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The Offer
- FNBO Amtrak Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred card is offering a signup bonus of 35,000 points when you spend $2,000 within the first three billing cycles.
- The no-fee card also bumped the bonus to 12,000.
Card Details
- Annual fee of $99 is not waived
- Complimentary Companion Coupon, One-Class Upgrade and a single-day
- ClubAcela pass for access to ClubAcela, Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge or First class
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3 points per $1 spent with Amtrak
- 2 points per $1 spent on all other qualifying travel and dining purchases
- 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases
No foreign transaction fees
- 5% Amtrak Guest Rewards point rebate when you book your Amtrak redemption
Our Verdict
Not as good as the 40,000 point bonus that has been offered twice. Hopefully we see an increased offer with a dummy booking, but that hasn’t happened with this FNBO card yet.
Just went down to 20k,12k it looks like
William Charles
Got two weird denials from FNBO. First was for a family member who had the card two years ago and cancelled a year ago. Initially it was instantly approved. Then strangely got a letter a week later saying it was denied because there were “elements of fraud”? Googling that with fnbo did not bring up much except one person who said it was due to an outdated web browser. I think I had used an older browser running on Windows 8.1 for that application. So perhaps that triggered it.
Then applied for another family member who also had the card two years ago and it said “pending”. Then got an email a few hours later saying it was denied and will get a letter explaining why in the mail. Will post what that says later.
Second cross-post test for
Eric 🔗. Lol, ok, I’m done..
Yes, I received an email. Since you used my guest #, it shows “You have been mentioned in comment”.
I assume both emails pointed you to my comment…was there any reference/info in them letting you know what I linked to tag you (e.g. the post I pulled them from or your specific comment)? Interesting that the emails distinguish between you being mentioned vs. your comment being mentioned.
Yes, it showed “You have been mentioned in comment on FNBO Amtrak Credit Card 35,000 Points Signup Bonus” in the subject of the email.
BTW, there is 1 more test that you could do. Just in case James and Karl never get around to answering me, how about you tag me twice in the same comment? That way I can see for myself if I receive 1 or 2 emails.
Didn’t jack jack jack already demonstrate that tagging N different people will cause each one of them to get N separate emails? lol…but ok, here goes…I’ll tag you twice as well as two of your comments
Eric 🔗
Eric 🔗
#1937693
#1937690
You are thinking of the old system. That is how it worked. It hasn’t worked that way with the new system.
Alright, here is what happened with your comment. It’s definitely not what I would have expected.
I received 2 separate emails with the subject “You have been mentioned in comment on FNBO Amtrak Credit Card 35,000 Points Signup Bonus”.
I wonder if you had tagged the same guest # in both tags if I would have only received 1 “Mention” email.
I received 1 email with the subject “Your Comment has been mentioned on FNBO Amtrak Credit Card 35,000 Points Signup Bonus”.
I wonder why I only received 1 of that but 2 of the other. Any theories?
BTW, if I remember, I will let Jack know about what I found. He probably tagged multiple names for the same reason that I did. It was very hard to figure out which name was the correct one before the comment posted. Now that’s no longer an issue with what I discovered.
No idea. I tried to make sure every tag was from a different post but it looks like the two comments were both from the treasury direct one…I wouldn’t expect the system would be smart enough to just send one notification for that though.
It seems like you replied to the wrong comment.
Anyway, you never know.
William Charles didn’t think the system was smart enough to allow tagging someone from another post and alas here we are.
Yeah, I noticed that after it already posted.
Random test
#17344
#17345
Were you testing what would happen if you edit a comment and add tag(s)? If so, I already knew that it wouldn’t alert me and it didn’t.
BTW, how did you know that I would subscribe to this post and see your reply to me?
Good question…lol. Are you saying you don’t get notified of direct replies to your comment if you aren’t subscribed?
That’s correct.
Didn’t you wonder why I tag people in so many of my comments? For some questions or comments, I don’t want to take the chance that people aren’t subscribed to comments and/or replies.
Did you see my reply before this one?
I see, lmao. Yes, I did and made another test but tagged you twice and your comments twice, so I guess it went to moderation. Oddly, I didn’t see the orange exclamation icon or any text indication that it did.
I’ll let you know if/when
William Charles or 
Chuck post your comment, what the results are.
BTW, you are probably aware of this but just in case you’re not, if you have 3+ tags and/or links in a comment, it automatically goes to moderation. I’m surprised the yellow exclamation mark didn’t appear. Hopefully, it didn’t go to the dreaded Spam!
Hmm…I was already able to see it about 10-15 minutes before you made this comment, but maybe only because I was the author? Also I wonder if whatever happened to the comment affects the notifications it would normally trigger…
I go through my emails from oldest to newest so it probably had already been posted when I made that comment.
BTW, the system emails you to know that your comment was posted from moderation. Of course, that’s a moot point for you…
BTW, I just realized that you posted in a very new post. I initially thought that you chose a old very unpopular post that no one would end up seeing. 😉
😀
Your reply made me notice that I forgot to change “a” to “an” after adding the word “old” to my comment. 😀
If anyone wants to read a full write-up on the Amtrak Guest Rewards program and value of points, feel free to read my comment from February 2024 here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/fnbo-amtrak-credit-card-40000-points-signup-bonus/#comment-1800391
Thank you for that write-up! I was only very passingly familiar and this was the quick ramp-up I needed. That was perfect