possible multi-ticket loophole
 

The rule that you can't slit up a ticket into multiple segments reads as follows:
Except as provided in this Section, Members who provide their Membership Number at the time of ticket purchase will earn 2 Points for every $1 spent on Amtrak travel, a minimum of 100 points for each trip. (The definition of a trip is the entirety of a member's travel in a given day, on the same train number.)


So, if I am on an overnight train and i split the segments up so each ticket starts on a different date I should get multiple points.

For example lets say I ride the LSL (Train #49) from SYR to SOB. I leave on Jan1 but arrive on Jan2. If i split it up into two segments SYR-CLE and CLE-SOB I have one ticket for Jan1 and one for Jan2.

Yes and no. You would be arriving on #49 FROM SYR-CLE on Jan 2, and departing on #49 FROM CLE-SOB on Jan 2 - so it can be shown it is the same train.

A better example would be CHI-SEA, a trip of 3 days. You leave CHI on Jan 1, but you do not arrive in SEA until Jan 3. True, you could buy a ticket from CHI-MSP on Jan 1 and SPK-SEA on Jan 3, but how do you get between MSP and SPK without a ticket? :confused: I wouldn't want to lose the points for not buying a ticket without my AGR # on it! :(

And then even if it does work, there is the concept that the crew would wake you up at oh dark 3:30 AM upon arrrival into CLE. Perhaps even force you to change cars, since you might now be seated in the wrong car for your new destination.

I'd suspect one would have to wake up to hand over the ticket for the next segment.

ClimbGuy goes to a lot of effort to cheat Amtrak. Who knows why.

It's all a big game. I need to get in 16.5 round trips before December 31 to keep Select. My preferred route is Burlington, NC to Greensboro for the fantastic sum of $9.00 per round-trip (it only works when the southbound Carolinian is less than 30 minutes late which is pretty much never.) Combined with the double and triple points promotion I earn 800 points for $9. Is that cheating?

Earlier this week I flew Tampa-Miami-Nashville-Dallas-Seattle, spent the night and returned Seattle-Santa Ana-Dallas-Miami-Tampa. Eight segments and 15,302 miles for $202.90 paid with a voucher. Was upgraded to first on every leg except Seattle to Santa Ana because that was operated by Alaska Airlines. Cheating? Naw, just playing the big game. :D

Just had a thought to build on ClimbGuy's loophole. On the Empire Builder there is train 7/8 that operates Chicago-Seattle, but the same train is also 27/28 operating to Portland. You could put two tickets together each day using the different train numbers. This would also work on the Texas Eagle thrice-weekly when 421/422 thru-cars continue to Los Angles.

There's gaming the system, and then there's cheating the system.

ByeByeDelta thank you for your support. sechs Just likes to harrass me. Splitting tickets is not cheating. Cheating would be to book a ticket under your name and give it to a friend to use knowing, that ID is not required on domestic planes, trains, and buses. Splitting tickets is playing by the rules. If AGR were so inclined they could make new rules.

Also if your of the belief that trying to maximize the number of points/miles you can get is unethical your in the wrong place. Its fine for you to have those beliefs, just don't show try and preach to a forum dedicated to earning miles. You remind me up the South Korean missionaries in Afganistan http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnSEO84956.html.

Gaming the system is finding creative ways to book tickets that are completely within the rules set by the company. Now, are we outside the intent of the rule? Perhaps, but certainly not cheating or violating it.

I'd say that splitting a ticket is probably pushing the envelope, since it is clear that AGR doesn't want to award multiple points for multiple tickets on the same train. However, as the rule is written, what is proposed above is technically not cheating under the rules as written since you have still paid your money for the ticket(s).

On the other hand, sneaking into the sleepers to take a shower when one is a coach passenger is theft of service and as I noted in the other thread, reason for expulsion from the train or worse.

Just to clear any doubt I have never nor do I have any plans to sneak into a shower from coach.

While I think there is some truth to that AGR is run by a reputable organization, Carlson Travel. There is no reason why they can't figure out how to run a loyalty program. Rules like splitting tickets, stacking double/triple points promos, the way their award routings work (30k points gets you a six day cross country can can come out to about $.09 per mile), no capacity controls are all bad policie.

What about when AGR sent out replacement upgrade coupons this summer. At that point I still had one my upgrades they sent out at the begining of the year, I still used it and am using the other 3 they sent. Is that unethical?

A few years ago while they were still in business I bought an Independence Air GLiDE Pass. The pass was $249 and valid for anywhere they fly east of the Misssissippi River on TUE, WED, and SAT from May-August, all I had to pay was the tax. At the same time the airline launched there Happy Bags promotion and they were giving out $20 off coupons. The coupon could be used to cover the cost of the tax for your trip. Effectively making one segment trips free and two segment trips $.40. In the end I used my pass/$20 off coupons enough that the airline paid more than $249 in tax.
Did the airline expect this? No, however they set the rules and their rules allowed it. Think about the pudding guy.

How about this?

Buy a ticket for CHI-MSP and SPK-SEA with your AGR number and a third ticket for MSP-SPK without your number. That way, from AGR's perspective, you were not continually on that train and can therefore get two segments' worth of credit.

One thing, though--you'd actually earn fewer points this way than by getting the ticket straight from CHI-SEA ($141=282 points, vs. $237=206 points--interestingly, it's the same cost to go from MSP-SPK as it is to go from CHI all the way to SEA, so the extra two segments actually make the total cost more).

This could work better, though, on two-day itineraries--just buy a ticket without your AGR number for the segment of the train that bridges the two dates (e.g. Toledo to Sandusky on the Capitol Limited). Then, as far as AGR is concerned, you took that train on two separate days, since it doesn't know about the middle ticket.

If they were a little less stingy with giving AGR points for LD travel, I'd probably feel guilty about trying to help ClimbGuy "cheat" Amtrak, but as it is now, it's impossible to earn any decent amount of points unless you take Acela... (but let's not get started arguing about that again...:D)

Not to start a fight with someone else, but I don't think the problem with AGR is that they don't give out enough points for LD trains, but that award trips are not inline with NEC trains. The typical ticket from NYP-WAS for tomorrow cost $111 on a regional in coach and cost 3,000 points or $.037 per point. A train from NYP to CHI is $126 but cost 8,000 points or $.016 per point.

I know that you can find crazy LD routings like SDL-WAS-CHI-PDX-LAX in a bedroom for two which cost about $2,800 for 30,000 agr points or $.093 per point. However redemptions like that are atypical.