As mentioned back in January, the old MBNA–>Bank of America Amtrak Mastercard was discontinued. Now details of the new co-branded relationship have come out… This fall a new Amtrak Mastercard will be issued by Chase, with no fee and a 2500 point signup bonus. If you pre-register (you’ll need to log into your Amtrak account) with promo code 42507 you’ll get an email when the card is available and an extra 2500 point signup bonus for a total of 5000 points. You will receive a total of 5,000 points with this Bonus Offer. 2,500 bonus points will post to your Chase credit card account and appear on your Chase statement and an additional 2,500 bonus points will post directly to your Amtrak Guest Rewards account and appear on your Amtrak Guest Rewards statement. Amtrak is…
Amtrak
Category Archives for Amtrak.
Buy 3, Ride Free
Taking a cue from recent airline promotions, Amtrak is offering Buy 3, Ride Free on Acela. 3 roundtrips or even 6 one-ways on the Acela Express by May 19 earns an Acela Business class or Regional Coach class roundtrip. Registration is required. And in one of the more annoying clauses I’ve seen (for folks like me looking for every angle), they’ve pretty much ruled out the possibility of doing the promo cheaply or quickly: Minimum spend of $75 per qualifying trip one-way or $150 per roundtrip. Limit of one qualifying roundtrip or two one-ways per member per day. Grr.
Amtrak Mastercard Update
The Amtrak Mastercard is on hold — no new applications are being accepted. Amtrak and Bank of America are ending their relationship. Only purchases that are posted prior to the closing date of the May 2007 statement will earn Amtrak points. Presumably a new bank will partner with Amtrak over the next few months, but there’s currently no new partner in place.
Double Points on Amtrak
Amtrak is offering double points on train travel through December 16 (excluding November 21 – 28). Registration is required.
Sometimes Banner Ads Show You Something Useful
Amtrak is advertising over at Flyertalk.com, and a banner brings you to a signup bonus promotion — enter promotion code NEC06 while opening an Amtrak Guest Rewards account and receive 3000 bonus points for your first train trip taken within 90 days of signing up instead of the usual 500 points. That’s enough for a one-way Northeast corridor ticket, and almost enough to transfer points to Continental or Hilton.
Amtrak’s Brilliant New Business Idea
Since they can’t make running trains profitable, Amtrak is planning to build a hotel out of part of the Baltimore train station. The station is a terrible location for a hotel and the project has been unable to attract private financing or even a *brand* (like Sheraton, Marriott, etc) in the past. The best the piece can find an analyst to say about the project is that the hotel might get business if all the other hotels in Baltimore are full… … Though I suppose they could get business from Amtrak stranding passengers. Heh. (Hat tip to Hotel Chatter.)
Amtrak Transfer Bonus
Amtrak is offering 500 bonus points when you transfer 5000 or more points into your Guest Rewards account from one of their partners by March 31. While Amtrak hardly offers a great program, it’s a reasonable place to move Continental miles for sure. Log in to your Amtrak Guest Rewards account and then register using promo code 30806.
Quik Trak Bonus
Amtrak is offering 250 Guest Rewards points for picking up a ticket at a QuikTrak machine by March 31. Log into your Amtrak Guest Rewards account and then register for the promo using code 11906.Alas the bonus is limited to one per member. Update: The promo didn’t say anything about being targeted, but a reader emails a response that it’s in invalid offer so it might just be targeted. You’d think that Guest Rewards would say that if it is, but the folks running this program are among the worst in the industry so nothing surprises me at all.
More Devaluation of Amtrak Guest Rewards
Amtrak has announced changes to its reward chart effective January 3, 2006. Business and first class redemptions on Acela Express and Metroliner trains go up 500 points apiece (to 8,000 and 10,500 each way respectively). $50 gift cards go from 5000 points to 6000 points, a 20% increase. It used to be that Amtrak points were worth a penny apiece when redeemed for merchandise at this level. That penny-a-point parity threshold has now been breached. However, if you want to retain that purchasing power you’ll need to redeem 10,000 points for newly introduced $100 gift cards set to be on offer next month. I got the news in my online statement which arrived by e-mail today. Three weeks notice isn’t enough for these kinds of changes — but it’s better than the no-notice changes Amtrak…
Hardly worth mentioning… Amtrak Online Shopping Promo
Amtrak’s online mall is offering 100 points for spending $100 by the end of the year.
