Acela Points Earning Changing (Upgrade Coupons now earn only 500 point

[SubwayNut]

I found a link to this in the bottom of the links in my november eStatement as I was sifting through e-mails:

From Program News on the AGR Website:

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2014 – ENHANCED ACELA POINTS EARNING Posted on: 11/12/2013 ACELA TRAVEL BETWEEN SELECT CITY PAIRS
For Acela travel between select city pairs*, you’ll earn either 500 points one-way in Business class (750 points in First class), or 2 points per dollar spent, whichever is greater.

ACELA FREE ONE-CLASS UPGRADES
When applying a Free one-class upgrade between select city pairs*, Acela First class trips are eligible to earn 500 points one-way, or 2 points per dollar spent, whichever is greater.

You no longer get the 250 point TQP bonus for using a coupon to upgrade! (I guess they decided 750 TQP points just for using a coupon was too much of a steal!). I guess having the coupons will still make me book an Acela over the Regional for the meal but no longer the nice points bonus.

However if you manage to take a trip between Select City Pairs that costs $250 or in paid first class over $375 (those are expensive tickets, that would never be me) you now earn the full 2 points per dollar spent instead of just the 500/750. I guess this is a sign of Acela Prices going up and Amtrak not wanting to give away so many points, or perhaps they now have the IT infrastructure to do this!

 

[Anderson]

My guess is that SE+ is partly to blame for the Acela change...there's a class of traveler in the NEC who, between the new SE+ coupon-per-3000-TQPs policy and corporate purchases of upgrade packs always travels FC and never pays for it.

As to calling this "enhanced", with all due respect to Anthony, that turn of phrase in this context borders on an abuse of the English language. The "whichever is higher" element seems to be more of a clarification (if that wasn't the operating practice, I suspect they got bawled out by enough folks on the NEC to give in) than anything, but the other element is the antithesis of an enhancement to earnings.

 

[AlanB]

The "whichever is higher" element seems to be more of a clarification (if that wasn't the operating practice, I suspect they got bawled out by enough folks on the NEC to give in) than anything, but the other element is the antithesis of an enhancement to earnings.

No, that's not a clarification of things. At present you only get 500, or 750 if in FC, between the city pairings; period. If you paid a price that actually would have paid you more in points using the 2 X $ rule; well then you lose. You only got the points for the appropriate city pairing; 500 or 750. For example, the evening rush hour Acela's from NY to WAS for tomorrow are all currently priced at $259 one way. So under the normal AGR rules that would be $259 X 2 = 518 points. But because NYP-WAS is a city pair, you would only receive 750 points. You effectively would lose 18 points if you brought that ticket for tomorrow. But come January, you'd get the 518 points.

 

[jebr]

The "whichever is higher" element seems to be more of a clarification (if that wasn't the operating practice, I suspect they got bawled out by enough folks on the NEC to give in) than anything, but the other element is the antithesis of an enhancement to earnings.

No, that's not a clarification of things. At present you only get 500, or 750 if in FC, between the city pairings; period. If you paid a price that actually would have paid you more in points using the 2 X $ rule; well then you lose. You only got the points for the appropriate city pairing; 500 or 750. For example, the evening rush hour Acela's from NY to WAS for tomorrow are all currently priced at $259 one way. So under the normal AGR rules that would be $259 X 2 = 518 points. But because NYP-WAS is a city pair, you would only receive 750 points. You effectively would lose 18 points if you brought that ticket for tomorrow. But come January, you'd get the 518 points.

Shouldn't that be 500 points, not 750 points? Otherwise come January I'd be losing over 200 points!

 

[AlanB]

No, that's not a clarification of things. At present you only get 500, or 750 if in FC, between the city pairings; period. If you paid a price that actually would have paid you more in points using the 2 X $ rule; well then you lose. You only got the points for the appropriate city pairing; 500 or 750. For example, the evening rush hour Acela's from NY to WAS for tomorrow are all currently priced at $259 one way. So under the normal AGR rules that would be $259 X 2 = 518 points. But because NYP-WAS is a city pair, you would only receive 750 points. You effectively would lose 18 points if you brought that ticket for tomorrow. But come January, you'd get the 518 points.

Shouldn't that be 500 points, not 750 points? Otherwise come January I'd be losing over 200 points!

Yes, that should have read 500 points. Sorry!

However, the new rule says "whichever is larger" so even if I had been correct, you wouldn't have lost points.

 

[amamba]

Yeah this is not an enhancement. Although I do like that they are doing the right thing with the city pairs by providing 500/750 or 2 pts per dollar. But the second part is no bueno IMO.

 

[AlanB]

Yeah this is not an enhancement.

The second part, that is the dropping of the extra points when using a coupon for a free upgrade, wasn't intended to be an enhancement. It's simply the closing of a loophole that was never intended to be a benefit in the first place.

 

[SubwayNut]

Yes he meant 500. The highest NYP to WAS paid first class ticket is $375 (times two is 750 points, exactly the amount you'd normally earn!)

I can find a BOS to WAS First Class fare of $420, I guess in those situations you'd come out ahead.

As someone who earns Select+ using creative means, primarily long Multi-City Trip points runs (generally on trips I'm already taking for other reasons with a few PHL-DOW with stopover separate tickets thrown in) it makes the value of an Acela Upgraded first class trip ($109 each way to BOS, STM is technically cheeper at $105) drop raise the value with a TQP rising from costing about 14¢ per Tear Qualifying Point to 21¢ per TQP.

I'm coincidentally averaging 14¢ per TQP this year (two Acela First Class trips, both NYP to BOS trips upgraded that I needed to take anyway although the new 500 instead of 750 points would make me seriously consider the Regional instead, especially if I had time and enough advance notice (for low buckets) to turn the trips into a full Quafecta of 400 points). My points runs (Multi-Citys on the Keystones and trips on the Hartford-Springfield Shuttle, I've been to Wallingford three times this year!) have ranged from 2¢ to 4¢ per TQP.

 

[saxman]

Glad they are waiting until the end of the year to enact this new rule. I have a couple Acela rides still planned using coupons, and doing so will push me into the Select Plus status. Still 500 TQP is a good deal if you can snag the low bucket, which is $109 between BOS-NYP. May as wells till use the coupon for the free drinks and a meal.

 

[amamba]

Yeah this is not an enhancement.

The second part, that is the dropping of the extra points when using a coupon for a free upgrade, wasn't intended to be an enhancement. It's simply the closing of a loophole that was never intended to be a benefit in the first place.

Then why announce it on FT in a post about enhancements? Words have meaning. This change is not an enhancement. It's a closed loophole.

 

[AlanB]

Yeah this is not an enhancement.

The second part, that is the dropping of the extra points when using a coupon for a free upgrade, wasn't intended to be an enhancement. It's simply the closing of a loophole that was never intended to be a benefit in the first place.

Then why announce it on FT in a post about enhancements? Words have meaning. This change is not an enhancement. It's a closed loophole.

But the first part was an enhancement!

Also makes me wonder if this was some sort of trade off to the bean counters since it went hand in hand with the other part. Get more points; but close the loophole.

 

[Anderson]

Yeah this is not an enhancement.

The second part, that is the dropping of the extra points when using a coupon for a free upgrade, wasn't intended to be an enhancement. It's simply the closing of a loophole that was never intended to be a benefit in the first place.

Then why announce it on FT in a post about enhancements? Words have meaning. This change is not an enhancement. It's a closed loophole.

But the first part was an enhancement!

Also makes me wonder if this was some sort of trade off to the bean counters since it went hand in hand with the other part. Get more points; but close the loophole.

As I said, they were probably catching increasing hell from regulars on the NEC. The 500/750 rule made sense ten years ago when a BC ticket on the Acela could be somewhere in the $100-125 range WAS-NYP. It's made increasingly less sense as time has gone on and the second-highest bucket for some cities is now newted by this. I can only imagine the hell AGR would have started catching if they'd let this go until the middle bucket WAS-NYP broke $250 (at which point simply scrapping the 500/750 special would have probably made sense).

Edit: You know things are upside down when:

A top-bucket ticket WAS-BOS costs $290. Prior to this change, if you had simply paid the $290 you would have gotten 500 points. If you used AAA on a weekend and got a discount, thereby invalidating the "special", you would have paid $261 and thereby gotten 522 points. Ergo by using a discount to invalidate the "special", you'd come out ahead on both counts.

Calling repairing something like that an "enhancement" is a bit like RyanAir calling free toilets a "service improvement".

Mind you, I say this with no disrespect to Anthony...he's doing a good job and I understand that this abuse of the English language is brought on by some PR office or another.

 

[amamba]

I think both changes close loopholes in a way. It is good that they are updating the rules regarding city pairs so that acela riders are not penalized and given less points than other riders.

 

[amamba]

I am just cranky because I have been using the loophole to get status for a few years. I don't think I'll be able to hit s+ with the change.

 

[AlanB]

If you used AAA on a weekend and got a discount, thereby invalidating the "special", you would have paid $261 and thereby gotten 522 points. Ergo by using a discount to invalidate the "special", you'd come out ahead on both counts.

That's not true! I've used AAA many times on the weekend to Boston and have always gotten 500, or 750 if I booked FC. Using a discount does not undo the 500/750 rule at all. Only picking city pairs that aren't part of the 500/750 pairings would result in a 2 X $ calculation.

 

[AlanB]

I am just cranky because I have been using the loophole to get status for a few years. I don't think I'll be able to hit s+ with the change.

While I'm not "cranky", I too agree that this makes it harder to keep my status come next year. Now I need a few more trips to hold onto things.

 

[Acela150]

I am just cranky because I have been using the loophole to get status for a few years. I don't think I'll be able to hit s+ with the change.

While I'm not "cranky", I too agree that this makes it harder to keep my status come next year. Now I need a few more trips to hold onto things.

Ditto on all of it. I'm not a fan of it. But oh well. Things happen.

 

[Anderson]

If you used AAA on a weekend and got a discount, thereby invalidating the "special", you would have paid $261 and thereby gotten 522 points. Ergo by using a discount to invalidate the "special", you'd come out ahead on both counts.

That's not true! I've used AAA many times on the weekend to Boston and have always gotten 500, or 750 if I booked FC. Using a discount does not undo the 500/750 rule at all. Only picking city pairs that aren't part of the 500/750 pairings would result in a 2 X $ calculation.

It isn't? Huh, I must have gotten bad information, then. I remember being warned on here at some point (when doing a points run a few years ago) not to use AAA/NARP/etc. on an Acela if I wanted the fixed point award.

 

[Misty.]

Hmm. While it may take a few extra Acela runs to make S+ with the new rules in place... Still not much compared to how many KWD and ALN runs I have to do to make S+ myself.

 

[AlanB]

If you used AAA on a weekend and got a discount, thereby invalidating the "special", you would have paid $261 and thereby gotten 522 points. Ergo by using a discount to invalidate the "special", you'd come out ahead on both counts.

That's not true! I've used AAA many times on the weekend to Boston and have always gotten 500, or 750 if I booked FC. Using a discount does not undo the 500/750 rule at all. Only picking city pairs that aren't part of the 500/750 pairings would result in a 2 X $ calculation.

It isn't? Huh, I must have gotten bad information, then. I remember being warned on here at some point (when doing a points run a few years ago) not to use AAA/NARP/etc. on an Acela if I wanted the fixed point award.

The only warning's that I'm aware of with regard to Acela and discounts is that you cannot use any discounts if you want to use one of the free upgrade coupons. One must pay full fare in cases where you plan to use a coupon.

 

[AlanB]

Hmm. While it may take a few extra Acela runs to make S+ with the new rules in place... Still not much compared to how many KWD and ALN runs I have to do to make S+ myself.

It may take you more trips; but it will also cost you far less in money to get S+. Assuming all trips are KWD to ALN and back, you'll spend $1,150 to get to Select +; without regard to upgrades. For me I assuming I get low bucket every time going to Boston $2,180 now. I used to be able to spend less with those extra points for the free upgrades.

 

[jis]

Edit: You know things are upside down when:

A top-bucket ticket WAS-BOS costs $290. Prior to this change, if you had simply paid the $290 you would have gotten 500 points. If you used AAA on a weekend and got a discount, thereby invalidating the "special", you would have paid $261 and thereby gotten 522 points. Ergo by using a discount to invalidate the "special", you'd come out ahead on both counts.

Using AAA discount does not invalidate the special end point rule. Done it dozens of times myself and gotten the 500 points on a AAA fare. So no, you would not come out ahead, and at least in this respect nothing is upside down.

In order to get the free upgrade using coupons however, you cannot use a AAA, NARP or such discounted fare. You have to use a regular fare. If your original ticket was a discounted fare, you have to pay the difference between that and the corresponding regular fare. Many Amtrak agents screw this step up and try to charge you the current bucket fare before upgrading. You need to take care and refuse to accept a repricing to current bucket (unless of course you happen to come out ahead by doing so I suppose ).