On mobile; poorly formatted quote from PaulM: "If my theory is correct, you will no longer collect "points", just as you never collected "miles". Rather you collect a few cents per dollar spent which get credited to future travel."
Unfortunately, there are a few reasons it doesn't appear that's going to be the case, and they all reduce the value of points further than your theory would predict. The MAX value points will be worth under the new system will be ~2.9c each, but Amtrak wouldn't have any interest in giving us voucher credit instead, because there are several ways they'll be giving us less per point than that.
The one where Amtrak is most forthcoming about the reduced value is Acela redemptions, where the point ratio is $1:40, for a value of 2.5c each.
The next one involves the minimum redemption cost of 800 points. Technically we don't know if the 800 point minimum is per booking or per leg, but the estimator makes it look like it's going to be per leg =/ That means that if I were to try to redeem points for the $12 Orlando to Tampa route I like, I would only get 1.5c per point in value.
Another is when you would normally be able to apply a discount, like the 10% AAA or the 15% Vet Advantage or Senior rate. On a $100 base fare, we'll have the option of using a discount to pay $85 or $90 cash or 3450 points - resulting in ~2.5c or 2.6c per point.
The last one is the fact that apparently Saver fares won't be eligible for redemptions - only Value or higher. For the $34 Saver fare from Orlando to Miami, you'll have to redeem enough points for the $43 Value fare - the estimator says that will be 1484 points, resulting in ~2.3c per point in value.
...clearly I'm a great big dork, but I used to get sooo much more value out of points than I'll get in the future, and I'm awfully bummed that in must cases it turns out that I'll get even less than the 2.9c the new program purports to offer.
" Less is More for More!")
