Amtrak Guest Rewards

Looks like the special routes (ie, San Joaquin) get absolutely screwed.

Previous:
You could get 100 points after spending $30 on a sample trip.
You could redeem 1,000 points for a $90 sample trip (peak period)

Now:
You only get 60 points after spending $30 on a sample trip.
You would have to redeem 3,105 points for that same peak trip!

Outrageous

I just got a letter from Chase that my AGR card is being changed to another kind, and AGR points will stop being accrued Sept 30. Points accrued before then will be transferred to AGR.

I tried linking from the amtrak.com to the amtrakguestrewards.com site earlier today; it just brings you back to ticketing. Obviously, they have someone in IT who can't program hyperlinks. I've always found the web interface problematic and limited in general. Why they can't go ahead and launch some of the improved booking features already is beyond me. Perhaps they're using Obamacare programmers? I'd love to be able to book a bedroom using my points already. Of course, it could just be the change from zones to dollar value preventing that now, it should have existed already.

I also found I couldn't get affinity points on 1-800-Flowers today. I could link of the AGR site, but NOT use the promo code.

Yeah I just did some rough figuring for a possible trip Boston to Florida in March. It's usually 30,000 points for a round trip roomette (includes business class BOS-NYP) but looks more like 42,000 with the new system.

I also tried to see if there was a savings using coach to Washington or just going to Tampa instead of Miami, but there was not.

BTW - Silver Star and Meteor were the same price with the diner restored to the Star.

JoeG wrote:I just got a letter from Chase that my AGR card is being changed to another kind, and AGR points will stop being accrued Sept 30. Points accrued before then will be transferred to AGR.

I got that letter too. Any word on who the new credit card will be through?

Looks like there will be 2 offerings from Bank of America.

Point of comparison: booking a two-zone roomette doing the fish-hook 98 (SAV) - (WAS) 29 - (CHI) 59 (NOL).

20,000 points today; new system 34,673 (based on fare of $1,005).

Wow.

gprimr1 wrote:Looks like there will be 2 offerings from Bank of America.

Appears we've come full circle, Mr. Primrose.

Lest we forget who was the original issuer of the AGR affinity card?

Uh, MBNA Financial

And what happened to that financial institution?

Acquired by Bank of America!!!

Jeff Smith wrote:Point of comparison: booking a two-zone roomette doing the fish-hook 98 (SAV) - (WAS) 29 - (CHI) 59 (NOL).

20,000 points today; new system 34,673 (based on fare of $1,005).

Wow.

That's pretty much what I've been finding also. Any trip that I was planning for 20,000 points seems to be increasing by about 75% under the new rules. Of course my trips are kind of like yours in that my destination is determined by how far I can get on 20,000 points. Let's face it, no "normal" person who needed to get from Savannah to New Orleans would choose a train that routed them through Washington and Chicago, but I'd be all for it. The Boston to Chicago example above is probably a more typical non-railfan journey, and its price actually goes down. I'd of course go all the way to El Paso because it's the same 20,000 points. So it looks like I'll be doing 2 big trips next summer instead of only one so I can burn my points up under the old plan. I give Amtrak a lot of credit for giving us until January to book under the current plan though. I expected one of those "effective immediately" kind of announcements. It's nice that I have some time to plan.

I thought about adding a "border" city, such as Denver or El Paso. El Paso is a possible itinerary using the Texas Eagle 98 - 29 - 421 on a more limited schedule, but no Chicago or CoNO. The Sunset did not seem to be an option.

I can totally get why AGR is doing this; as you say, it's a railfan routing. Ironically, if the eastern leg of the Sunset was not annulled, the trip would be easier SAV - JAX - NOL etc. But the fact that there's a possible itinerary that takes me to freaking Chicago! rather than via the annulled Sunset. SMH and LMAO.

Now if only they'd extend the CoNO to Jax as a make-shift Floridian....

Why not transfer to the Crescent in D.C. then transfer to the Sunset Limited in N.O. to reach El Paso ?
I realize the layovers in D.C. and N.O. may not be optimal, but they're great cities to visit as a tourist!
You also completely eliminate Chicago from your itineary.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:

gprimr1 wrote:Looks like there will be 2 offerings from Bank of America.

Appears we've come full circle, Mr. Primrose.

Lest we forget who was the original issuer of the AGR affinity card?

Uh, MBNA Financial

And what happened to that financial institution?

Acquired by Bank of America!!!

Well, MBNA starting with 2004 and on was awful; they treated customers like deadbeats even if they pay off their cards all the time; my grandfather used to have his business account cards with them and after they screwed up payments, he closed the accounts and moved them all over to actually all to Chase who he has never had an issue. I guess also when Bank of America took over MBNA, they had lots of cleaning up to do with the MBNA accounts; the Amtrak card offering as I remember under MBNA had a bunch of goofyness in earning points...

And speaking of BofA...I have an Alaska Airlines card thru Bank of America; the other day I learned of Amtrak coming over to them as I was talking to customer service about a possible balance transfer from the old Chase card to the Alaska card; the lady mentioned they are getting Amtrak cards and said they will extend an special offer out to Chase Amtrak members to get them to come over...

Well it's halfway through the month and I haven't heard anything. How long are they going to wait?

Go to the Amtrak Guest Rewards page - log on and you will see that the cards are being advertised as of now, as I did when I just checked.

Got an email today about the new AGR credit cards.

I appreciate that the new program requires fewer points for base fares. For example, under the old program, I would have definitely preferred to pay $50 for Northeast Regional coach instead of dropping 4,000 points. With the new program, a $50 fare drops to 1,725 points, which seems far more reasonable to me. The break even point is $116, 4,002 points under the new system.

That said, most of my travel is during peak periods, so it looks like I will be buying some points so that I can book my Thanksgiving travel both ways...