Amtrak clamps down on mileage runs

[PRR 60]

I noticed on flyer talk that the AGR Terms and Conditions have been changed by the addition of this sentence:
"A maximum of two roundtrips or four one-way trips, per member, per day will be allowed to earn points under the 100 point minimum per trip rule."

This rule change is obviously to cut down on cheap, quick mileage runs to build up rail points towards Select or Select + status.

I don't see any problem with this change, as it still allows piling up 400 rail points a day. I'd love to hear, though, from those it effects.

The discussion is at: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread....22#post10742622

Today it is reported on Flyertalk that the limit of four 100-mile minimum trips per day has been removed from the AGR Terms and Conditions. Now that may be just a slip-up by Amtrak in the general re-write of the T's and C's, but maybe they either changed their mind or found their somewhat rudimentary software was not up to the challenge of enforcing the rule. If either of the later are true, then it's like a belated Christmas present for our friend, "chuljin".

Wait, strange, I still see it at.

Oh, that's funny! That is not what was up on the site this morning. There was speculation at FT that AGR messed up and posted a rework of an old T&C page, and it looks like they did. What a goofy operation.

Flyertalk Thread

 

[chuljin]

I noticed on flyer talk that the AGR Terms and Conditions have been changed by the addition of this sentence:
"A maximum of two roundtrips or four one-way trips, per member, per day will be allowed to earn points under the 100 point minimum per trip rule."

This rule change is obviously to cut down on cheap, quick mileage runs to build up rail points towards Select or Select + status.

I don't see any problem with this change, as it still allows piling up 400 rail points a day. I'd love to hear, though, from those it effects.

The discussion is at: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread....22#post10742622

Today it is reported on Flyertalk that the limit of four 100-mile minimum trips per day has been removed from the AGR Terms and Conditions. Now that may be just a slip-up by Amtrak in the general re-write of the T's and C's, but maybe they either changed their mind or found their somewhat rudimentary software was not up to the challenge of enforcing the rule. If either of the later are true, then it's like a belated Christmas present for our friend, "chuljin".

Wait, strange, I still see it at.

Oh, that's funny! That is not what was up on the site this morning. There was speculation at FT that AGR messed up and posted a rework of an old T&C page, and it looks like they did. What a goofy operation.

Flyertalk Thread

Perhaps Carlson didn't give over the source code for the website and the new outfit had to recover it from the Internet Wayback Machine!

 

[diesteldorf]

The new rule now says that only the first 4 trains that you ride in a given day will earn the minimum 100 AGR points. What remains unclear is whether or not you at least earn the 2 X dollar points for additional tickets or if you earn nothing.

A couple weeks ago, I took an Amtrak bus from Rockford to Chicago.

Here was my my Itinerary that day:

A) Rockford to Chicago via Bus

B) Chicago to Glenview via Hiwatha (ate lunch at Grandpa's and loved the Italian Beef)

C) Glenview to Chicago via Hiawatha

D) Chicago to Milwaukee via Hiawatha

E) Milwaukee to La Crosse, WI via the EB

B-E Posted on the correct day and I earned 400 points. The bus segments never post unless I call.

Because I wanted to get credit for the Chicago to Rockford segment I had taken a few days before to visit family,

I gave the agent the info for the Rockford to Chicago segment as well.

When it posted, I got a big ZERO

So, if you take 5 trips with tickets under $50, you'll get nada for that last ticket whether it is $5 or $49.50.

 

[wayman]

The new rule now says that only the first 4 trains that you ride in a given day will earn the minimum 100 AGR points. What remains unclear is whether or not you at least earn the 2 X dollar points for additional tickets or if you earn nothing.

When it posted, I got a big ZERO

So, if you take 5 trips with tickets under $50, you'll get nada for that last ticket whether is $5 for $49.50.

Good to know. Meanwhile, just this morning I got my own personal confirmation that points do post for up to four trains on a single day, when the third and fourth Keystones I took on 23 Dec posted That's my first four-train day which has had all its segments post.

Five late-December Keystones and a Crescent yet to post, and I'll cross the Select threshhold!

 

[chuljin]

Well, we'll see. I had a 'typewriter' (see if you can guess why I call it that) trip on 12/27, GDL-LAX-FUL-SNA-IRV-GDL (5 segments), not a mileage run (as such, it was a week uselessly early), but a lazy hell-of-it trip whose segments just kinda shook out that way. The IRV-GDL segment posted today; the other four haven't. Perhaps they or their software is still unpuzzling them.

The new rule now says that only the first 4 trains that you ride in a given day will earn the minimum 100 AGR points. What remains unclear is whether or not you at least earn the 2 X dollar points for additional tickets or if you earn nothing.

A couple weeks ago, I took an Amtrak bus from Rockford to Chicago.

...

B-E Posted on the correct day and I earned 400 points. The bus segments never post unless I call.

Because I wanted to get credit for the Chicago to Rockford segment I had taken a few days before to visit family,

I gave the agent the info for the Rockford to Chicago segment as well.

When it posted, I got a big ZERO

So, if you take 5 trips with tickets under $50, you'll get nada for that last ticket whether it is $5 or $49.50.

My experience agrees. For the typewriter trip above, IRV-GDL posted yesterday as 100(+50); GDL-LAX, LAX-FUL, FUL-SNA, and SNA-IRV posted today as 100, 100, 100, and 0 respectively. Oh well.