Purchasing amtrak gift certificate

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My gf went to the ticketing office at Chicago union station to purchase a gift certificate to give someone. She was told that she can't do that. Has amtrak stopped selling gift certificates?
 
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I called last week and was told this could be done at the station. I got bad information. Annoying.
Still - I don't know if it's such a great idea unless you're really intent on it being an Amtrak specific gift. You need to buy it online. There's a $5 service charge. A signature is required on delivery (so you'll have to be home or go to a post office or FedEx to pick it up). To top it off, they can only be used to purchase a ticket at a staffed station.
 
She was trying to do something nice for me for my birthday. She knows about the double points agr promotion and was trying to support my efforts there. A nice idea on her part. We can work around this.

I was trying to figure out what was and was not possible. It was annoying that I called and received misinformation because she took an unnecessary trip to union station.

Thank you for your assistance.
 
Horrible! It looks like since the site is not Amtrak, the AGR card won't even get you double AGR points. That plus a fee to buy it? Adding insult to injury must be an Amtrak trademark. "We add insult to injury on all our purchases" ®Amtrak
 
It is the absolute worst-- so inconvenient. I have no idea why they don't have a digital gift card option. Instead you receive a physical gift card. You have to CALL to make a reservation (can't make a reservation online) to hold good rates, and then you have to go in to the station WEEKS before the date of travel to "purchase" the ticket with your physical certificate as well as the date you actually have to travel.

Inconvenient on all fronts (online vs. phone, going in to the station TWICE for purchase and travel, etc.)

Don't buy them.
 
It is the absolute worst-- so inconvenient. I have no idea why they don't have a digital gift card option.
You will....and soon. The gift certificate program was revamped. Soon, you'll have a card that can be purchased from multiple locations or a digital card. Keep an eye on the website for details.
 
Apparently only available online. There's also a $5 charge (shipping fee?) regardless of the amount.

http://store.amtrak.com/StaticPage.aspx?spid=2734

http://amtraktravel.corpmerchandise.com/

Honestly it [correction] wouldn't make sense to me. Something like a credit-card based gift card would be easier to find and could be used to buy Amtrak tickets.
Sadly, this is correct about the $5 shipping fee. Also screw the fact I noticed this detail, when I looked at these 2 links(going to the same site btw):

"Travel Gift Certificates can only be redeemed at staffed Amtrak station ticket offices."

With all the Amtrak ticket agent eliminations in recent years, you should be extra careful about giving one of those to someone as a gift. Since for all I know, one of the smaller city/town stations still with a ticket agent(as of July 2018) could lose that agent in the next year or 2.
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It's bad enough bigger cities like Cincinnati, and (allegedly I think, correct me if I'm wrong) Greenville, SC, are starting to be affected by these ticket agent cuts!
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Sometimes there are Amtrak vouchers for sale on Ebay. It isn't like a nice card or certificate, but you can save some money with them. I would only buy from a user with good feedback.
 
*** Note that the posts #1-9 were from 2015 and before ***

I personally would not buy an e-voucher on eBay or similar. They are no longer physical vouchers like 162534. How do you know 162534 has not been “sold” 13 times - until you enter it as your payment and it says it was used already?
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www.amtrak.com/giftcards is where gift cards can now be purchased online and where gift card balances can be checked.

Has anyone found any Amtrak gift cards for sale out at retail yet?
 
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