AGR for dummies?

[Trollopian]

Dear friends,

I'm a relative newbie on this forum; can't find this topic addressed directly; and apologize that it's embarrassingly simple-minded.

I only have about 6,000 AGR points. I won't apologize for that because I mostly rack them up at the tedious rate of 100 points per trip (between DC's Union Station and NYC or Pittsburgh). I've made just one LD trip, an unforgettable journey on the Southwest Chief last summer, and fantasize longingly about retirement circa 2016 when I'll criss-cross the country by rail. My new motto: "No more flyover country."

Question: what are the smartest ways to earn and to redeem AGR points?

Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom.

 

[Ryan]

Credit card spending.

Get yourself the Chase Amtrak card or the Sapphire Preferred card, which can transfer points into AGR on a 1:1 basis.

Take all your routine spending and wash it through the cards, paying the card off monthly.

Totally free when you use the AGR card, and the Sapphire Preferred card as a $95/year annual fee.

I find the fee is worth it for the CSP card, because in addition to Amtrak, you can also transfer the points to a bunch of airline an hotel partners, giving you lots of flexibility.

Both cards also come with a decent signup bonus after you complete a minimum spend.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Also, watch for the bonus point period when purchasing points......sometime as much as 50% bonus.....

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Also use the shopping portal on the AGR site whenever possible.

Have family or friends you can recruit to train travel? If so, you can refer them to AGR and when they take a trip w/in 90 days of signing up, you both get bonus points.

 

[BCL]

Question: what are the smartest ways to earn and to redeem AGR points?

I don't know about "smartest", but there are efficient ways to collect points at a low cost. It certainly helps if you're actually willing to travel this way and not simply doing "point runs".

I do it on my commute. To collect more points I find all the promotional discounts for specific stations and break up my trips into "multi-city" trips where I stop in between. So that turns it from one segment collecting 100 points to two collecting 200.

 

[the_traveler]

Actually, the "dumbest way" to earn AGR points is by actually traveling on Amtrak! All those mentioned above give more points and are much easier to earn!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Actually, the "dumbest way" to earn AGR points is by actually traveling on Amtrak! All those mentioned above give more points and are much easier to earn!

I'd say the "dummest" way to earn points is to purchase a product and/or service at a price and/or under terms you would have otherwise declined if not for the points. If you let your points chasing dictate your purchasing decisions en mass then you are likely to be inadvertently working against your own financial interests. On the other hand if traveling on Amtrak is something you would choose regardless of the points then there is nothing especially "dumb" about earning points in that manner.

 

[BCL]

Actually, the "dumbest way" to earn AGR points is by actually traveling on Amtrak! All those mentioned above give more points and are much easier to earn!

I'd say the "dummest" way to earn points is to purchase a product and/or service at a price and/or under terms you would have otherwise declined if not for the points. If you let your points chasing dictate your purchasing decisions en mass then you are likely to be inadvertently working against your own financial interests. On the other hand if traveling on Amtrak is something you would choose regardless of the points then there is nothing especially "dumb" about earning points in that manner.

I think it's more complicated than that. We all have alternatives when it comes to transportation. You want to get somewhere and have options. AGR is a loyalty program that is attempting to nudge the passenger to choose Amtrak over other transportation options. All the partner points are another matter. I've gotten AGR points through Enterprise, Wyndham, and Hilton, but I wouldn't say that I wouldn't have otherwise chosen those. It was more or less - "Oh - I can get points on top of that? Cool." I was choosing those based on price and quality.

I've taken trips on Amtrak to/from San Francisco even though I could have chosen cheaper options. However, it was more "fun" especially with my kid along for the ride. I took one ride to a baseball game and even made sure I used it for an event. A few times it was just a trip home (which was flexible because it's an "unreserved" route) and it was actually more comfortable than a BART or public transit bus ride, in addition to avoiding many of the odd characters who ride public transit. It may have cost more (even with 50% promotional discounts) especially since my kid isn't free to ride, but sometime you just want to try something different. Certainly Amtrak can have a certain fun factor that's lacking in other transportation choices.

I've certainly chased points by breaking up trips into segments and choosing to pay for individual rides rather than a 10-ride. However, I don't think that cost me more than maybe $150 over the course of a year and hopefully I'll have enough points for a 2 zone bedroom by next year. I also like that cool spot to grab coffee or have breakfast.

 

[Barciur]

The only ever chasing of the points I've done is the point runs - but under double days they come out to be the same as buying points, so I just treat that as buying points with a fun factor to it - I'm a rail fan and I love to be on the train, even though I would prefer to be in a eastern European style car with a compartment and open window, an Amcan is still fairly fun to be in. I understand that some of us here aren't railfans though so doing point runs might noe be fun.

Anyhow, perhaps 90% of my trips are a $14.40 one way trips between PHL and LNC, so for 14.40 I'm getting 100 points (now 125 with Select) and for about half of those trips I get double points, so I guess that's not a bad way to earn those points. A better way would be if I were commuting for a $6.50 one way cost on this line. However, some people only travel on $50+ rides, so then it's costing you a LOT more to get the same points as I am getting for my $14.40. So all in all, your mileage will vary.

 

[BCL]

Anyhow, perhaps 90% of my trips are a $14.40 one way trips between PHL and LNC, so for 14.40 I'm getting 100 points (now 125 with Select) and for about half of those trips I get double points, so I guess that's not a bad way to earn those points. A better way would be if I were commuting for a $6.50 one way cost on this line. However, some people only travel on $50+ rides, so then it's costing you a LOT more to get the same points as I am getting for my $14.40. So all in all, your mileage will vary.

If you commute it makes more sense to get a multi-ride ticket from an economic standpoint. Your LNC-PHL 10-ride is $128. $14.40 seems to be the AAA discount. However, that's the difference between 256 points and 1000 points booked separately. And if you play around with multi-city bookings, that could be up to 2000 points. So if it's points you're after, then single ride tickets make sense.

Your basic commuter may not really care. However, 9 monthlies at $293 will get one to Select.

 

[benale]

For me, the best way to get points fast is to ride the Keystones during double days. $11.04 R/T from Elizabethtown to Harrisburg or Lancaster 450 points during double days with my 25% select bonus. When AGR has their 50 percent bonus sale,which is infrequently, that's the only better alternative.

 

[BCL]

For me, the best way to get points fast is to ride the Keystones during double days. $11.04 R/T from Elizabethtown to Harrisburg or Lancaster 450 points during double days with my 25% select bonus. When AGR has their 50 percent bonus sale,which is infrequently, that's the only better alternative.

You don't do multi-city to double the points (and double the fun)? Of course that would be a really short trip.

Read here long enough and the EMY-SFC bus is brought up a lot, since the driver will scan the tickets before boarding, so you don't have to track down a conductor if it's only a few minutes.

 

[Trollopian]

Thanks, all. I'm the original poster, and have picked up lots of helpful tips here. Given my circumstances, I can't earn many points by riding Amtrak, but I could potentially earn lots by switching to another credit card. (I'm one of those people who puts everything from groceries to vet bills on my card and pays up monthly.)

Look for me to return around 2016 and ask for the savviest ways to redeem points.

 

[Orie]

This thread seems like a good place to ask a question. Are upgrade coupons unusable on blackout dates? Thanks.

 

[Anderson]

Actually, the "dumbest way" to earn AGR points is by actually traveling on Amtrak! All those mentioned above give more points and are much easier to earn!

I'd say the "dummest" way to earn points is to purchase a product and/or service at a price and/or under terms you would have otherwise declined if not for the points. If you let your points chasing dictate your purchasing decisions en mass then you are likely to be inadvertently working against your own financial interests. On the other hand if traveling on Amtrak is something you would choose regardless of the points then there is nothing especially "dumb" about earning points in that manner.

I've got a view on this topic that is a bit more nuanced:

-Generally speaking, what you say holds true: If you wouldn't make a purchase absent benefits, don't do it for the benefits.

-However, there are a few places where extra spending can be outweighed by benefits. For example, if you're regularly on the NEC, kicking in to make a given status can make sense (as I noted over on Flyertalk, the effective value of SE over S+ is massive...I peg the value of SE at somewhere around $1500-2000 in such cases; net of S+ the value is probably $1000-1500...but only if you can cash in upgrades on the Acela).

-There's also the question of a marginal purchase (i.e. you wouldn't have done X but it was a genuinely close call). Here you need to make a pretty cold analysis of the costs/benefits of the points in question vis-a-vis the costs you're incurring, and that can be hard.

I'll concede that AGR has made me a bit more willing to be slightly loose with my Amtrak purchases...there's no covering that up, especially during special periods (and I have my own mental measures of when to cash in points versus when to pay cash for a given service...basically weighing status-making spend requirements and the net value of a trip in terms of point/future savings generation off against the value I'd be getting for points). I got into a complex calculation about shooting for status on Virgin America and dragging in a bunch of points versus pulling in a bunch of savings (the savings won out, and for good reason).

However...in sum, don't do a bunch of stuff you wouldn't do already and don't change a bunch of habits just for points.

 

[neutralist]

Of course if you conduct a technique called "Manufactured Spending" you will actually come ahead and profit. go to the Flyertalk forums or just google it around if you want to know more.

 

[Ispolkom]

Of course if you conduct a technique called "Manufactured Spending" you will actually come ahead and profit. go to the Flyertalk forums or just google it around if you want to know more.

Be sure to also read the consolidated thread "Chase closed my CC accounts." I think that manufactured spending is too risky, a proof of the saying, "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered."

 

[StriderGDM]

I have to second (or third?) the "get the Amtrak Credit Card". Just on purchases alone this year, I think I earned over 15,000 points. (note I didn't necessarily spend $15,000 there's some other bonuses and stuff in there.)

But yes, when possible I'll buy stuff through the portal. I bought a bunch of stuff from NewEgg and got a good chunk of points.

What I am regretting this year is I'll be about 700 tier points short of making Select. (and I really miss the days of when I was making Select Plus on a regular basis!)