Amtrak is offering three bonuses for its 5th anniversary.

• 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.

The 200 points are a free gimme.

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.)

Amtrak is moving to reserved service only across most Northeast trains effective April 25.

Members holding award tickets for unreserved trains can call Amtrak Guest Rewards customer service at 1-800-307-5000 to exchange the award for a reserved ticket for no additional points.

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) covered Amtrak’s abrupt end to transferring Guest Rewards points into United Mileage Plus miles.

One of the best deals in the world of frequent-flier programs recently disappeared, a reminder to travelers that the good bargains in the world of loyalty don’t last forever.



For several years, in the tight-knit community of frequent travelers, Amtrak’s Guest Rewards program developed a cult-like following. Reason: The program could be used as a clearinghouse for unwanted frequent-flier miles from Continental Airlines, which has developed a reputation for being stingy with the free seats on its airplanes. Using a three-way swap that is rare among loyalty programs, Amtrak members would transfer Continental miles into Amtrak points — then take the points and turn them into United miles. They did this because they believed it would be easier to redeem United Airlines miles for free tickets than cashing in their Continental miles. Continental officials declined to comment.



The program became popular with deal seekers looking to milk every last drop of value out of loyalty programs with generous terms.



All that ended Jan. 1, when, without warning and without posting a notice, Amtrak removed United from its list of partners on its Web site.

The article observes that this isn’t the first time Amtrak has made unannounced changes to these transfers:

Mark Beattie, an information technology manager in London, where there are no Amtrak trains, moved 300,000 miles from Continental into Amtrak’s program a few years ago. Right after he did — and before he turned the Amtrak points into United miles — Amtrak imposed a 25,000-point annual cap on the number of miles or points that could be transferred out of the program. Amtrak made this change without warning, leaving Mr. Beattie with a massive Amtrak points balance that he couldn’t use for train travel.

And the piece provides Amtrak’s lame excuse for their failure to provide notice to Guest Rewards members, ” the number of people who redeemed its points for United miles was so small, far less than 1% of its 860,000 or so members, that it didn’t think it was necessary.”

Of course, the vast majority of its members aren’t active or don’t yet have enough points to claim the rewards they want anyway, so using the total number of members that have ever signed up for the program is a poor basis for comparison. Besides, 1% of that figure is still 8600 and that’s 8600 of the members with meaningful point balances.

Amtrak’s response basically says that things of interest to less than 10,000 of their members aren’t important enough to warrant basic courtesy of notice (a simple email) or advance warning.

Some programs can be trusted more than others, at least based on their past behavior. Amtrak’s behavior indicates that it isn’t to be trusted, and its public statements back up that judgment.

Register to earn 500 bonus Amtrak Guest Rewards points on your next train trip by March 31.

Amtrak is offering a free Acela Express or Metroliner roundtrip when you take two roundtrips between select cities through May 31.

They’re also offering double Amtrak Guest Rewards points for tickets purchased with a Mastercard.

Registration is required.

Eligible city pairs are:

Boston – Stamford, Boston – New York, Boston – Newark, Boston – Metropark, Boston – Washington, Boston – Philadelphia, Route 128 – Stamford, Route 128 – New York, Route 128 – Newark, Route 128 – Metropark, Route 128 – Washington, Route 128 – Philadelphia, Stamford – Washington, New York – Washington, Newark – Washington, Metropark – Washington.

You can earn up to 8 free roundtrip certificates valid for travel between June 15, 2005 and December 15, 2005.

Register to earn 500 bonus Amtrak points on your next train trip by March 31.

The Amtrak/United partnership has ended, apparently effective immediately.

It used to be possible to transfer Amtrak points to United miles at a 1:1 ratio, up to 25,000 points per year (50,000 points for Amtrak elite members).

That option is apparently gone, removed sometime in the past 48 hours, with no notice whatsoever.

This is a real blow to the value of the Amtrak program for several reasons.

I used to recommend the Amtrak Mastercard as the best free points-earning credit card. It had several benefits:

1. Obviously, it was free
   
2. Points could be transferred to United, Midwest, Continental and Hilton
   
3. It’s issued by MBNA, so the foreign currency conversion charge is only 1% (rather than 3% for most issuers)

In fact, it was a better way for most people to earn United miles than the United Visa, since it was free and the BankOne United Visa generally carries a $60 annual fee.

I can no longer recommend that all frequent flyers carry this card, although it is still likely appropriate for folks wanting to earn Amtrak points.

United was Amtrak’s best partner. Midwest doesn’t offer alot of coverage, and Continental miles are notoriously difficult to redeem for Continental flights (they’re much more useful with partners) and the number of points required is often much higher than what United charges for awards.

Additionally, the ability to earn United miles no matter who you fly is gone as a result of this change.

Shame on ending partnerships without notice to members. And shame on the Amtrak program for simply deleting all references to United transfers from their website instead of announcing the change.

MBNA is offering the standard 500 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for signup plus a $50 Amtrak travel certificate. Offer appears to expire January 31, 2005.