Next 30% Points Sale?

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I thiiiiink the first round was in February or March, but I could be wrong. I just know we had snow on the ground both times, and I used my tax refund to purchase them (I always get it at the end of February).
 
I just looked back at my account and I bought mine for this year with the 30% match on 6/27. My brother needs just about 13K to get enough to cover his half of Bros trip 2014. Looking to go in March, so waiting till spring isn't super cool.

Are these targeted at different times? Hoping for at least a small window in the next month..
 
Devil said:
FrensicPic said:
I'm maxed out for the year so, gotta wait until after January 1 for it to matter to me!
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I've purchased up to 80,000 points in a single calendar year. You just need to be creative.
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For your own account(s)? :huh: Or for others? :huh:
If you have more than one AGR account, and it is discovered, AGR will close the account(s) - and remove ALL your points in them! And there is NO way to get them back either! So if you bought 80,000 points for yourself (unless you're Select Executive), you may have thrown away well over $2,000! :eek:
 
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dlagrua said:
I neglected to mention that purchased points do work out (most of the time) being a good deal on roomettes. In our case we are two reasonably tall people. The wife 6' and me 5'11". Roomettes just don't offer the legroom around the table, so we bite the bullet and opt for the luxurious bedrooms-LOL.
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The wife and I decided on two roomettes instead of a bedroom.
 
the_traveler said:
Devil said:
FrensicPic said:
I'm maxed out for the year so, gotta wait until after January 1 for it to matter to me!
Click to expand...
I've purchased up to 80,000 points in a single calendar year. You just need to be creative.
Click to expand...
For your own account(s)? :huh: Or for others? :huh:
If you have more than one AGR account, and it is discovered, AGR will close the account(s) - and remove ALL your points in them! And there is NO way to get them back either! So if you bought 80,000 points for yourself (unless you're Select Executive), you may have thrown away well over $2,000! :eek:
Click to expand...
Weren't you the guy who endlessly bragged about taking absurdly long loophole awards?

I've followed every AGR rule to the letter and never lost a single point over the course of many years now.

Folks like you turned the award map into a game until AGR was forced to crack down on everyone.

Be careful when handing out ethical advice that you don't overreach into expectations beyond your own abilities.
 
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Didn't get an email (perhaps because I've maxed out for the year), but after reading the last couple comments just went to website and checked. Sure enough the 30% match is up till 12/31.

Thanks for everyone's replies. With the way this just happened to work out, I guess next I should ask what are my chances of being upgraded to bedroom, having a cute SCA, on time trains, perfect weather, meal choice every night in dining car, and winning a 3 zone bedroom award by random AGR # drawing.

Thanks again!
 
Theoretically with this Bonus you could purchase 23,000 Points in 2 minutes! Just make the Bonus Purchase before midnight and then right after midnight punch back in for 10,000 more. Of course if you are in no hurry then on the other side of midnight hold out until a 30% Bonus comes along in 2014.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
Theoretically with this Bonus you could purchase 23,000 Points in 2 minutes! Just make the Bonus Purchase before midnight and then right after midnight punch back in for 10,000 more. Of course if you are in no hurry then on the other side of midnight hold out until a 30% Bonus comes along in 2014.
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I wouldn't recommend buying 23,000 points myself since it doesn't open up any new opportunities in and of itself. 10,000 + 3,000 bonus for 2013 plus another 7,000 on January 1st at the standard rate for an even 20,000 would be a more pragmatic purchase in my view.

If 20,000 points is not enough to work with because you need to travel across more than two zones or in a compartment larger than a roomette you're probably better off looking at something like the Chase UR system instead. I've collected nearly a quarter million UR points and they convert to AGR points at a 1:1 ratio.

There's an annual AGR conversion limit per target account but it's high enough that you shouldn't have to worry about it unless you're taking it to extremes. Chase has their own rules about conversions that could cause trouble if you try to sell or trade your points or inadvertently mix points strategies. Otherwise you should be fine.
 
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Just bought 10K for the wife. That put her over 20K so one-way 1 one BR. Already bought 13K for me which put me over 80K. Ready to do some free travel next year!

Thanks for letting me know about the deal. She doesn't pay attention to Amtrak email.
 
RyanS said:
Devil's Advocate said:
FrensicPic said:
I'm maxed out for the year so, gotta wait until after January 1 for it to matter to me!
Click to expand...
I've purchased up to 80,000 points in a single calendar year. You just need to be creative.
Click to expand...
Using sign up bonuses for Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points?
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No need to purchase signup bonuses, unless I'm misunderstanding you?

I have online and phone access to AGR accounts for family members and a few friends. Which makes sense since none of them want to learn the specifics of using AGR on their own. I simply purchase points as needed for as many accounts as necessary to cover the next year's worth of travel. These accounts happen to be tied to real people who do actually ride Amtrak, although ticket redemptions from any given account may or may not be used by the owner of that account. It's a pretty simple process that leaves me scratching my head whenever people say they've hit the points buying limit. Do they really have no one else to buy points for? Seems to me that even very small families or a small circle of close friends could buy as many points as they'd need for many situations. In those cases where they cannot buy enough points it's probably best to get those points through Chase rather than AGR.

Collecting a huge number of Chase points costs almost nothing so long as you have sufficient liquidity to work with. Although the amounts required to unlock large bonuses can reach thousands of dollars per account it's a simple matter of identifying costs that are unlikely to go away and intentionally paying them well in advance. Most of us will never be rid of several weekly, monthly, and annual bills that will follow us for the rest of our productive life. If you have good credit and you're able to pay those bills well in advance you can unlock hundreds of thousands of loyalty points in the span of a few months for little or no direct cost to you. In the case of a small business it could add up to millions of points over the span of a year. Which is both a blessing and a curse since the easier points are to earn the less they're worth over time.
 
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