As for the old Chase Amtrak MasterCard, mine was replaced with a Chase Freedom Visa card, which currently gives a 5% rebate at Diapers.com!
Gilbert B Norman wrote:With all of this as preamble for those who are in the plan, how liberal is Amtrak Guest Rewards? It seems like there are a lot here who ride about in Sleepers compliments of the plan. Since I joined the plan, just as I did United's, to expedite the on-line booking process (and I guess to "be one of the boys" around here), and have never redeemed any of my some 15K (if AGR offered a charity for donations, they'd be gone), what do those around here, especially those also in airline and hotel plans, think of AGR generosity, or lack thereof?For airlines I agree with you. Back 15 years ago when I used to fly for business every week and the programs were a bit more generous I'd redeem points often for normal itineraries, but since the last time I redeemed about 5 years ago, and had to fly New York to Cincinnati to Detroit to Duluth at 6:00 am in order to use the points, I don't even look at my airline points anymore. Hotels are definitely better. Rarely do I find a hotel has "sold out" of points rooms, and we'll usually get 4-8 nights per year free, out of 20-30 total. I had mostly done Hilton in the past, but started to move more to IHG when Hilton got less generous a few years ago.
AGR has been very good to me. I find earning them with rail travel a bit of a pain since nearly all of my rail travel is leisure and they award based on fare not miles. Nearly all of my points have been from the credit cards. When I first signed up, they were offering a huge bonus (like 25,000 points) and I would put anything I could on the card. (I had no problem getting the new card. They told me I was approved on line, and I got the card about 2 weeks later.)
Using AGR points was reasonably easy once I figured out how to maximize my zone travel. I take my son with me in a roomette, so that's the room, double meals, double business class if no sleeper, and the New York, Chicago, and Portland lounges all free, so for me it was a VERY generous program. We will have managed to cover the majority of Amtrak routes for free under the old program. First year was Poughkeepsie to Miami, down on the Empire Service & Meteor and return on the Star. Second year was Toledo to LA on the LSL, Texas Eagle, & Sunset Limited, then San Diego to Toledo on Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, & Capitol Limited. Third year was Toledo to Seattle on Capitol Limited & Empire Builder, and Portland to Toledo on Builder & LSL. This year was Poughkeepsie to Kansas City on LSL & SW Chief, then Milwaukee to NY on Hiawatha and Cardinal. Next summer I have 2 trips booked. First is Pontiac to Salem on Wolverine, California Zephyr, & Coast Starlight and return. Second trip is Poughkeepsie to San Antonio on Empire Service, Crescent, & Sunset Limited, then NOLA to DC on CONO and Capitol Limited. It was a really, really good deal while it lasted. I have also paid for a few sleeper trips recently, which I wouldn't have done before taking the AGR trips, so Amtrak did make something back, but I got more than my share of value out of the program.