AGR Program?

[Rail Freak]

Do you think Amtrak would ever discontinue AGR to save $money$ ?

 

[the_traveler]

Very unlikely. I don't know about AGR itself, but some (most) airline frequent flier programs are worth more than the airline themselves!

 

[Rail Freak]

What do ya mean? Please explain that!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Only if they want to get rid of a lot of their ridership. Oops. Don't give them any ideas.

Seriously, if they did anything, it might be like some of the hotel loyalty programs that are sneaking stuff in--for example, needing more points for the same trip, or deleting your points after a year of no travel instead of several.

 

[the_traveler]

Very unlikely. I don't know about AGR itself, but some (most) airline frequent flier programs are worth more than the airline themselves!

What do ya mean? Please explain that!

As an example, at one time United Airlines was worth like (and these are not exact amounts - I forget them) $50 billion (just the airline itself), but Mileage Plus (the FFP alone) was worth $75 billion! This is because of all the "miles" sold to car rental companies, other airlines, credit card companies, hotels, stores, etc... This is also why (I think it was) Air Canada sold just their FFP but not the airline.

 

[Rail Freak]

Interesting, never really thought about how all of that worked!