I agree! And there was one poster (on Flyertalk IIRC) who bragged about turning in a whole boatload on one trip of (unreserved) tickets on the Keystone to get the 100 point minimum!
That's part of the reason today we have the 4 segment per day earning rule!
Well, that qualifies as a /really/ bad exploit...absent that rule, you could probably come pretty close to Select status on a pair of round trips. That's probably an exploit that needed to be, if not closed, at least tightened up a bit.
Honestly, my preference would be to flag this to Amtrak in some form (namely, that this has happened more than once) so that this doesn't stay as a problem. That's actually my general principle with significant errors in my favor: I'll correct/report it a few times in the hope of fixing it, but if the problem is systemic and repeated, at some point I throw up my hands and take it as good fortune until someone
does fix it.
But why not just give the coupon to the agent at the ticket window if they don't ask for it? And then report it afterwards?
Because more than once I've actually been dashing from my car to the window to my train and it's not on my mind at all? That was absolutely the situation the first time around...IIRC, I had called in my upgrade on my way to the station and, as I was leaving on an RVR-originating Regional, my train was already in the station. My concern was "get to my train so I can stop worrying about not being on it", not "correct the errant employee". I don't think I realized I hadn't been asked for my coupon until I was already away from the window.
I've also been in a similar situation at a local supermarket before. Long story short, I like Mexi-Cokes (i.e. Coca Cola imported from Mexico; it uses "real" sugar, which tastes slightly better) a
lot, but the only way I can get a batch to the front counter is to put them in a "make your own six-pack-of-beer" holder (there are no other not-already-filled holders available), which registers at a lower price. I've corrected them more than a few times, to the point that I'm more than slightly sick of doing so. Most of the time, they swipe it, realize that it's not beer, and I roll my eyes with a look of "tell me why you didn't check that first, and by the way I don't even drink beer" as they reswipe it. I've had times where either I had to point it out or neither of us realized the goof (as well as one time that they didn't realize until after they swiped it, but the Cokes were on sale for the same price as the beer six-pack offer and so they decided not to re-swipe since it was a hassle and there was no price difference), and it gets old.
So, at some point, after I've corrected people enough, I simply charge it off as "No, really, this
is somebody else's problem, I've
tried to fix it and it hasn't worked". And really, with Amtrak, I go further than I would in most cases (such as losing my cool with a phone agent who was trying to sell me a DLD-RVR ticket for the PTB-RVR price and cutting the call off so I could get an agent who knew what they were doing). This is just...bad.
Also, if I may put a serious question to the board: Let's say that I were to decide not to use the coupon for myself, but I were to toss one (or more) up come mid-January to aid in points runs. Would you accept it? Likewise, would anyone here be resentful of me asking for a coupon because I'd cut an "un-taken" coupon up to avoid reuse?
