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Oh, good grief. If there is one certainty in award programs, it is this: loopholes will eventually get closed. Over time, loopholes become too popular to ignore. AGR has a long history of making changes whenever they feel like it. It's not a result of having an AGR Insider handle on Flyertalk...

Every system will have its good redemption values and poor redemption values. The zone system seems perfectly reasonable, but it does make sense to charge based on the number of zones traveled through. Charging a two zone rate from Wolf Point to Omaha seems just fine.

While obviously I liked the old policy better, the new rule--if it is a new rule--makes sense. In fact, a few years back I had expected to be charged 20K points for a roomette booking I made that was clearly a two-zone trip despite the fact that the start and end points were in the same zone...

Last year I compiled a list of historical blackout dates for AGR and posted it on FlyerTalk. Spurred on by this post here, I updated the post: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11007264-post7.html

On Flyertalk, Scott O'Leary, Managing Director of Customer Experience at Continental (who posts as COInsider), responded to the query "What happened with Amtrak? There will be no more EQM earning opportunities, but it looks like RDM earning will remain. Will there be any changes to the codeshare...

It's very strange--as I posted above 3,000 point awards are available online on the Lakeshore Limited for certain routings, but not from BUF-BOS. It really makes little sense, and it's some sort of bug.

Very strange... in doing a test booking on amtrak.com (award reservation search), the Lakeshore Limited from BUF-ALB and from ALB-BOS price at 3,000 points, but the Lakeshore Limited from BUF-BOS prices at 5,500 points. It wouldn't really surprise me to see the LL excluded from the NE zone...

Most AGR members agree with the OP: The number of people redeeming for the Hyatt certificates or the Starwood hotel nights is minimal. Transfers to Hilton and Continental are more popular, with the NEC coach tickets being by far the most popular award. 2nd most popular: One zone coach 3rd...

Those are both amtrak.com functions, not amtrakguestrewards.com functions.

Probably--some figures from redemptions from program inception to September 2008 or so: 1Z Bedroom: 4783 1Z Roomette: 8244 2Z Bedroom: 2912 2Z Roomette: 4991 3Z Bedroom: 427 3Z Roomette: 559 NE Coach: 207293 One Zone Unreserved Coach: 58632 (no longer exists; primarily NEC trips) Acela...

Yeah, it looks like they got rid of the transaction fee on at least a semi-permanent basis: "We appreciate your membership in Amtrak Guest Rewards. And we're showing it with a great value. Starting immediately, we're eliminating the standard $15 transaction fee in our Buy Points program. Now...

Bank of America, my credit union, American Express, Chase, and Citi have all offered this in the past (not all at the same time!).

Two zone, right? Not that there is anything wrong paying cash, but you should be aware that this is one of the cheap, "special" routes for AGR redemption: 1,000 pts/person in coach and 1,500 pts in business class.

AGR is overseen by the Marketing department at Amtrak HQ.

I was afraid of that.

Fill out a retro point request ASAP. https://amtrakguestrewards.com/index.cfm?ca...RetroCredit.cfm The AGR T&C specify that you need to claim missing credit within 90 days.

Yeah, and I'm not sure exactly how the Canada-based AGR contractors get their MN mail. It may get delivered once a week in bulk or something.

Where did you send the ticket back to? AGR (still a Minneapolis address) or Amtrak (Philadelphia)? As for why you couldn't deal with it at the station--well, AGR is contracted out and all awards are handled by that staff.

They release blackout dates whenever they choose to. Here's some info on historical AGR blackout dates: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/11007264-post7.html In the year with the most blackout dates (57 days), the following were blacked out: Mid-December-day after New Year's MLK weekend...

You can make Amtrak reservations (paid or award) 11 months in advance. Publishing blackout dates wouldn't make you be able to reserve farther in advance than that.