George the Travel Monkey: Join East Coast Rewards and Get 100 Free Points

To celebrate their second birthday East Coast Rewards are offering 100 free points if you join East Coast Rewards before 11 August 2013, plus an extra 50 free points if you tell them your birth date. You can join East Coast Rewards here.

The 50 free Points for birthday information will be credited on 16 August to the first 20,000 Rewards members and the 100 joining Points will be credited on 16 August to all new Rewards accounts opened by 11 August.

How to Earn Points

Spend at least £22 in any one transaction on train travel at eastcoast.co.uk and earn 1 Point for every £ spent on Standard tickets, or 1.5 Points for First Class tickets. You can buy tickets for any train travel in the United Kingdom through eastcoast.co.uk.

There are no booking fees added to purchases made through East Coast. If you want the tickets posted you pay £1 for first class or £6.22 for special delivery. If you pick up your ticket at a station (and it can be any station not just the one you are traveling from) then there is no additional cost, you will need the payment card and booking reference for collection though. For comparison, RedSpottedHanky, another train rewards site, does not charge for postal delivery.

Season Ticket holders can also join East Coast Rewards on eligible Season Tickets and earn 0.5 Points for every £1 when travelling Standard and 1 Point for every £1 when travelling First Class.

What Can I Use The Points For?

Points can be converted to eVouchers at the rate of 1 Point = £0.01 eVoucher. For example, 1,400 Points translates to a £14.00 eVoucher to spend. An eVoucher once issued by East Coast will expire 6 months after issue and can only be used at eastcoast.co.uk.

You can also use points for free onboard Wi-Fi. There are four redemptions levels available, 24 consecutive hours for 50 Points, 3 consecutive months for 1,100 Points, 6 consecutive months for 1,700 Points, and 12 consecutive months for 3,000 Points. For comparison, a Standard Class passenger gets 15 minutes free usage and extra usage costs £4.95 per hour and £9.95 for 24 hours. So, 50 points for 24 hours of Wi-Fi is equal to £9.95 (1 point = £0.20) On-board Wi-Fi is free for First Class passengers.

You can also use points for magazine subscriptions, Marks and Spencer vouchers, wine from Naked Wine, etc. A full list of rewards can be found here.

Full terms and conditions for East Coast Rewards can be found here.

If you are interested, you can find the East Coast route network here.