Join the discussion on the following article:
Amtrak to revamp Guest Rewards Program in January
It sounds nightmarishly complicated.
Makes it very hard to save up for a trip using points if you do not know how many points will be needed until the day you purchase the tickets… I do appreciate the longer time until points expire due to inactivity–not many Amtrak routes in Alaska…
If they screw with the credit card points, I’m done. These changes seem to make the program way more complicated than need be. I do like that now a Boston to Chicago trip is no longer 40,000 points. I always thought that was a rip-off. I was very tempted to get off at South Bend and take the South Shore into Chicago to save points or, get out of the sleeper in South Bend and buy a coach ticket from there. On the other hand, being able to go from New York to Florida on one zone, or Los Angeles to Seattle on one zone was very worthwhile. Back a couple of years ago I took a trip from Chicago all around the west in sleeping cars (a couple of coach segments I paid for) and the fare at the time of booking was over $2,300 but I didn’t pay a penny for any of it including meals. Only cost was tips to the sleeper attendent. I just figure it was getting back some of my tax dollars. Hope they don’t mess with it to the point where, like the airline programs, it is no longer usable. There are people who spend alot of time trying to figure out the best usage of the system. I’ll wait and see what they come up with but this may mean the end of summer trips unless you can plan long in advance. Does anyone still pay for Amtrak tickets?
It appears that redemptions involving more than one person in a sleeping car room will incur an additional points charge for the extra person(s), at least equivalent to the coach fare for those individuals (the accommodation charge is not assessed on a per-person basis). Therefore, the before-and-after points comparison is not as rosy as it might seem.
The new system does not appear to be beneficial for long-distance trips. Currently, a trip from Houston to Seattle (2 zones) in a bedroom costs 40,000 points. If I calculated the new reward program correctly (each leg’s required points will be based on the cost of that leg) it will be 32,499 points to get from Houston to Los Angeles and 31,395 points to get from Los Angeles to Seattle or a total of 63,894 points—almost a 63% increase!!
I calculated that each $1.00 of travel cost will require 34.5 points. If their goal is to zap the long-distance guest reward traveler I believe they have succeeded.
This new system certainly does NOT seem to be a good thing for the individual who saves up his points in order to take a nice, long-distance trip as a vacation. It appears Amtrak is sticking it to its loyal riders … those of us who are remaining!
I’ve long been wondering when Amtrak would realize they were basically giving away the farm on some of those point redemptions. Especially dog-leg trips like a sleeper from Atlanta to Toledo, OH, all in one zone but 2 nights of travel. Wether the system will be better, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
I hope that I will not lose my points because I want to use them for a vacation with my wife. Also, as a long time holder of Priority Card I found it disappointing that I couldn’t use the Club Acela. I was able to use it when it was the Metroliner Lounge. I’m surprised that I didn’t get a notice from Amtrak about the changes. I found out about this from Trains. Nothing wrong with that, but I would have preferred to get the notice from Amtrak.
Just got my notice in the mail today from Chase that effective September 30th that my Amtrak Mastercard will be getting replaced with a Chase Freedom Visa Card. REALLY??? Obviously we were earning points way too quick with the Amtrak Mastercard. I am very unhappy about receiving this mailing. Another great system that is run by the federal government goes from working to failure!
And now we get the letter from Chase Bank saying our Amtrak Rewards MasterCard will be curtailed and replaced Sept. 30 with a non-points earning card, effectively ending the chance to earn enough points to take a long-distance trip after next year in January. There is enough negative publicity surrounding Amtrak these days, and now there is this. Unbelievable! My planned trip in May 2015 is in jeopardy now because I will fall short of the 105,000 points I need to take this trip. I have just over 90,000 points now, and, yes, I suppose I still can buy points to reach my goal, but isn’t buying points kind of against the idea of rewards? I, a longtime fan of passenger rail travel, am disheartened.