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April 18, 2005

Amtrak 5th Year Anniversary Bonus Promotion, Including Free Points

• 200 points for registering for the promotion.

• 2400 points for earning Amtrak Guest Rewards points with three partners by June 30.

• 2400 points for spending $3000 on the Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard between April 15 and June 30.

If you have the Amtrak credit card, $3000 in spending over two and a half months is easy to qualify for for most. I used to highly recommend the Amtrak credit card as indispensable because it has no annual fee, it charged only 1% on foreign currency transactions, and Amtrak points could be transferred 1:1 into United. However, Amtrak pulled the plug on United transferred and MBNA is increasing the foreign exchange transaction fee to 3%. I no longer recommend acquiring this card for most circumstances -- but if you have it anyway it's a good bonus.

Bonus points for partners are a bit more difficult since the number of Amtrak partners is small. If you're not a Starwood elite member but are likely to have a hotel stay, you can credit your stay to Amtrak. Then credit a Hertz car rental to Amtrak. Then earn Amtrak points on a Hilton stay and you've earned your bonus. You can also use RewardsMall as a partner. But going out of your way to sign up for Nextel or Earthlink just for this 2400 point bonus doesn't really seem worth it to me -- perhaps for a bigger bonus like Northwest's annual Fly Free Faster promotion.

(Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Posted by gleff at April 18, 2005 4:43 AM

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