Originally Posted by
physioprof
It is definitely unfortunate for CSP card-holders who are members of AGR, such as myself. But I'm not sure I see the basis for concluding that "AGR is wrong in getting rid of this option as it only gives members more flexibility and the AGR program more rewarding". Just because they have eliminated some flexibility and made the AGR program less rewarding for some members doesn't mean that this change isn't a good business decision for AGR. We just don't know.
There's a lot here we'll probably never know (for example, what rate was Chase buying AGR points at vis-a-vis the "market rate"?). To be fair, allowing points to be transferred in at no cost to the end-user only makes sense if Amtrak is somehow getting paid for those points from Chase's end, and it was likely that Chase was not willing to shell out enough for it to be worth Amtrak's while to keep such a tangentially-connected transfer partner in place.
Particularly problematic is the fact that under the new regime it would be FAR cheaper for someone to simply "churn up" points, even if they had to eat the CC fees, than to buy them (the effective cost to buy points at present is $0.0377/point without a sale and $0.029 with a 30% sale). Some distortion there is survivable, but if you can regularly do that for $0.029/point or less (depending on what a given processor charges, there are definitely avenues that run in the range of $0.02475-0.0275) then exploits like substantial gift card purchases make more sense than does actually
buying the points. With an "internal" credit card (e.g. the AGR card) I believe the damage is somewhat controlled, but with an "external" one (e.g. Chase Sapphire now) that becomes an issue.