Agreed Amtrak can be great. I've used points bookings on points I had from an Amtrak branded cc and my own paid travel years ago. Not only is it good for when routes get expensive in the NE Regional, but I missed my train from DC-NYC. Since it was an award ticket the desk agent just changed my ticket to the next train no charge no problem. Had I paid for the train ticket far in advance I'd have had to pay the difference in fare which could have been significant.

However I just saw the blackout date issue when booking two tickets DC-NYC for this summer to get to JFK. Thought about Acela since times worked better and never done it before. But I wasn't able to use the points for afternoon anyway. So just paid $49 cash each way instead of 4000 points each.