Amtrak Guest Rewards - Did any Select/+ Member Get Extra Upgrade/Companion Coupons this Summer?

In past summers, Amtrak has offered additional free upgrade and/or companion certs to Select Plus (and maybe Select) members. I haven't received an offer this summer, although I'm not a truly hi-rev customer.

Has anyone gotten such extra certs this summer, or just the 4 upgrade and 2 companion certs in the original package, back in February?

Nothing here, and I always got the extra goodies in previous summers, usually in July IIRC. I had actually forgotten about those pleasant surprises till you just brought up their absence this year!

Yes, I did (I am Select). I think it was about a month ago. Very welcome too, since I had just used up all my upgrade coupons!

I did as well. Was already pretty close to S+ requal at the time.

ivk5

My friend wxguy, an S+, didn't.

I was an S, and did. I have since qualified for S+.

Are we seeing a pattern here?

My friend wxguy, an S+, didn't.

I was an S, and did. I have since qualified for S+.

Are we seeing a pattern here?

My friend JT_BOS, an S, did.

I was an S+, and didn't. I am about to qualify for S+ again.

Yes, I see a pattern here.

Well, I was a 2009 S+ and on my way to requalifying for 2010 and I did get them. I had already cleared the 5K mark when I received them, although who knows where I was at when they ran the mystery algorithm.

ivk5

Well, I was a 2009 S+ and on my way to requalifying for 2010 and I did get them. I had already cleared the 5K mark when I received them, although who knows where I was at when they ran the mystery algorithm.

ivk5

As an S+, I haven't yet cleared the 5K mark for 2010 requal. Maybe that is/was a precondition for the coupons. Also, no private double/triple points offer for me this year, perhaps because I've had a few low-end trips most months.

I think I'll call AGR about the coupons, just in case they got misplaced in the mail. Others may want to do the same.

S+ this year, will re-qualify next yr (less of a FormerAmtrakTraveler than I want), didn't get anything this summer.

S+ last year, got something last year.

S+ year before that, got something that year too.

Being penalized for being S+ this year!??! That's wrong.

I requalified for S+ in June and did not receive any extra coupons. Ah well..

As an S+, I haven't yet cleared the 5K mark for 2010 requal. Maybe that is/was a precondition for the coupons. Also, no private double/triple points offer for me this year, perhaps because I've had a few low-end trips most months.


Do you only need 5k points to requal for S+? (I just hit S+ this year, for the first time.)

Do you only need 5k points to requal for S+? (I just hit S+ this year, for the first time.)

Not true. You need a full 10k to re-qualify for S+.

FormerAmtrakTraveler is correct. As a 2010 S+ you'll requal at the same levels as everyone else for 2011. So in 2010 when you clear 5K you'll earn S for 2011 and when you clear 10K you'll earn S+ for 2011.

ivk5

I'm an S+ and am now just 68 points away from requalifying for 2010. Been S+ since the level was started and this is the first time that I have not received any extra upgrade coupons during the year. Glad that others got them, but would love to get a few more myself.

I'm an S+ and am now just 68 points away from requalifying for 2010. Been S+ since the level was started and this is the first time that I have not received any extra upgrade coupons during the year. Glad that others got them, but would love to get a few more myself.

Sounds like an uncaught bug of some form. Surely their intent is not to penalize S+. Going to write in and see what's up.

Sounds like an uncaught bug of some form. Surely their intent is not to penalize S+. Going to write in and see what's up.

Good luck with that. My friend wxguy called the AGR people, and was told "They never send out any upgrade coupons in summer time".

Good luck with that. My friend wxguy called the AGR people, and was told "They never send out any upgrade coupons in summer time".

Ha, clearly wrong, but not unexpected. My motto for Amtrak: all is fine, unless you have to talk to a human, so don't have high expectations here. Will report back if I find anything interesting.

Sounds like an uncaught bug of some form. Surely their intent is not to penalize S+. Going to write in and see what's up.

Here's the initial response :td::

Thank you for contacting the Amtrak Guest Rewards Service Center.

As a valued member of our program, you may occasionally receive special
promotions designed to offer you additional opportunities for point
earnings, discounts on Amtrak travel or other benefits of the program.
These promotions are offered at the discretion of Amtrak Guest Rewards,
and are subject to the terms outlined in the offer. You are in no way
obligated to take advantage of these offers or participate in any
promotions.

Not all members will be eligible for all individual offers. Offers will
be extended to members based on criteria established by Amtrak Guest
Rewards. In order to qualify to receive the greatest number of special
offers, make sure you have chosen all of our e-mail communication
options in your member profile.

As my friend JT_BOS said, the agent I spoke to (and her supervisor) denied they ever sent out mid-year coupons. Oh how I wish I had saved the "Dear Valued Guest" letter that accompanied them the past few years!

But the supervisor said she'd investigate, and reply by email. Here's their response:

Dear wxguy,

Thank you for contacting the Amtrak Guest Rewards Service Center.

Your member kit was mailed 01/07/2009 via First Class mail, so if you
did not receive it, your address must have been incorrect in our
database. Please provide your correct address and we will retrieve your
kit from the returned mail and send it to you. If your profile
information changes again in the future, please remember to update your
information with us. Only one Select/ Select plus Kit is mailed out Per
year.

Regards,

XXXXXX
Amtrak Guest Rewards


Yikes. I explained over and over that I was not referring to the beginning-of-year welcome kit, but rather an additional batch of coupons sent mid-year that thanked us for being loyal customers.

After a couple of brush-offs ("you get coupons when you requalify", etc.), the AGR telephone contact person checked with her supervisor. She returned to say they don't really know why some people get extra coupons. The criteria are not up to them, she said, after claiming "we are Amtrak."

Perhaps a revenue screen is at work this year? My Amtrak expenditures to date in 2009, for my travel, are probably in the $600-$700 range. Maybe you have to spend $1,000 or more by midyear? If you got midyear coupons, how much did you spend?

The ironic thing is, the more upgrade coupons I get, the more I book Acela Business, and Amtrak gets bigger bucks. Without upgrade coupons, I ride coach on state-supported corridor trains at a fraction of the Acela per-mile cost.

By the end of July, my spend was around $1800. It's been another $700 since then.

Perhaps a revenue screen is at work this year? My Amtrak expenditures to date in 2009, for my travel, are probably in the $600-$700 range. Maybe you have to spend $1,000 or more by midyear? If you got midyear coupons, how much did you spend?


I didn't run the numbers until Explore made me curious. Now I wish I hadn't. :p

I cleared $1,000 in late Feb or early Mar; $2,000 by late Apr. (After that mostly non-rev travel through Jul.)

ivk5

I'm long past $1k spent and perhaps more importantly I know S folks who have spent less than me this year who got coupons.

Yeah, sending extra perks out to some but not all (without any kind of real reason) is not good. And denying that this happened before is not cool either. I'll be at least sending a letter to AGR and Amtrak.

I didn't get anything either. :p

Write away, I'd do the same if I didn't get anything.

But it's far from unprecedented for carriers and/or their loyalty programs to send out targeted promos, offers, bonuses, etc, where the logic behind who's targeted and who's not is not apparent to members.

What you're describing as AGR "denying that it happened" sounds like good old-fashioned bureaucratic incompetence, perhaps more accurately described as the one hand not knowing what the other is doing. Also not unprecedented, especially with AGR, though frustrating all the same. ;)

One key difference with Amtrak vs. the other programs is that Amtrak is taxpayer-supported, therefore it needs to provide a degree of equity and transparency in its operations. And Amtrak is not popular in Congress right now, on account of laziness despite the stimulus, and possible fraud suggested in their longtime IG's May resignation.

A campaign about upgrade coupons is unlikely to excite the public, but there may be ways of exerting pressure for more transparency.

I got them about a month ago, along with a letter that specifically congratulated me for requalifying for S+ so "early" in the year.

Meanwhile, I have been on the Acela at least weekly all year, and am over 40,000 rail points. For those who are going to ask - as far as I can tell I dont get anything more than I would have gotten if I stopped at 10k rail points.

By the end of July, my spend was around $1800. It's been another $700 since then.

"my spend"?? :confused: Did 'spend' somehow become a noun when I wasn't looking? :rolleyes:

:confused: Did 'spend' somehow become a noun when I wasn't looking? :rolleyes:
Try http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=76449&dict=CALD


spend noun
/spend/ n [S] UK informal
the amount of money that is spent on something
The total spend on the project was almost a million pounds.

Try http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=76449&dict=CALD

It's also FT informal... :p

Meanwhile, I have been on the Acela at least weekly all year, and am over 40,000 rail points. For those who are going to ask - as far as I can tell I dont get anything more than I would have gotten if I stopped at 10k rail points.

Not quite as much, but I have double-qualified (20k) and I haven't gotten boo other than what I got at the beginning of the year.

Not completely surprising that Amtrak GR folks are less sophisticated than real frequent traveler programs, but it is disappointing to learn that apparently one gets more perks for traveling less!

Here's the initial response :td::

Thank you for contacting the Amtrak Guest Rewards Service Center.

As a valued member of our program, you may occasionally receive special
promotions designed to offer you additional opportunities for point
earnings, discounts on Amtrak travel or other benefits of the program.
These promotions are offered at the discretion of Amtrak Guest Rewards,
and are subject to the terms outlined in the offer. You are in no way
obligated to take advantage of these offers or participate in any
promotions.

Not all members will be eligible for all individual offers. Offers will
be extended to members based on criteria established by Amtrak Guest
Rewards. In order to qualify to receive the greatest number of special
offers, make sure you have chosen all of our e-mail communication
options in your member profile.

I don't know if this is a result of me writing in, but I just got a brand new 2009 (NOT 2010) S+ membership packet with S+ card, luggage tags, 4 upgrades, and 2 companion coupons, exactly what I received in the beginning of the year. I did re-qualify recently (way later than usual) so maybe that's why, but it's almost like they had no record of me being S+ this year so sent me a new packet.

PS all of them expire end feb 2010 so i have to scramble to use 'em.

I don't know if this is a result of me writing in, but I just got a brand new 2009 (NOT 2010) S+ membership packet with S+ card, luggage tags, 4 upgrades, and 2 companion coupons, exactly what I received in the beginning of the year. I did re-qualify recently (way later than usual) so maybe that's why, but it's almost like they had no record of me being S+ this year so sent me a new packet.

PS all of them expire end feb 2010 so i have to scramble to use 'em.

Thanks for sharing. This is valuable information. Although it's too late in the year for me to bother. Net result is that Amtrak gets less revenue from me for baseline bookings than if they had supplied the extra coupons during the summer. I always try to use the coupons they provide, and you always have to spend to save. Marketing 101.

PS all of them expire end feb 2010 so i have to scramble to use 'em.

Try to kill 3 of the upgrade coupons for myself + 2 colleagues last Thu at the NYP CA. Never had a problem with sell-outs in first before, but found it was "sold out". Was the day computer problems were creating chaos w/ flights so made sense, but our colleague who was already ticketed in first told us there were > 3 open seats the whole way back to BOS.

Bad inventory management! :td:

Try to kill 3 of the upgrade coupons for myself + 2 colleagues last Thu at the NYP CA. Never had a problem with sell-outs in first before, but found it was "sold out". Was the day computer problems were creating chaos w/ flights so made sense, but our colleague who was already ticketed in first told us there were > 3 open seats the whole way back to BOS.

Bad inventory management! :td:

How far in advance of the trip did you book? I've never had a problem applying the certs 40+ hours before departure, as allowed for Select +.

Try to kill 3 of the upgrade coupons for myself + 2 colleagues last Thu at the NYP CA. Never had a problem with sell-outs in first before, but found it was "sold out". Was the day computer problems were creating chaos w/ flights so made sense, but our colleague who was already ticketed in first told us there were > 3 open seats the whole way back to BOS.

Bad inventory management! :td:

More than likely a rider from south of NYC failed to show without canceling his/her reservation. In theory, they don't oversell like the airlines.

Or, I've seen pax ticketed from PHL to STM get off in at NYP due to a change in plans; the reservation system would show this seat not available NYP-STM, but you'd see an open seat. If NYP-STM isn't available, then NYP-BOS isn't.

Without an electronic check-in system that communicates back to a central computer in real-time, I don't think there's a way around this. You can always ask the Conductor on-board for a cash upgrade, but you'll probably get one of those four-seaters with three strangers who have long legs and a cell phone that doesn't have an off button. I'd rather stay in the QC!

How far in advance of the trip did you book? I've never had a problem applying the certs 40+ hours before departure, as allowed for Select +.

23 minutes before :) It's ok, it wasn't that big a deal, not like getting into business or first on a transpac flight.


Without an electronic check-in system that communicates back to a central computer in real-time, I don't think there's a way around this. You can always ask the Conductor on-board for a cash upgrade, but you'll probably get one of those four-seaters with three strangers who have long legs and a cell phone that doesn't have an off button. I'd rather stay in the QC!

Yah, thinking about it more I guess they're not sold out often enough to have the need for airline like inventory management w/ electronic check-in etc.

Without an electronic check-in system that communicates back to a central computer in real-time, I don't think there's a way around this. You can always ask the Conductor on-board for a cash upgrade, but you'll probably get one of those four-seaters with three strangers who have long legs and a cell phone that doesn't have an off button. I'd rather stay in the QC!

Yah, thinking about it more I guess they're not sold out often enough to have the need for airline like inventory management w/ electronic check-in etc.

Actually Acela was designed with an inventory management system in mind, although there would not have been a "check-in" as it were. The LCD displays above each seat that currently say "Empty" were part of the electronic inventory system that was to have been implemented about a year or two after Acela's inauguration.

Only one part of the system ever actually got used and then only for about 4 or 5 months IIRC. That part was the seat assignment programming. It was initiated in First Class only, but was to have spread to Business eventually. But for a brief period, one could actually go online, see a diagram of the FC car and select one's seat. If you didn't do that, or went through an agent of any kind, a seat was automatically assigned.

That was part of the problem, as business people used to the free seating of Metroliner FC refused to seat in their assigned seats and the crew fearing a loss of tips if they insisted and argued, refused to enforce seat assignments. And there were more than a few arguments between passengers over seats, as someone boarding who had picked their seat wanted it and the person sitting in it refused to give it up.

In any event, what was to have happened is that the conductors would all carry electronic data collection systems with scanners. They would take your ticket, scan the barcode and then punch in the seat number that you were sitting in. The onboard computer would then change the LCD from "Empty" to the name of the city you were getting off at. This would have eliminated the paper seat checks, and made it easier for people to know if the seat was indeed empty or not.

Additionally, once all the tickets were scanned after departure from each stop and of course the originating point, the computer would then know who had no showed. Agents further up the line would then see those seats as available and be able to resell them to last minute customers.

Thanks to the revolt from first class about assigned seats, the conductors revolting about carrying all that equipment and fearing that it would result in a loss of jobs eventually, coupled with some major problems in writing the necessary computer programs, the project came to a halt and the only part that ever did see the light of day, assigned seats in FC, was turned off. :(

Amtrak is once again working on electronic ticket collection and E-ticketing now, although I've heard that the first tests in California did not go well. However, I have no idea if any of the current work will incorporate the equipment on the Acela trainsets to once again resurrect assigned seating and make use of those LCD displays.

And they do sell out often enough that it would be nice to have a system up and running.

Fascinating ^ Thanks for the background!

Thanks for the reminder on that, AlanB. I too hope they work out something for FC seat assignments. If I can be assured of a "good" seat, I'd buy it. But if all that's left is a window at a foursome table, I'd pass and go for the QC.