I too am greatly disappointed to see this change, and greatly echo nuschu's comments about Amtrak starting to treat more of its customers like airline passengers. That's the whole point of why I travel Amtrak, so I DON'T get treated like an airline passenger. I have transferred hundreds of thousands of UR points to Amtrak over the years.
Another case in point -- I just booked a room on the Silver Star train, and was informed that Amtrak was doing a "test case" where they remove the dining car, and "allow" accommodations passengers to purchase food in the cafe car, which is basically akin to a 7/11 convenience store. First of all, food was previously included in the accommodations fare, although supposedly Amtrak is testing this concept in an effort to lower accommodations fares. By what, 5%? 10%? Big deal. Passengers will lose much of that anyway buying pre-made microwaved hamburgers made a few weeks ago. The dining car is a huge part of the allure of traveling by train, and absent that, and now all of these changes in ticketing, UR, and AGR, I will be much more inclined to simply get to point B via plane. A huge disappointment for us, but with the huge premium we generally pay for Amtrak, I have little tolerance for these changes.
Dave