Maximizing AGR points

[sportbiker]

I want to take a $30 (formerly $26) round-trip from O.C. to L.A. for the day. If I book it as a round-trip, will I get 100 points because it's considered one transaction? Or would I get 200 points because it's two trains? If I book two one-way tix I'm guaranteed 200 points, but it's a little more work.

My partner has his own AGR account. Can we both get points if we book it as a single transaction for two adults or would we have to separate the purchases?

In sum, there's a total of 400 points to be had for the two of us. How do we book to be sure we get them all?

 

[Trogdor]

It won't make a difference how you book it. Amtrak Guest Rewards points are awarded by the segment (a segment meaning one train boarding or one ticket coupon).

As long as each passenger has his/her Amtrak Guest Rewards number included on his/her ticket, he/she will receive the same number of points (assuming the same fare), regardless of whether you each book each segment separately, or if you book both round trips using the same reservation.

(Edit) I should also note that you will not get extra points if you use multiple ticket coupons on the same train (either for a legitimate reason, or for trying to cheat the system). There used to be a loophole where you could book a trip, for example, LA-Fullerton-San Diego for the same price as LA-San Diego, but get 200 points because the trip used two coupons. However, that loophole was discovered and closed a year or so ago. This also means that, if you happen to upgrade en route (for example, buying coach Emeryville-Denver, and sleeper Denver-Chicago) you'll only get credit for one portion of the trip (I'm not sure which portion). In a case like that, where you had a legitimate reason for handing in multiple ticket coupons, you could probably call AGR and plead your case.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

I want to take a $30 (formerly $26) round-trip from O.C. to L.A. for the day. If I book it as a round-trip, will I get 100 points because it's considered one transaction? Or would I get 200 points because it's two trains? If I book two one-way tix I'm guaranteed 200 points, but it's a little more work.
My partner has his own AGR account. Can we both get points if we book it as a single transaction for two adults or would we have to separate the purchases?

In sum, there's a total of 400 points to be had for the two of us. How do we book to be sure we get them all?

I would forget about the AGR points and ride Metrolink on a day trip to L.A. for about half the cost of Amtrak. And Metrolink now offers weekend service on the O.C. line, albeit on a reduced schedule. You'd need to check it out (metrolinktrains.com). Also more likely to run on time, and makes stops in O.C. that Amtrak doesn't which might be more convenient for you. But that's just me.

 

[sportbiker]

I would forget about the AGR points and ride Metrolink on a day trip to L.A. for about half the cost of Amtrak. And Metrolink now offers weekend service on the O.C. line, albeit on a reduced schedule. You'd need to check it out (metrolinktrains.com). Also more likely to run on time, and makes stops in O.C. that Amtrak doesn't which might be more convenient for you. But that's just me.

Metrolink's Saturday schedule doesn't work for me (have to be in downtown L.A. at 10:00), and Irvine is a joint stop. Beyond that, since it takes only 2k points to earn a free roundtrip anywhere in CA, a few extra bux for Amtrak can add up to a big free trip pretty quickly.

However, Metrolink has a really nice advantage I wish Amtrak would duplicate: a Metrolink ticket to L.A. is valid as a day pass to the county Metro system (rail and bus) at no extra cost.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Irvine is a joint stop? News to me. Never seen anybody smoking dope on the platform there. HAHA!!

Have fun racking up those AGR points.

 

[sportbiker]

Irvine is a joint stop? News to me.

You've never been there with the right people.

 

[rtabern]

Yeah, it's minimum 100 points per train.

If you live near a main station it can be easy to rack up points.

Some weekends when I got to Chicago, I'll take a train ride. I stay with family in the north suburbs of Chicago so I'll go:

Glenview-Chicago-Galesburg-Chicago-Glenview.

4 trains and 400 points... and if you get it at the lowest fare bucket you can do that for about $40.

$40 for 400 points... not bad if you ask me.

 

[wayman]

Glenview-Chicago-Galesburg-Chicago-Glenview.
4 trains and 400 points... and if you get it at the lowest fare bucket you can do that for about $40.

$40 for 400 points... not bad if you ask me.

That's pretty good! I think I can one-up it, though:

Phila 30th St Station to Ardmore, PA, $6 for 100 points

Keystone Service, seven trains daily

($5.40 for 100 points if I pre-book with the AAA discount!)

The station is right at a nice shopping plaza with a Trader Joe's and an Apple Store. I keep meaning to take Amtrak to the grocery store and back--$10.80 to the grocery store and back does sound silly, of course. But it'd be going to the grocery store *in style*! (And if I ever decide to buy an iPhone, this will be how I do it )

Sadly, two years of living within a short trolley ride of 30th St and I've still never done this.

You can do this same trip on SEPTA's R5, of course, and it's "only" $5 $4.25 peak or $4.25 $3.50 off-peak each way after the latest fare hike, with no AGR points of course. (Forgot Ardmore was one zone closer to the city than Bryn Mawr.)

 

[AmtrakWPK]

And one that I should be taking advantage of at least once a week, if I have two or three hours or so to spare, would be WPK-ORL-WPK using 91 and 98, $5 each way before AAA discount.

 

[wayman]

It won't make a difference how you book it. Amtrak Guest Rewards points are awarded by the segment (a segment meaning one train boarding or one ticket coupon).

Slightly different question along these lines:

I booked WAS-CHI-GJT as a single reservation, at a AAA fare of $138.60 for the whole reservation, not broken down by train. If I booked WAS-CHI and CHI-GJT separately, the sum of the two fares would be higher than this (that's why I booked them together).

Will I get

(one ticket coupon for $138.60) x 2(points per $) x 2(fall promotion) = 554 points

or

some different (possibly greater) number of points, if the ticket values for WAS-CHI and CHI-GJT that AGR uses somehow add up to more than $138.60? (I'm sure that neither of those legs will be considered as less than $50, which would definitely increase the total points since they'd bump that leg up to 100 points. But would the answer be different if one leg was that cheap, but part of a single multi-leg reservation? I guess I'm unclear on what "price" is given to each train's ticket in that case, and how a "ticket coupon" is different from a "train" for this calculation.)

 

[PRR 60]

It won't make a difference how you book it. Amtrak Guest Rewards points are awarded by the segment (a segment meaning one train boarding or one ticket coupon).

Slightly different question along these lines:

I booked WAS-CHI-GJT as a single reservation, at a AAA fare of $138.60 for the whole reservation, not broken down by train. If I booked WAS-CHI and CHI-GJT separately, the sum of the two fares would be higher than this (that's why I booked them together).

Will I get

(one ticket coupon for $138.60) x 2(points per $) x 2(fall promotion) = 554 points

or

some different (possibly greater) number of points, if the ticket values for WAS-CHI and CHI-GJT that AGR uses somehow add up to more than $138.60? (I'm sure that neither of those legs will be considered as less than $50, which would definitely increase the total points since they'd bump that leg up to 100 points. But would the answer be different if one leg was that cheap, but part of a single multi-leg reservation? I guess I'm unclear on what "price" is given to each train's ticket in that case, and how a "ticket coupon" is different from a "train" for this calculation.)

The actual tickets for each segment will show a fare value for the associated segment (that together will add up to $138.60). You will get AGR points for each segment based on the value shown on that segment's ticket with a minimum of 100 points for any segment that is priced at less than $50. Even segments showing a zero fare will earn 100 points.

 

[AlanB]

It won't make a difference how you book it. Amtrak Guest Rewards points are awarded by the segment (a segment meaning one train boarding or one ticket coupon).

Slightly different question along these lines:

I booked WAS-CHI-GJT as a single reservation, at a AAA fare of $138.60 for the whole reservation, not broken down by train. If I booked WAS-CHI and CHI-GJT separately, the sum of the two fares would be higher than this (that's why I booked them together).

Will I get

(one ticket coupon for $138.60) x 2(points per $) x 2(fall promotion) = 554 points

or

some different (possibly greater) number of points, if the ticket values for WAS-CHI and CHI-GJT that AGR uses somehow add up to more than $138.60? (I'm sure that neither of those legs will be considered as less than $50, which would definitely increase the total points since they'd bump that leg up to 100 points. But would the answer be different if one leg was that cheap, but part of a single multi-leg reservation? I guess I'm unclear on what "price" is given to each train's ticket in that case, and how a "ticket coupon" is different from a "train" for this calculation.)

You will get two tickets, one for WAS to CHI and then one for CHI to GJT. It's hard to know just what the breakdown of cost for each of those tickets might be, but most likely the WAS to CHI ticket has more value than the CHI to GJT ticket. So without a doubt you'll get 2 points per $ on the Capitol's ticket, X 2 for the promo. There is a chance that the ticket from Chicago will end up costing less than $50, in which case you'll get 100 points for that ticket no matter what since that is the minimum, plus the fall bonus. If it does have more value than $50, then you'd get 2 points per X 2 for the fall promo.

So if the second ticket is worth less than $50, then you'll get more points than what you calculated above. If it is worth more than $50, then your calculations above will be correct in terms of points, even though you will have two tickets and therefore two postings for points.

 

[wayman]

Phila 30th St Station to Ardmore, PA, $6 for 100 pointsKeystone Service, seven trains daily

($5.40 for 100 points if I pre-book with the AAA discount!)

Egads, with the fall double points promotion, a round trip for $10.80 yields 400 points. At roughly $0.036 value per point (when redeeming efficiently on travel), 400 points is worth $14.40. This is profitable--$3.60 per trip to the grocery store!

(If I got a Chase AGR card and used it to buy the tickets, I would get an extra 20 points per trip, too! Profit up to $4.32. Wow.)

I will be doing my grocery shopping in October and November by Amtrak

 

[AlanB]

The actual tickets for each segment will show a fare value for the associated segment (that together will add up to $138.60). You will get AGR points for each segment based on the value shown on that segment's ticket with a minimum of 100 points for any segment that is priced at less than $50. Even segments showing a zero fare will earn 100 points.

Bill, oddly enough when I took the trip this summer my tickets did not have the breakdown listed on them. Not sure if that was a fluke, or something new. In the past Amtrak always did list the value of that segment on the ticket in small print that you had to go looking for. But again, this time around it wasn't listed, so I'm not sure if that's a new thing or not.

All that said, I still did get seperate postings for the pro-rated value of each ticket to my AGR account. So even though I couldn't see the values, Amtrak still could.

 

[Trogdor]

I believe it was sometime last year that Amtrak stopped putting the "exchange value" (XV) on the tickets. It was explained to me, but I don't remember all the details. Apparently, it had to do with some people thinking the XV was the actual value of that ticket coupon, and what they would be due in a refund, or whatever, but in fact it could be completely different. As I understand it, the XV is really more for Amtrak's internal allocation of revenue, and not particularly relevant to the passenger (except when determining the AGR point value of a trip).