved Coach, although it's listed as just "Coach" whereas in other rewards there is a "Reserved Coach" label. Not to worry. I just spoke with a AGW agent to confirm all this.

Such a deal! Have a good trip!

Does anyone else have this card? Is there anything special I need to do to link it to my account. I have my frequent rider number on it, but I dont notice any extra points or anything showin up, and it's been quite a long time since i got it, I thought I would have my 2,500 bonus points by now.

How does it work?

Log on to your Guest Rewards account to find your current point total.
http://www.amtrakguestrewards.com/

I signed up for the card and tried to have it linked to an existing Guest Rewards account. This didn't work, and I ended up having to call Amtrak Guest Rewards customer service so they could hook things up properly.

How long did it take to post your points for purchases and 2,500 bonus points?

I signed up 6 weeks ago...still waiting for the points to show up.

I have heard that MBNA was acquired by Bank of America and that others who have the AGR card have been shorted points. This has all happen in the last couple of months. That may be a possible reason for the delay of points. I would call and see what the problem is. After some phone calls, some others said everything was rectified in a positive manner.

I haven't been shorted any points that I know of, but it does seem to take 1-2 months from each statement date for them to appear.

Amtrak Rider wrote:I have heard that MBNA was acquired by Bank of America and that others who have the AGR card have been shorted points. This has all happen in the last couple of months. That may be a possible reason for the delay of points. I would call and see what the problem is. After some phone calls, some others said everything was rectified in a positive manner.

I'll confirm that Bank of America (disclaimer; hold position in BAC) has acquired Maryland Bank NA, and in the process has become the largest issuer of consumer credit cards displacing Citigroup from that title.

I hold a Visa issued by BofA, and a Master Card issued by MBNA; to date I have not seen any official material, such as statements, suggesting the two have merged, although some of their promotional material (you know, the bombardment of "1.9% if you borrow RIGHT NOW" stuff) has suggested there is some kind of alliance in place.

Incidentially, we have discussed the MBNA issued Amtrak Guest Rewards affinity card here in the past.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13219

I have the same experience as WildBill144. It usually takes 1-2, sometimes even 3 months for credit card purchases to show up on my AGR account. It can be frustrating at times, especially when those 50 points I was counting on for a free ticket from PHL-WAS show up on my account three days after I make the trip on a ticket I had to pay cash for.

Also, just like WildBill, I had an existing AGR number and had to call MBNA (BofA, whoever it may be) to get the Credit Card and the AGR# properly linked.