Rail Passengers Ass'n did not deliver any points

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
3,621
Location
Hillsborough, NJ
On December 18th, I decided to join the Rail Passengers Association using the AGR link and my AGR reward number. During that time they had a generous double points offer so I signed up with an adult membership.  So far not a single point, no membership card, nothing in the mail, only an email confirming my so called "Membership" and a membership number"  . Tried to use this to set up an online account at their website and it would not accept the membership number. Called membership support and they said that I had an old membership number back in 2014 that should be used so the new membership number was cancelled out. Tried to use the old membership number and the site would also not accept it. So here I am just about two months later with no points and nothing else to show for it but a weekly email that is sent out to anyone on their mail list.  If this is the way this organization handles memberships, perhaps its no wonder why they are a hardly effective group in Washington. The bottom line is that they beat me once and won't beat me twice. I will not continue to support this organization. Meanwhile, they can enjoy my one year membership fee on a membership that probably doesn't even exist.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bureaucracy can be frustrating. Keep trying.

I wonder why, in the quarterly Passenger Train Journal, RPA's ad still promotes its earlier, obsolete identity -- NARP. And on the same PAGE as the quarterly column from RPA! For at least the last two issues.
 
I renewed in November and had the same thing happen, despite seeing the points listed on the page where I selected the membership
level!
 
I'm the national secretary for RPA.  Please, call the office and check what happened.  It is entirely possible that there was/is an issue on RPA's end, but it is also possible that there's an issue on Amtrak's end (which I am fairly sure we would be happy to investigate).  The number is 202-408-8362.

One thing I would ask: Did you join as an annual member or with a monthly payment?  If the latter, I believe the points get broken up over the year.

(And I'm going to ask about the RTJ ad)

Edit: I've PMed both of you to try and get to the bottom of this and make sure you get your points.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I wonder why, in the quarterly Passenger Train Journal, RPA's ad still promotes its earlier, obsolete identity -- NARP. And on the same PAGE as the quarterly column from RPA! For at least the last two issues.
I do wonder why Amtrak.com *still* calls it an "NARP discount" when it's been RPA for years now. One would think that they'd have noticed by now. Then again, this is the same Amtrak which still hasn't fixed the omission of Rhinecliff from the list of stations on the LSL route page (no matter how many times I call and let them know), so I probably shouldn't be too surprised. :eek:hboy:
 
I do wonder why Amtrak.com *still* calls it an "NARP discount" when it's been RPA for years now. One would think that they'd have noticed by now. Then again, this is the same Amtrak which still hasn't fixed the omission of Rhinecliff from the list of stations on the LSL route page (no matter how many times I call and let them know), so I probably shouldn't be too surprised. :eek:hboy:
I wouldn't say Nov 2017 fits "for years now".  More like it's been RPA for just over a year.
 
1) I doubt you'll get points since you had an old membership number from 2014 and they canceled your "new" memebership

2) Your old membership number may have been marked "unused since 201x" and just needs to be reactivated to get access to their website.
 
I wouldn't say Nov 2017 fits "for years now".  More like it's been RPA for just over a year.
Fine, it’s been RPA for 1.23 years now. That still should be plenty of time for someone at Amtrak to notice and change it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think Brightline still refers to NARP as well. 

Also, we're going to follow up on this on Monday...dlagrua should at least be getting "renewal" points.
 
I didn’t know about the name change until last year until I had breakfast with someone from the board last May on the Capitol Limited and he told me.
 
1) I doubt you'll get points since you had an old membership number from 2014 and they canceled your "new" membership

2) Your old membership number may have been marked "unused since 201x" and just needs to be reactivated to get access to their website.
The December offer stipulated that  new memberships or renewals would receive double points. Still holding out and hope that this error can be straightened out. IF RPA is seeking long term supporters; it is their best interest to deliver on what they promise. At this point it appears that three membership numbers may have been assigned to my name but I was never a dues paying member until this past December when I signed up for the first time.
 
Everything got cleared up today. Samantha from membership services called and said that new RPA membership is now in place.   Must also give credit a couple of good forum members with positions within RPA that helped out. Many thanks to those gentlemen.  
 
If anyone else has issues with RPA (of the logistical sort, that is), please let me know and I'll work with the office to sort things out.
 
If anyone else has issues with RPA (of the logistical sort, that is), please let me know and I'll work with the office to sort things out.
I checked my guest rewards account after seeing this thread and noticed that I had received 400 points instead of the 600 points mentioned in the offer.  I called the number Anderson provided and they were very helpful and said that error would be corrected (and I will check to see if it is.)  Thanks for your help with this. 
 
I'll just note that all of the issues raised thus far in this thread have been resolved, but I'll be happy to field any other issues as they come up.
 
Back
Top