buy points

[guest]

To "buy" points you must have a guest rewards account and must have a valid amex,visa,discover, or mc.
Also I saw someone asked if you could overnight and pay the same amount of points. You can't. My dad and I took The Cardinal from Philadelphia 30th Street and overnighted in Chicago and took the Chief to Williams Jct. and used the grand canyon railway and continued on to LA. The total cost was 55,000 with all tickets being for roomettes. We were charged an extra 5,000 points for the overnights in Chicago and the canyon.

Acela150

How did you manage to do that? Is there some 5000 points fee for "overnighting"?

Or you just broke your trip into 2 different trips?

 

[the_traveler]

Also I saw someone asked if you could overnight and pay the same amount of points. You can't. My dad and I took The Cardinal from Philadelphia 30th Street and overnighted in Chicago and took the Chief to Williams Jct. and used the grand canyon railway and continued on to LA. The total cost was 55,000 with all tickets being for roomettes. We were charged an extra 5,000 points for the overnights in Chicago and the canyon.

Acela150

How did you manage to do that? Is there some 5000 points fee for "overnighting"?

Or you just broke your trip into 2 different trips?

Here's what actually happened. (It was 3 awards!):

Award #1: PHL-CHI is a 2 zone award. The cost for a roomette is 20,000 points

Award #2: CHI-WMJ is a 2 zone award. The cost for a roomette is 20,000 points.

Award #3: WMJ-LAX is a 1 zone award. The cost for a roomette is 15,000 points.

Adding the 3 award costs (20K + 20K + 15K) comes to 55K! :blink: (BTW - if the trip was PHL-LAX without stops, the cost for a 3-zone award would have been 35K!)

 

[the_traveler]

Here's a question that I don't think was asked ot answered about buy miles:

You are allowed to buy for yourself up to 10,000 points per year. And someone can buy for another member points to give, but they are limited to receive up to 10,000 points per year. So if you buy points for yourself, and somebody else buys and gives you points, is the limit 10K or 20K?

Notice the "buy for yourself" and "buy for somebody else" are 2 separate buttons! And the cost is the same. So could I buy 10K for myself and my SO buy 10K to give me?

 

[rtabern]

Wow, I think the "buy points" thing is really cool.

The cost of a roomette on the Texas Eagle LAX-CHI when I'm looking at traveling in mid-September is around $730 and the cost of a bedroom is $1,200.

So I could use 20K points... buy 10K more... and get the bedroom for only $275 more instead of paying almost $500 if I was paying in cash... Awesome!

 

[mark t diehl]

2.75¢ per point is VERY VERY reasonable if you look at it from this angle, and are able to use them in such situations.
3000 points is good for a NE Zone Coach Ticket. That's $82.50. Even with the service charge, it comes out to $97.50!

If I take a look at Monday Morning's Regionals from BOS to WAS, they're running $118! One of the Regional trains next Friday is running at $142. And as far as I can see, you can NEVER get a Niagara Falls to Newport News ticket for less than $147 regardless of how far in advance you get it, but you CAN cash in 3000 points for one.

A smart traveller who tends to take trips fully across a zone on short notice might buy points to have on bank for these occasions!

And 10,000 points for $275 (or $290 if you add the fee) is actually a good deal for those members with just over 25,000 points looking to do a full transcon. I'm a sliver shy of 20K now, and was looking at a transcon, but the prices of booking oneself and a travelling companion in roomette from the West Coast to the zone borders at Denver, ABQ, or El Paso were running $520, $480, and $300 respectively. And this is without doing the creative (and typically pricier) route along the CS.

Heck, a wannabe Florida or Atlanta t/f New York sleeper traveller could find a lot of value in 10000 points at $290. Considering the cost of rail fare and sleeper for ORL-NYP or ATL-NYP for two can run $557 to $696, paying $290 to take care of 2/3 of the trip to get you to 15K points is a pretty good deal!

Though I tend to look at booking well in advance to keep my prices low, I can see where even I might benefit from having a surge of points available for a future reward trip!

I think you mean $ .0275 per point.

 

[AlanB]

2.75¢ per point is VERY VERY reasonable if you look at it from this angle, and are able to use them in such situations.
3000 points is good for a NE Zone Coach Ticket. That's $82.50. Even with the service charge, it comes out to $97.50!

If I take a look at Monday Morning's Regionals from BOS to WAS, they're running $118! One of the Regional trains next Friday is running at $142. And as far as I can see, you can NEVER get a Niagara Falls to Newport News ticket for less than $147 regardless of how far in advance you get it, but you CAN cash in 3000 points for one.

A smart traveller who tends to take trips fully across a zone on short notice might buy points to have on bank for these occasions!

And 10,000 points for $275 (or $290 if you add the fee) is actually a good deal for those members with just over 25,000 points looking to do a full transcon. I'm a sliver shy of 20K now, and was looking at a transcon, but the prices of booking oneself and a travelling companion in roomette from the West Coast to the zone borders at Denver, ABQ, or El Paso were running $520, $480, and $300 respectively. And this is without doing the creative (and typically pricier) route along the CS.

Heck, a wannabe Florida or Atlanta t/f New York sleeper traveller could find a lot of value in 10000 points at $290. Considering the cost of rail fare and sleeper for ORL-NYP or ATL-NYP for two can run $557 to $696, paying $290 to take care of 2/3 of the trip to get you to 15K points is a pretty good deal!

Though I tend to look at booking well in advance to keep my prices low, I can see where even I might benefit from having a surge of points available for a future reward trip!

I think you mean $ .0275 per point.

Not only did he indeed mean $.0275, that is what he wrote. Note that you are using the dollar sign $, whereas he used the cent sign ¢. Therefore $.0275 is the same amount of many as 2.75¢.

 

[Cascadia]

Wonder if anyone will spend their "economic stimulus check" on AGR points?

 

[RailFanLNK]

I wasn't all that "excited" about "buying" points until I realized I get a little inheritance stipend every April and October. Its around $183 and I always use it on something fun since I have invested the other amounts of inheritance I recieved after my mom and dad died in 2003 and 2004. I'm going to throw another $70 with my inheritance and get 10,000 pts. I will try and do so a year from now and thats a roomette in 2 zones somewhere in the US. With two of us going somewhere it ends up being a "deal" for me.

 

[JayPea]

Wonder if anyone will spend their "economic stimulus check" on AGR points?

No, but I'm doing even better: Spending part of it on Amtrak travel! I ought to send President Bush a personal letter of thanks!!! :lol:

 

[sechs]

Send it to future generations of tax payers. They're the ones who will be paying for this.

 

[the_traveler]

Send it to future generations of tax payers. They're the ones who will be paying for this.

The "checks" - not the train rides! If the President has his way, the only trains that the future generations see will be in museums!

 

[yarrow]

bought some points yesterday and they posted to my agr account in less than 24 hours

 

[Bigval109]

Wow, I think the "buy points" thing is really cool.
The cost of a roomette on the Texas Eagle LAX-CHI when I'm looking at traveling in mid-September is around $730 and the cost of a bedroom is $1,200.

So I could use 20K points... buy 10K more... and get the bedroom for only $275 more instead of paying almost $500 if I was paying in cash... Awesome!

You know It just crossed my mind that back a few years ago, AGR has a sale if you will of 20% discount on point redemtions. I think I got a cross country for 8000 points that time. That would be nice to see that one come again.