New AGR vs. Old AGR

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Another Long Distance Whiner!

You should be glad that the NEC and others on Corridors with Biz Class get all the goodies on the New and "Enhanced" AGR2.0!

A 50% Devaluation of points for decreased service and amenities isn't that bad a deal, just ask those defending this bait and switch scam!

Those out in Flyover Country with only LD Service? Let them eat Cake!
 
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Actually Florida to New York LD service often comes out better than even in AGR 2.0 too. That is why you don't see me complaining as loudly as I would otherwise. Also New York to Chicago comes out spectacularly better quite often too.
 
jis--

What have you found that is good on Florida to New York? I looked up points on the Silver Meteor for a date in April, WPK to TRE, and it was about 21,000 points for a roomette and about 26,000 for a bedroom. So I think that's a lot more than the roomette used to be, but just a bit more than the bedroom used to be?

Of course, if you're looking up the poor Star as Amtrak tears it apart and pretty much makes it the equivalent of depressing commuter rail (yes, I know I'm over-emoting, but I loved that train :( ), I imagine it would be fewer points.

Also, which NY to Chicago train? I have not done that yet, primarily because they've all been too expensive.
 
willem said:
It sounds like there are teething problems at amtrak.com.
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Yes, there are. I had one this morning when I tried to book a trip on the Silver Star. The price in points and/or dollars on the website was quite a bit less than what the agent could see on her screen. Finally when a supervisor actually logged on to the website with my credentials and saw what I saw, he gave me the published price which the "I'm only an agent"s had denied me as impossible. That had been the price for weeks now so I don't think it was a result of the new AGR. I think probably it was a result of the adjustment in price when they decided the diner would not be back in March. It was interesting to hear the supervisor and agent struggling with the computer trying to get the program to do what they wanted. It looks like ultimately they sold the ticket at their price and then gave a manual refund of points to make up the difference. Whatever. They have my sympathies....must be a tough week at AGR.

Oh, and the price is more than 3K points less than the 15K for the same old 1-zone trip.
 
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jis said:
Actually Florida to New York LD service often comes out better than even in AGR 2.0 too. That is why you don't see me complaining as loudly as I would otherwise. Also New York to Chicago comes out spectacularly better quite often too.
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The Star is now cheaper, but with due (dis)respect to Amtrak the "old" Star pricing (e.g. the "full" 15K roomette price) was implicitly based upon having full meal service available (on every other train with sleeper space some significant form of meal is included; on the Star you don't even get a voucher in the cafe). Had the devaluation not been in the works I suspect an award price differential would have emerged between the two, at least after the difference became permanent.
 
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I guess my lack of need for a Diner for essentially one night service is showing :) Really I simply don't care much to pay several hundred dollars more to have the privilege of sitting in the Diner a couple of times.

My preference would have been to separate the Sleeper transport price from the food price and let those that want to spend on the Diner do so. The Star situation is a bad way of achieving the separation, but trust Amtrak to choose the bad way given a choice, unfortunately.

Also my typical travel is from KIS/ORL to WAS, which is what I was commenting about. I am sure there are other city pairs separated by longer distances where my observation does not hold true. Also it is quite pointless speculating what coulda/shoulda/woulda happened if AGR 2.0 didn't.
 
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jis said:
My preference would have been to separate the Sleeper transport price from the food price and let those that want to spend on the Diner do so. The Star situation is a bad way of achieving the separation, but trust Amtrak to choose the bad way given a choice, unfortunately.
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jis, I echo Bob Dylan--you've nailed it. I think I was most upset at not being given the logical choice to have a diner as an option. I also wish they would stop saying they've lowered the price--through comparing prices, I got a sleeper on the Star (with meals) for several years for about the same price they are charging now without them.

The one way I might take the Star is if the travel time is when I wouldn't be eating anyway--say WPK to ALX, getting a nice meal in WPK before the evening departure from WPK (getting an extra half day in WPK without paying for another hotel night), bringing fruit and a muffin for the morning, and then having a late lunch at ALX.
 
Mystic River Dragon said:
jis said:
My preference would have been to separate the Sleeper transport price from the food price and let those that want to spend on the Diner do so. The Star situation is a bad way of achieving the separation, but trust Amtrak to choose the bad way given a choice, unfortunately.
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jis, I echo Bob Dylan--you've nailed it. I think I was most upset at not being given the logical choice to have a diner as an option. I also wish they would stop saying they've lowered the price--through comparing prices, I got a sleeper on the Star (with meals) for several years for about the same price they are charging now without them.

The one way I might take the Star is if the travel time is when I wouldn't be eating anyway--say WPK to ALX, getting a nice meal in WPK before the evening departure from WPK (getting an extra half day in WPK without paying for another hotel night), bringing fruit and a muffin for the morning, and then having a late lunch at ALX.
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Oh, I agree. Basically, northbound the Star is acceptable since the WPK/DLD times are fairly late and dinner can be arranged before departure (when leaving from DLD I'd often grab something quick if the train was more than a few minutes late). Southbound, not so much since it leaves RVR at about 1700. Worth noting, if the SB Meteor and Star switched amenities either would be acceptable; as it is, I've got the worst of both worlds: I can either be on a train with no diner at dinner (that's the killer for me...a cup of noodles is fine for a late-night snack, but it doesn't cut it as a full meal) for an overnight trip or I can be on a train with a diner but board post-dinnertime. Cost notwithstanding it's enough for me to toy with going to RVR and catching a train to ALX so I can take the Meteor from there.

I don't care if the meal is "included" as long as it is available.

Also worth noting: The Star is generally more than acceptable as a NYP-RVR train southbound as it's basically a fancied-up Regional where I can swap a seat for a bunk and crash, work, or generally not be bothered as I desire. Northbound that gets touchy since you're quite easily running over lunch and dinner periods if the train isn't on time, though at least in that case there's a good deli about two blocks from RVR where I can cover lunch with a meat pie and some hummus and chips.
 
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jis said:
Actually Florida to New York LD service often comes out better than even in AGR 2.0 too. That is why you don't see me complaining as loudly as I would otherwise. Also New York to Chicago comes out spectacularly better quite often too.
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NY to Chicago was such an exceptionally bad deal under AGR 1.0 that I was doing things like "redeem for Chicago-LA, pay cash for NY-Chicago".
 
neroden said:
NY to Chicago was such an exceptionally bad deal under AGR 1.0 that I was doing things like "redeem for Chicago-LA, pay cash for NY-Chicago".
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For Chicago-LA if you're travelling alone in a roomette and taking the Chief it's actually cheaper under the new system in most cases. It's two-person reservations and roundabout routes where the old system really stood out, and Amtrak really has no business encouraging the latter.
 
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If I don't mind cutting over to the Cap out of Chicago and then to the Pennsylvanian in Pittsburgh or the NE Regional in Washington, Oklahoma to NYP can be picked up for just under 20,000 Points, a slight savings over 1.0.
 
What bucket(s) are you looking at? I'll concede that in some cases, lowest-bucket might be cheaper (if available)...an old $700-ish NFK-SEA trip comes to mind (the 35k points would have come to $1014). The issue is that the higher buckets...often are the only ones available and can be far more expensive.
 
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I've given some more thought to my exchange with Jis, and there's a secondary reason for my dogged patronage of the diner on the Meteor (in particular). If anyone has ever heard of the concept of the "tyranny of small decisions" (I always remember it as the "Train to Ithaca Problem" since the loss of rail service to Ithaca, NY was used as an example of the concept), that's basically what is at stake (and, considering the meal served on 97 out of WAS, at steak) in my mind. Presuming that my SB trip wasn't going to fall over dinner on 91.

Basically, there are cases (and this is a particular one) where I will patronize a service which might nominally exceed my "needs" (e.g. I could get dinner in the station and take it onboard and be similarly nourished) because I want the service to stay in existence (e.g. the ever-present risk of diner service being either slashed back to something akin to horror stories I've heard of past years, or eliminated and replaced with a cafe). I will confess that this "point of philosophy" has gotten my rear end to the dining car on MANY mornings on the Meteor (it was always a bit spottier on the Star) and plays at least some role in preferencing the PPC's food service (and indeed got me to buy several tickets to the wine tasting even though I can hardly stand most wines): I may not absolutely need X, but I place a value on the long-term presence of X and in some respects I'm prepared to "overpay" to preserve X. This doesn't mean I won't seek out value where I can, and obviously there's a limit to this, but it does weigh upon my decision-making process.
 

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