# Guest Rewards - Best bang for the buck?



## Faraz (Sep 4, 2007)

I am no expert in guest rewards but it appears the 1000 point trips on the special routes are the best deal among all the rewards? Or there other good things I am overlooking?


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## yarrow (Sep 4, 2007)

we are saving for 15,000 points for a one zone roomette. as i understand it for 15,000 points two of us will be able to go first class from spokane to san diego one way(all in the west coast zone). might be a better deal to use the points for 15 one way fares on the cascades but we are going to do the california trip


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## gallja02 (Sep 4, 2007)

A great two zone reward is to go from LA to Seattle, to Chicago (or Chicago, LA, Seattle but then you only have about 2 hrs to make your train). This will get you 3 nights in a roomette for 20,000 points, 4 if the starlight is really late. For some reason they allow this, but do not allow Chicago, LA, New Orleans as a routing (tried that one this year).


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## sechs (Sep 4, 2007)

The best bang for the buck really depends on how many bucks you're not spending.

I've never used points for a corridor train, as i get more from the points earned than the money saved. And it's pretty easy to five to six cents per point on a two or three zone roomette.



gallja02 said:


> A great two zone reward is to go from LA to Seattle, to Chicago (or Chicago, LA, Seattle but then you only have about 2 hrs to make your train). This will get you 3 nights in a roomette for 20,000 points, 4 if the starlight is really late. For some reason they allow this, but do not allow Chicago, LA, New Orleans as a routing (tried that one this year).


CHI to NOL is one zone, with a direct train. If you want to go via LAX, that's two zones out and two zones back.


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## had8ley (Sep 4, 2007)

Faraz said:


> I am no expert in guest rewards but it appears the 1000 point trips on the special routes are the best deal among all the rewards? Or there other good things I am overlooking?


The best bang for my buck is business class on the Downeaster for 1500 points. Small but classy train with great service and food. Unfortunately, it is all contracted out including the crew.


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## MrFSS (Sep 4, 2007)

had8ley said:


> The best bang for my buck is business class on the Downeaster for 1500 points. Small but classy train with great service and food. Unfortunately, it is all contracted out including the crew.


How do they get away with that without the union on them???


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## AlanB (Sep 4, 2007)

MrFSS said:


> had8ley said:
> 
> 
> > The best bang for my buck is business class on the Downeaster for 1500 points. Small but classy train with great service and food. Unfortunately, it is all contracted out including the crew.
> ...


Amtrak operates the train under contract for NNERPA. So Amtrak has to do whatever NNERPA wants and the union has no clout with NNERPA, since it is not officially an Amtrak train.


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## The Metropolitan (Sep 4, 2007)

A lot of the "Best Bang" for the buck depends on just where you are. It seems most awards are to their best advantage when you live at or near the edge of a zone.

The 3000 points for a Northeast Zone trip is probably potentially my personal best reward if I go to New York or further, since a one way ticket would cost me at least $86, and up to nearly $150 depending on destination, day of week of booking, etc. I'd say the average would be about $110. Business class (5500 pts) IMHO is NOT worth it, as I'd be using nearly twice the points to handle an upgrade that would be AT MOST $40.

One Zone Sleeper at 15000 can be a pretty good return on points, since it allows company. A roomette ORL>BAL tends to average $250. Add in two rail fares at 100 a pop, and I'm getting $450 worth of rail fares for 15000 points.

But it seems that TWO Zone Sleepers are the most popular - seemingly best when you can exploit them to extra utility. For myself, I could envision a DEN-BAL sleeper trip for two - Roomettes would average about $250 on the Zephyr and $200 on the Capitol. Rail Fare would be just over $150 pp, so that adds up to $750 of value for 20000 points.

So for me -

NEC coach ticket = 3.67 cents of value per point avg.

One Zone Sleeper - 3.0 cents of value per point.

Two Zone Sleeper - 3.75 cents of value per point.

Your mileage of course may vary.


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## PhilaBurbTom (Sep 7, 2007)

My best bang for the buck with AGR has been combining a PHL to PHX R/T with half the trip done with Cruise America Motor Home rentals. Up to last year they would charge $24/day with 3000 free miles and 8 days to get from the east coast to Phoenix with one of their rentals which they wanted in Phoenix for refurbishing. We basically drove full 10-12 hr days to the Denver area via Interstates then worked our way down the Colorado River following parallel roads through Moab, Glen Canyon, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff (where we would then drop all but needed items at the AMTRAK station) continue south to Mesa (Phoenix) drop the rental off at Cruise America which is one block from the Mesa Greyhound and bus it back to Flagstaff.

From Flagstaff pay for our one-way coach tickets to Albuqurque on the morning SWC. At ABQ move into our AGR 20,000 pt 2 zone sleeper back to CHI> Capitol Limited sleeper to WAS and NEC back to PHL. Paid cash from FLG to ABQ to avoid the extra 15K AGR points as ABQ is the beginning/end of zone 2.

This was a pretty cheap vacation/roadtrip.. The most expense was gasoline for the motorhome (I would guess about $900 now) but for two weeks out a reasonably inexpensive trip. Its was off season late May early June so the campground were empty and at a reduced rate. Highway rst areas and WalMart were free on the PHL/DEN leg of the trip.


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