Amtrak Guest Rewards - to ticket straight through;or not

Small things sometimes get by me. (seems to be getting worse as I age.:rolleyes:)

I get on the train in my big city and ride over to the next big city, on one train.
But there is a small town stop along the way.
Since I am allowed 4 one-way trips a day for status; I'm wondering if what I should be doing is ticketing first to the small town stop; and then buying(online) a second ticket(for the same train) from the small town stop on to my next big city destination. It seems to cost a little bit more; but it could reduce the amount time I actually have to spend on the trains to achieve status.

Does this seem reasonable?

You can't earn points for multiple tickets on the same train number in the same day.

...
Does this seem reasonable?

Reasonable? Yes.

Doable? No longer. Enjoyed it while it lasted. :)

Now if you could stop over along the way and have lunch or something, then catch the next train, that's allowed.

Now if you could stop over along the way and have lunch or something, then catch the next train, that's allowed.

If the OP really is based in ATL, then the next train won't be along for another 24 hours or so. :eek:

Thank you very much for the answers.
I had poked around on the AGR site, but hadn't seen anything about not using multiple tickets on the same train in the same day.
AGR and Amtrak probably needs to rethink that.
Last year my rail points were less than 2000. So right from the begining of this year I had determined only to spend only about $250 on my AGR credit card for rail travel. I did that on one trip.
Then AGR came out with its Tier Qualifying Points Promotion, and I thought maybe I would try for Select. But the train is slow and coach is not always that desirable an experience on a slow trip.
It's not always just about the money spent; I need a faster(less time consumimg) way to reach Select.;)

Then AGR came out with its Tier Qualifying Points Promotion, and I thought maybe I would try for Select. But the train is slow and coach is not always that desirable an experience on a slow trip.
It's not always just about the money spent; I need a faster(less time consumimg) way to reach Select.;)What are your travel patterns and how would Select benefit you?

Well, I'd really have to guess right now at how much Select might benefit me, as that status is not easily within my reach.
My travel pattern is up the line and then back down again.:D.
Looking at Washington to Philadelphia and Atlanta to Birmingham, the prices are similar. But Washington to Philadelphia has maybe 20 trains; Atlanta to Birmingham has one. And then look at the time. The Washington to Philadephia takes only half as long!
This poses a problem for AGR; not how to make the program fair( I don't think that's possible), but how to make the program even relevant for train riders not in areas like the northeast.
If the riders in Philly can get up to 4 one-way counting toward status in one day; I'd like for the riders in places like Atlanta to be able to do the same thing.;)

This poses a problem for AGR; not how to make the program fair( I don't think that's possible), but how to make the program even relevant for train riders not in areas like the northeast.


First I think that it's important to realize that the original idea behind AGR was simply to help promote Acela and allow it to better compete against the airlines, all of which had frequent flyer programs. And I suspect that there was a bit of hope that perhaps some NEC travelers would decide to try a long distance train for free, and perhaps actually like it and decide to come back for more rides there too.

That said, IMHO Senior Director of AGR Michael Blakey and his right hand Vicky Radke (whom I think is second in command at AGR) have done wonders trying to level the playing field for everyone, as well as making the program better. And it hasn't been an easy journey for them at times. Trying to get Amtrak to do things differently can be a real task at times, so it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that there were more than a few meetings where Mr. Blakey was about ready to just give up and jump out the window. Or at least he must have felt like a dentist trying to pull teeth! :eek:

But to their credit, they've kept up the fight now for many years. We've seen the addition of Select and Select Plus under Mike & Vicky. We've seen them bring AGR in terms of the agents & bookings in house where they can better control things now, even though that is still a bit unsteady. But things are better now with that move than they were previously.

And the fact that AGR started out as a contracted thing IMHO tends to show the low priority that Amtrak initially gave to the program. I suspect that they weren't figuring that it would become as popular and as large as it actually did.

We have Mike & Vicky to thank for the coupons that get lounge access and the Select Plus status that grants access. We have them to thank for the presence of AGR Insider. To my knowledge, this is the only place that anyone at Amtrak comes to post things on a site that is not controlled by Amtrak. Yes, there is Facebook, but even there Amtrak has control over that wall under Facebook rules. Mike & Vicky, and their assistants can only post here, but otherwise have no control over anything.

And the big thing done towards leveling the playing field is the 100 point minimum which happened under Mike & Vicky. When the program first stated, that didn't exist! Sadly some abused that minimum, which is why you can't now do what you asked about earlier. But prior to that change, if you lived outside of the NEC, you had almost no chance at status and your point earnings were meager at best, unless you were booking Bedrooms on long distance trains a few times per year.

They also got us the AGR credit card, as another way for non-NEC riders to try and build up their point balances faster.

Could there be other things that could be done to level things even more? I'm sure. But the question is, what? And what does it cost to do it? However, if you have any ideas, I would encourage you to post them or PM AGR Insider as they do monitor things. They may or may not be able to do it. But from what I've seen from the outside looking in, and I've been in the program since day 1, the wheels are always turning down there in the AGR headquarters and they are trying to improve things within reason and the budget constraints of Amtrak.

Thank you, AlanB, for taking the time to post your thoughts.
Until I started this thread, I had not given much though to how different the experience of dealing with Amtrak could be for people across America. Also, I am a senior citizen, so I am aware of how long it can take for things to happen; if that ever happens at all.
I posted that I didn't think AGR could be made fair. I will always believe that as long as Amtrak is rolling on tracks it doesn't own. I think the challenge for AGR will be to have a program that is relevant to all the people across America who might ride Amtrak.
There are people who believe that the purpose of a loyalty program is to reward the customers who are already using the service. Other people believe that the purpose of a loyality program is to encourage all possible customers to use the service more.
Last year, I made a number of 4hour coach trips on crowded trains. The worst one was near a family of 4 unruly children; but runner-up to that was 2 hours seated beside a talkative fellow who smelled like he maybe had a very serious problem with tobacco and booze.
So at the beginning of this year I decided Select was probably out of my reach. It came to me that I could probably hit my $250 yearly spend on my AGR credit card by carefully planning 1 roundtrip in a roomette. That was a much nicer trip, and I figured I was done with Amtrak for this year.
Then the Summer Well Spent promotion came along with it's Tier Qualifying points; and my interest in Select was rekindled. Some people were annoyed because they only got the Partners offer. But what that revealed to me was that AGR was capable of doing targeted promotions.
I'm only going to use wildy general figures here; but if I was going to try to hit Select here using coach, I'd be looking at $1850. Just as importanly, I'd be spending 200 hours in coach. It sorta looks like if I was in the NEC, I might be spending about the same in money, but about half the time. So what I need and would like is a less time consuming way to hit Select.
And, as a footnote, I cancelled my train trip for next week. I'll work through the Partners part of the promo, because I would have been renting cars anyway. But after thinking things through, the rail travel part of the promotion is still not enough motivation to get me to spend money on Amtrak.
The year is about half over. I started the year with less than 100 points. I have spent only about $250 on Amtrak. I now have 6,100 points. I do not feel like I'm getting enough motivation to spend money on Amtrak.

4now,

I wouldn't argue that it will be hard to make it relevant to everyone. And I'm not sure that's even the plan. But again, Michael & Vicki have taken us far from where things started and even though I'm one of those whom AGR initially targeted, I thank them for their efforts! It hasn't been an easy road for them I'm sure.

Turning to having status, if you found yourself within 400 to 500 points of achieving status or the next higher status and it was late October or so, I personally would advise trying to take an extra ride or two to get to the next level. Yes, the various coupons and such may or may not be a huge incentive for many outside the NEC. But with status comes special phone numbers that cut down on wait time when you do need to call either Amtrak or AGR, and IMHO most importantly status brings with it extra points.

So many people seem to forget that and focus on all the other "perks" that come with status. But IMHO, getting an extra 25 points for Select status when you do a run that earns 100 points is helpful. Even more helpful is getting 50 extra points because one has Select Plus status. :) Those extra points shouldn't be taken lightly as they do add up!