Did AGR "Ever" award points on Miles?

[rrdude]

For some reason I was thinking that an 810 mile trip, earned 810 points. But upon reflection, see that it is simply 2 X the $$ spent..

Has it always been this way?

(I'm not talking about promos, or special LTO's, just the regular travel earnings........)

 

[AlanB]

It's always been that way since day one. Main reason is that it's simply not fair that someone in an $80 coach seat gets the same amount of miles/points as the person in the $1,500 sleeper.

 

[Guest]

It's always been that way since day one. Main reason is that it's simply not fair that someone in an $80 coach seat gets the same amount of miles/points as the person in the $1,500 sleeper.

They could still do miles and have it fair for the coach/sleeper situation if they gave a multiplier for the class of service. That is the way the airlines do it.

I wish they would change to some kind of mileage based system; it would sure get me more excited about earning rewards from actually riding the train instead of transferring in from partners

 

[Bob Dylan]

It's always been that way since day one. Main reason is that it's simply not fair that someone in an $80 coach seat gets the same amount of miles/points as the person in the $1,500 sleeper.

They could still do miles and have it fair for the coach/sleeper situation if they gave a multiplier for the class of service. That is the way the airlines do it.

I wish they would change to some kind of mileage based system; it would sure get me more excited about earning rewards from actually riding the train instead of transferring in from partners

The only problem with this it would do away with the "point hounds" favorites: short turn-around point runs like lots of us use to get the 100 points for short dollars! Even down here where there arent many trains I can use the AUS-TAY-AUS turnaround to get 200 rail points plus bonus points for $10,

so let's be careful what we ask for, we might get it!

 

[AAARGH!]

It's always been that way since day one. Main reason is that it's simply not fair that someone in an $80 coach seat gets the same amount of miles/points as the person in the $1,500 sleeper.

They could still do miles and have it fair for the coach/sleeper situation if they gave a multiplier for the class of service. That is the way the airlines do it.

I wish they would change to some kind of mileage based system; it would sure get me more excited about earning rewards from actually riding the train instead of transferring in from partners

I am thinking opposite of you.

I think the airlines should adopt AGR's money based reward system as opposed to their current mileage system. I should be awarded by how much money I spend. That is the fairest method. Why should a person who spends $800 on a round trip between LAX and New York City get the same reward as someone who paid only $299 for the exact same flight? If I am spending premium dollars, I should be rewarded accordingly.

Hotels do it this way. Amtrak does it this way. Why don't the airlines?

But like Jim said, there should be some minimums like AGR's 100 points per leg. This will keep the hounds happy.

 

[AlanB]

It's always been that way since day one. Main reason is that it's simply not fair that someone in an $80 coach seat gets the same amount of miles/points as the person in the $1,500 sleeper.

They could still do miles and have it fair for the coach/sleeper situation if they gave a multiplier for the class of service. That is the way the airlines do it.

I wish they would change to some kind of mileage based system; it would sure get me more excited about earning rewards from actually riding the train instead of transferring in from partners

And you'd need one multiplier for business class, one for First Class, one for roomettes, and one for bedrooms. And that still does nothing to equalize the buckets, which could see one person traveling NY to LA for $974 in a bedroom, while anothet spends $2,229 because they got stuck with the high bucket. It's just too confusing. Much simpler and fairer with the way it is.

And as ARRGH noted, this is also the way hotels do it, rental cars, and most other reward programs. Only the airlines do it that way, and probably because they save money doing it that way.

 

[the_traveler]

Last summer because of time constraints, I flew Continental from RI to PDX. CO awards FF miles based on the mileage flown. I found a cheap on way fare (I took a train back) of $135! For that $135, I earned over 2,500 OnePass Miles. (If I paid $600, I still would have only earned the same 2,500 OnePass Miles! ) And because OnePass transfers to AGR as 1:1, I essentially earned 2,500 AGR points by flying! (I have other OnePass Miles I transfer also.)

If the Amtrak fare was the same $135, I would earn only 270 AGR points!

When I go to BOS, I use the multi-city booking, and book

1. KIN-PVD
   
2. PVD-BOS
   
3. BOS-PVD
   
4. PVD-KIN
   

The round trip fare is $32, and since I get 100 points per segment, I earn 400 points! (I only have 1-1 1/2 hours between trains.)

I'll take 400 points over 270 points for $103 less any day!

 

[BeckysBarn]

The only problem with this it would do away with the "point hounds" favorites: short turn-around point runs like lots of us use to get the 100 points for short dollars! Even down here where there arent many trains I can use the AUS-TAY-AUS turnaround to get 200 rail points plus bonus points for $10,so let's be careful what we ask for, we might get it!

SPI-LCN-SPI for $6 or less I definitely don't want to do points for miles.

 

[PRR 60]

...Only the airlines do it that way, and probably because they save money doing it that way.

The airline mileage-based award programs are legacies of the original program inceptions in 1981 (AAdvantage being the first launched on May 1, followed one week later by United Mileage Plus - and I am a charter member of MP). Originally, the only way to get miles was to fly miles. It was a simple concept. Those were truly programs to reward frequent fliers. Some airlines have tried to apply multipliers to reduce the miles earned with low fares, but by and large the airline frequent flier system using miles flown is just too entrenched and the program members are too passionate about their miles to permit conversion to any other currency: and, make no mistake about it, FF miles are currency.

Besides, isn't it far more impressive to say you have an account with half a million miles than half a million points? What's a point? A point is made-up. It's intangible. Half million points? Big deal. But a mile is real. You can measure it. It's 5280 feet. There are 2,521 of them between Philadelphia and San Francisco. There are 239,000 of them between the earth and the moon (on average). Miles just seem so much more impressive than points, even if some of those "miles" were earned by sending your wife flowers on your anniversary.

 

[the_traveler]

Miles just seem so much more impressive than points, even if some of those "miles" were earned by sending your wife flowers on your anniversary.

Very true!

I currently have about 200,000 Mileage Plus "miles" (not including the ~400,000 that I have redeemed over the years) - yet I have only flown on United about 50,000 miles!

And most of the over 100,000 OnePass Miles that I have transfered from Continental to AGR in the past year have not been from flying either!

 

[Ispolkom]

I'd bet that the airlines would leap to change their programs to better reflect ticket pricing. I wouldn't be surprised if there are much larger ranges of price for tickets on the same flight now than there were in 1981, so soon after deregulation, and they ought to reward the people giving them more revenue better.

Amtrak's method seems fairer to me, especially because it does reward Amtrak's best customers, those willing to pay high-bucket fares.

I do regret I don't have any short runs near me. I noticed that in August 2008 my wife and I earned 1054 points riding the Empire Builder in a family bedroom from St. Paul to Portland. In August 2009 we earned 1600 points doing a round trip from Milwaukee to Milwaukee Airport.

The best trips, though are the ones I earn nothing on, because they're AGR awards.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

...Only the airlines do it that way, and probably because they save money doing it that way.

The airline mileage-based award programs are legacies of the original program inceptions in 1981 (AAdvantage being the first launched on May 1, followed one week later by United Mileage Plus - and I am a charter member of MP). Originally, the only way to get miles was to fly miles. It was a simple concept. Those were truly programs to reward frequent fliers. Some airlines have tried to apply multipliers to reduce the miles earned with low fares, but by and large the airline frequent flier system using miles flown is just too entrenched and the program members are too passionate about their miles to permit conversion to any other currency: and, make no mistake about it, FF miles are currency.

Besides, isn't it far more impressive to say you have an account with half a million miles than half a million points? What's a point? A point is made-up. It's intangible. Half million points? Big deal. But a mile is real. You can measure it. It's 5280 feet. There are 2,521 of them between Philadelphia and San Francisco. There are 239,000 of them between the earth and the moon (on average). Miles just seem so much more impressive than points, even if some of those "miles" were earned by sending your wife flowers on your anniversary.

:lol: spoken like a true frequent flyer.

I think AGR has more "bang for the buck though"