Points Purchase Limit is Raised (but price per point increased)

[stevester]

If I buy points and havent had paid travel in last 3 years am I at risk of losing the points?

AGR rules say points expire after 3 years from last paid travel.

 

[the_traveler]

Yes!

Purchasing points, shopping at Points for Shopping and points earned from the credit card do not extend the expiratdate. Only actual travel extends it.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Yes!

Purchasing points, shopping at Points for Shopping and points earned from the credit card do not extend the expiratdate. Only actual travel extends it.

I though having the AGR credit card will keep your points from expiring.

 

[Ryan]

That is correct.

 

[the_traveler]

My mistake.

 

[me_little_me]

It all depends on the price of the tickets at the time. My last trip (GRV-->TOL-->DER KAL-->ABQ ABQ-->GRV) was 90K points or $4600. That comes out to $.05+ per point. Buying points would be a great deal as compared to paying cash. That's $3300 in cost w/o any bonus. Given that I and my wife could purchase 15K each in December and another 15K in January, we could go the following year after buying another 15K each.

Have you ever spent or seriously entertained spending $4,600 in cash on Amtrak tickets before? If not, how can you claim your points are worth an amount you would never actually spend? If Amtrak raises the cost further is there a level at which you'd admit the price was beyond relevance for factoring the practical value of points? I'm find the concept of valuing points at a price beyond actual consideration to be rather confusing and pointless.

Yes, I considered it. However, had I paid cash,

I would likely go off-season and not when we wanted to go.

I would have likely had to change my whole itinerary to take into account days when the cost would have been less.

I would have had to risk canceling and losing some of my money in case plans had to change.

I would not have had the flexibility to possibly change part of our trip if we decided to try and stay a few more days.

I would likely have taken a couple of roomettes instead of a BR if it were cheaper.

But, yes, I would likely gone during the same time period, spent the money, then checked every day to see if we could get a better deal if the prices went down or the next day's train was cheaper. But I would have gone. We hate flying. We enjoy train travel. She wanted the BRs instead of roomettes. We considered the train trip to be as much of the vacation as the trip itself. We even stopped in Kalamazoo overnight at a B&B "wasting" a day and $200 just to make it easier on my uncle who was hosting us in the Dearborn area and just "for the hell of it".

We plan one big trip a year. Last year we used points twice for long trips but would have gone anyway. This year, we are looking at a second vacation only because the money we allocated for the first one was used in points.

 

[user 1215]

The new price point certainly encourages double travel when booking 2-3 zone sleepers. You still get way more bang for your buck.

As for announcing increases, it's not in the interest of a company to announce price increases. Many will tell you they are coming, but most won't tell you when.

 

[inspiration100]

Were point redemption increases last time (on the bedrooms) announced ahead of time? If not, did they give you time to book a trip before the increase would occur?

 

[Ispolkom]

Yes, the redemption increase was announced 6-8 weeks IIRC before it took effect, and you could book travel at the lower rate as far as eleven months out. I remember booking a variety of trips, about half of which I later canceled.

 

[Shanghai]

I think I screwed up. I previously purchased 15,000 points for me.

Recently, I purchased 5,000 points for another person, then I realized

that I had gone over the limit. My credit card was charged for the

second purchase, but no points were delivered to the account for

which I purchased. The transaction "fine line" states no refunds,

no exchanges. I don't know if I have any recourse with Amtrak

or Points.com. Has anyone been in this situation before? I did not

receive any notification that I was over the limit when I was making the purchase.

I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Dick, you may want to call your Credit Card Company, they are very good about correcting transactions where you don't receive the service or merchandise for which you paid!

Wouldn't hurt to call AGR either, they should fix their web site and software so it won't allow situations like this!

You may also want to send AGR Insider ( Anthony) a PM on Flyertalk, he's very good at looking into AGR concerns as we know!

 

[Shanghai]

Thanks for your advice, Jim. I'm happy to report that my transaction was honored and completed.

I received an email from Amtrak advising me the transaction was completed.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Great Dick, I've always received good to wonderful service from AGR since it moved " in house"!

Bet you're glad you're not on the Western trains, none of them are having a good week!

 

[SteveSFL]

I though the limit was on how many purchased points an account could receive, rather than on how many a person could purchase, no? For example, if I want to purchase 15K for my account, I could also purchase 15K for my dad's account and 15K for my mom's account. But my mom and dad could not purchase any more if I had already purchased the limit for their accounts.

Am I right?

 

[Ryan]

It appears the limit is on buying and receiving:

Amtrak Guest Rewards Buy/Gift Points can be purchased in increments of 500 points, and each Member may buy or receive up to a total of 15,000 points in a calendar year. Select Executive Members are not subject to limits on the number of points they may Buy/Gift/Share.

In your example, I think that if you've bought 15k for your account, you can't buy any for anyone else (but they can buy them on their own, and you could give them the money outside of channels).

 

[George K]

I purchased 10K points for myself early this year, and another 10K for each of two daughters. When the limit was increased, I bought another 5K (with bonuses) for myself and the kids. So, this year, I purchased a total of 45K points.

I'm a generous dad.

Ryan, you might be right. I believe I went through their account, and paid with my credit card.