RAILforum: Guest Rewards sharing

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Posted by clevelandbrown (Member # 3654) on :

I know on airline frequent flyer programs you earn points by flying miles. If for example, I buy a ticket for my wife and I, but she is not a member of the frequent flyer program, I earn the miles I myself flew, but the identical miles my wife flew are lost forever. Thus, each of us had to join the FF program.

Now I am starting to use Amtrak, and I notice that I earn points by how much I spend, not how far I go. My question is whether, if I buy a ticket for my wife and I, is all the money spent applied to my Guest Rewards account, or only the cost of my half of the ticket. I looked all over their site and couldn't find an answer specifically for the cost of the fares, although I found that if I get a sleeper, the entire accomodation cost is applied to the first passenger on the ticket, not split between them.

Posted by Charles Reuben (Member # 2263) on :

You get 2 points for every dollar that you spend on Amtrak. You get 1 point for every dollar that you spend elsewhere.

If you want your wife to get points, she needs to open her own account and buy the ticket with her Guest Rewards credit card.

As you point out, points for the sleeper would be credited to the person who pays for it. If you pay for the ticket portion of her fare, I would think that you would get her points.

My reasoning is that a passenger only pays for one sleeper, regardless of how many people occupy that sleeper.

By the way, Guest Rewards is an awesome deal. I wish I could pay my mortgage with that card. As it is, I have enough points to go to Montreal and back, for free!

Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :

Another good feature of Guest Rewards is that you can transfer miles in blocks of 5,000 from the Continental Airlines OnePass program for use on Amtrak. All it takes is a phone call to OnePass and the miles show up in your GuestRewards account in about 7 days. It's a great way to burn miles.

If you are in Cleveland, Mr. Brown, you probably already are a member of OnePass since CLE is a major Continental hub.

Frank in still (probably until February 8th) trainless SBA

Posted by hehcooh (Member # 3694) on :

quote:
Originally posted by sbalax:
Another good feature of Guest Rewards is that you can transfer miles in blocks of 5,000 from the Continental Airlines OnePass program for use on Amtrak.

Really! Tell me more! I've got about 40,000 miles with OnePass I don't think I'll ever be able to use on Continental. Now if I can transfer them to Amtrak's guest reward and apply them to a spring trip that would be something.

I quickly checked both OnePass and Amtrak sites but couldn't find any further info. I'll check past Onepass mailings at home tonight.

Posted by clevelandbrown (Member # 3654) on :

From a posting on Flyertalk, to transfer miles from Continental to Amtrak you have to call the Onepass reward desk and give them the appropriate information. He said they do it fairly quickly.

Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :

I did the transfer from OnePass to GuestRewards a year ago but now can't find the info on either program's website. I have a query into GuestRewards and will let you know what they say.

The GuestRewards website does give information on how to transfer GuestRewards points to OnePass (Again, in blocks of 5,000) as well as how to do this with MidwestExpress. I couldn't find the info on how to do it the other way, however.

Frank in trainless SBA.

Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :

This is the e-mail response I got today from OnePass@coair.com:

Thank you for contacting the OnePass Service Center.

OnePass members who are also members in Amtrak's Guest Rewards program have the option to transfer mileage between the two programs.

To transfer mileage from Guest Rewards to OnePass, please contact Amtrak at 800-USA-RAIL.

Requests for a mileage transfer from OnePass to Guest Rewards reqauire that you provide your OnePass account number and PIN along with your Guest Rewards account number. Please contact the OnePass Service Center at 713-952-1630 for assistance.

Dan Boufenik
OnePass Service Center

I believe, from my previous experience, that the transfers have to be in blocks of 5,000 miles or points.

I hope that helps.

Frank in still trainless Santa Barbara.

Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :

For some reason, an earlier post today didn't make it on here.

I got a confirmation today from OnePass that it is possible to tranfer GuestRewards points to OnePass and OnePass miles to Amtrak. I called OnePass to transfer 25,000 miles today and they said it should take no longer than 10 days to show up in my GuestRewards account.

A good way to burn airline miles!

Frank in still trainless SBA

Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :

The 25,000 miles just showed up in my GuestRewards account. They left my OnePass account on 02/02/05 and were in my GuestRewards account on 02/07/05. Pretty good service, I'd say.

Hope this is helpful to those of you with OnePass miles to burn.

Frank in soon to be partially trained SBA.