What changes would you like to see in Guest Rewards?

[RRrich]

Naturally we would all like to see the number of points cut to a tenth the present level but thats not what I mean.

I would like to see a place on the AGR website that lists your AGR reservations, and from which you can print them - like on the regular Amtrak site

I would like to see a way for folks in the Midwest to be able to get AGR points quickly and cheaply as the folks in the Northeast can. Maybe we'll get that after we get HSR CHI - STL or STL - KCI

 

[the_traveler]

One change I would like to see is the ability to book ANY award on line. True you can book an award online, but ONLY if it's coach and ONLY if there are no connections.

You can book KIN-RVR or CHI-FLG online - but only in coach. You can not book them in BC or in a sleeper, and you also could not book PGH-CVS even in coach because it requires a connection.

 

[Ispolkom]

I'd like the method of posting rail points to be more automated. I've had to request mileage, and I see a lot of others complaining about this.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

get rid of the yearly limit of points you can get.

make so you get the membership card BEFORE YOU TAKE THE TRIP. i still have not got mine and won't till next year sense the trip is in oct.

 

[AlanB]

get rid of the yearly limit of points you can get.

There is no limit to the number of points you can earn.

 

[chuljin]

I've actually been thinking about this for a while, ever since I read this thread.

A lot of these are inspired by existing arrangements with airlines' programs.

• Better integration between AGR and Amtrak proper in many ways:
  More timely posting of trips (but that's a discussion for another thread )
  
• Knowledge in the reservation system of one's AGR Elite Level (if any) and indication of the same on tickets (perhaps useful only for boarding priority at stations where there is such a thing...no thank you notes from the engineer as I understand airline pilots often will )
  
• A single 'My Reservations' listing all untraveled reservations (and maybe a few weeks or whatever of past reservations), no matter how booked, and allowing the cancellation (with refund of either money or points) of any where the tickets have not yet been printed (again, no matter how booked)
  

[*]As the_traveler mentioned, the ability to redeem online for any kind of trip whatsoever

[*]The ability to redeem points for railfare and pay cash for accomodation, or v.v.

[*]True full membership in an alliance (perhaps follow CO into *A) (pipe dream, I suppose).

[*]A class-of-service bonus calculated by treating the rail fare and accomodation charge as separate transactions, *each* with the 100-point minimum.

[*]Add a few more city pairs to the special Acela earning

[*]Include the Traxx Lounge at LAX in the Select Plus lounge benefit

[*]A third elite level (see below)


Admittedly, this is a little selfish (I had 29,080 rail points last year and 24,400 [earned, that is, of which 22,200 posted :angry: ] so far this year), but AGR could do with a third elite level:

Select Sharp (a little developers' joke)

Requirement: 20,000 rail points during the qualification year

Benefits:

• 100% point bonus
  
• 1 sleeper upgrade coupon per year (rtabern and I both independently came up with this; cf. Newton and Liebniz)
  
• Unlimited space-available complimentary upgrades from Coach to Business or Business to Acela First
  
• Complimentary Wi-Fi on trains if, whenever it is finally implemented, it is not free
  
• G*d forbid that assigned seats follows e-ticketing, but if it does, preferred seating and seat blocking
  

So that's my laundry list, ranging from 'that makes enough sense' to pie in the sky.

Enjoy!

Chris

 

[Ryan]

And no reason for Amtrak to incur the expense to print and send cards to people that may not ever set foot on a train.

I'd like to see the removal of the "4 segments a day" rule, but understand why it exists.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

get rid of the yearly limit of points you can get.

There is no limit to the number of points you can earn.

I think he means on the buy points side you can only buy 10k a year.

 

[Ryan]

That would just turn this into a massive discount program for people smart enough to figure things out (and word would travel quickly).

I was looking at the numbers for the honeymoon and going from memory I was looking at redemption rates of about 5 to 7 cents per point for a 2 zone bedroom trip (depending on the bucket that tickets were in). Since you can buy them (again from memory) for 2.75 cents per point, you would be a fool to buy the ticket from Amtrak instead of just buying the 30,000 points required and redeeming the reward.

If they were to do away with the 10,000 point per year purchase limit, I think that they would be forced to raise the cost of buying points to compensate, thus penalizing folks like us that actually use the program in its desired level (sometimes to an extreme! ).

 

[Upstate]

More benefits and better earning opportunities for the long distance crowd. Even if I took a trip every week select and select plus wouldn't matter in my situation. The only benefit I would see is the extra points which are not worth it to even think about status. How about some sleeper upgrades?

 

[jis]

Select Sharp (a little developers' joke)Requirement: 20,000 rail points during the qualification year

Following the same chain of developer joke thought..... I was thinking

Select++

Bjarne would be proud - not!

 

[DowneasterPassenger]

Hi all, I am new to this forum and have enjoyed reading all the informative posts here.

I would say "more feedback" from the (semi-)automated rewards program.

For example, I have a few tickets for train or bus segments more than 3 weeks old, without seeing any points credit for them. So I enter the ticket data into the automated points request form and...nothing. Sometimes they approve the request and I see it within a few days. Sometimes, who knows, was it approved, denied, or still pending? It would be nice to get some feedback on points request status.

Then today, I got the offer for 250 points if you change your "Interests". So I logged in, changed my interests, saved them, and then...nothing. The 250 points were not credited immediately. There was no feedback like, "Thank you for participating in our special offer blah blah". Just, nothing.

In general I would add more feedback for their customers!

Nice meeting y'all

 

[Neil_M]

Letting people who travel reasonably regularly on Amtrak, but who don't live in the US or Canada join Guest Rewards would be a very good thing.........

:angry:

 

[Shawn]

Since most of you already hit my points, the only other thing is...they need to stop contracting out for AGR service and handle in house within their own reservation system. This would also solve alot of the other issues...

 

[RailFanLNK]

I get really tired of jumping up and down, faxing, calling, begging to get the points OWED to me! I find that amtrakguestREWARDS to be a headache....alot! Sometimes I wonder what the "reward" :blink: is? Brenda was missing 3,000 points from this holiday season and you would have thought that is was "top secret" on how much they jacked her around. I have had to call and kick some booty to get my points awarded to me. So, I would like to see the points get into my account quickly and correctly.

 

[PaulM]

Since most of you already hit my points, the only other thing is...they need to stop contracting out for AGR service and handle in house within their own reservation system. This would also solve alot of the other issues...

You probably got this idea from the common AU response to the issues you are referring to: don't blame Amtrak, it's contracted out.

However, in my opinion, the biggest problem is the Rube-Goldberg, bailing wire and chewing gum system. Bringing AGR in house without addressing the system wouldn't help much. As an example, take your idea about the reservation system. There is nothing, in itself, that prevents contract employees from accessing Amtrak's reservation system. Nor does the subcontract status of the program prevent you from reserving a reward trip with a sleeper ONLINE. BTW when I use the term "system" I mean the total package of manual procedures and rules, NOT just computer systems.

Granted, any time you contract something out, quality control and customer service become more difficult to manage. The finance types who make these decisions are good at calculating certain types of costs, like in-house labor and equipment vs. subcontract cost. But I wonder if they even think about the other costs, such as responding to and fixing problems and loss of business due to poor quality and customer service. Just think about the man-hours necessary to respond to complaints about missing points and to manually post them.