# buying points



## antd17 (Nov 20, 2011)

It takes 5500 points for a trip from Columbia south Carolina to new York i'm wondering there's a special to Getty the needed amount of points would cost me 137 the price for the date is 203 should I but the points and use them for my trip on Monday or is this risky


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## the_traveler (Nov 20, 2011)

Divide the cost of the trip would cost you by the number of points needed for the trip. Since the cost to buy the points is 2.75¢ per point to purchase points, if your calculation is more than 2.75¢ per point, it is a good buy!




If it is less than 2.75¢ per point, it is a poor buy



and I (personally) would pay for the trip!

I like to get 3-4¢ per point "return" (at least). I have received in excess of 12¢ per point!



The greatest returns are for sleepers, not for coach travel!!


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## fredevad (Nov 20, 2011)

I was just looking at buying points yesterday - there is a special going on where you get 30% more points which comes out to 2.12¢ per point, no matter if you buy 500 + 150 bonus points, or 10,000 + 3,000 bonus points.


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## Devil's Advocate (Nov 20, 2011)

Keep in mind that you can only buy 10,000 points per year per account under normal circumstances. Right now that total is 13,000 and in at least one case this year it was 15,000. But in general it's 10,000 and then they cut you off. However, this is per _calendar_ year, so it's about to reset in a little over a month. The points will usually post within a few minutes of purchase and are then immediately available for redeeming of tickets. I would not worry about the technical aspects much as this is a pretty cut-and-dry process in my experience. This is probably not how most folks use the system but in cases where it saves a lot of money I've purchased points and then immediately turned them into a ticket when it made financial sense. As you get more familiar with the AGR system you'll probably find ways around the point limit but for now you should be good to go regardless.


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## ray828 (Nov 28, 2011)

Id have to agree with you. Depending on the route, it could be much cheaper to buy the points needed and then just redeem them for the ticket instead of actually purchasing the ticket flat out.


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## Rail Freak (Jan 6, 2012)

ray828 said:


> Id have to agree with you. Depending on the route, it could be much cheaper to buy the points needed and then just redeem them for the ticket instead of actually purchasing the ticket flat out.



For an example, check out a one zone sleeper ELP, DEN, or ABQ-SEA!!!! In the past, I've flown Continental to one of these cities for the AGR One Zone, 2 night trip, while racking up AGR Pts. for the flights to & from Fla.!!! But, looks like that may be in the past!


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