Reward points vs buying points = buying points is cheaper!

[RickIronton]

If I buy a ticket for $1000, I get 2000 reward points.

If I buy points for 2000, I pay $75.40

Why shouldn't I just buy points to get better results.

What am I missing?

 

[leacrane]

one thing has nothing to do with the other. If you need the ticket you have to buy it and you get points. The question you should ask is: if you get 2000 pts for 75.00 what do those pts get you? More than less than or equal to 75.00 of travel...?

 

[Eric S]

Right, it's not an either/or situation.

 

[crescent2]

You're missing the $1000 train trip the ticket also bought.

 

[Ryan]

And the points you buy don't count towards status, as the points you get from travel.

 

[Anderson]

There's also points from the CC and/or status (and/or seasonal/special offers). That $1000 ticket might get you 2000 points. With the CC that becomes 4000 points, at Select Plus with the CC 5000, at Select Executive with the CC 6000...and Double Days can add another 2000 on top of that.

On the other end of things, Amtrak points will tend to get you somewhere between $0.02 and $0.05, depending on how they're used (and I've heard of people getting even more out of them...something like Denver-Miami in a roomette can easily run over $1200 but only costs 20,000 points)...so sometimes a point buy makes a lot of sense if there's a bonus deal going on at the high end, while at the low end...not so much.

 

[willem]

If I understand the question, another answer is that there is a limit to how many points a (non-Select Executive) individual may buy in a year.

 

[JoeBas]

There's also points from the CC and/or status (and/or seasonal/special offers). That $1000 ticket might get you 2000 points. With the CC that becomes 4000 points, at Select Plus with the CC 5000, at Select Executive with the CC 6000...and Double Days can add another 2000 on top of that.

On the other end of things, Amtrak points will tend to get you somewhere between $0.02 and $0.05, depending on how they're used (and I've heard of people getting even more out of them...something like Denver-Miami in a roomette can easily run over $1200 but only costs 20,000 points)...so sometimes a point buy makes a lot of sense if there's a bonus deal going on at the high end, while at the low end...not so much.

I'm on a reward trip tomorrow... two roomettes PHI-HOS, 40,000 points, was over $2100 for cash purchase.

 

[the_traveler]

Another thing is that (if you don't have the AGR credit card), the 2,000 points that you bought will not extend the point expiration date by 36 months, while the $1,000 ticket will.

 

[BCL]

I don't get the point of the original post. While occasionally I'll book a trip because I want points, I'm typically getting some utility out of the trip other than just the points. Granted I have booked some funky 400 point round trips (costing $12) just to get to a tier level, but the vast majority of my points were accrued because I took the train to/from work. Now I'm not beyond doing crazy stuff just to get more points, but I rarely think of my train trips as only valuable for the points I get. That's a side benefit.

 

[TylerP42]

It's more fun to gain points with travel... because you're riding trains!