Merry Christmas from Amtrak! This is one of those things you're not sure you should talk about because a loophole could close, but here goes.

AS has a partnership with Amtrak where you can earn and spend miles on their West Coast trains. I have taken advantage of this twice for a mere 30,000 miles for two First-Class round-trip tickets from Olympia, WA, to Santa Barbara, CA. The trip includes all meals and a sleeper compartment plus afternoon wine and champagne tastings among other pleasantries.

But wait! There's more. On my most recent trip, an off-duty Amtrak employee said I could also EARN miles for my award travel. I simply filled out a form and the conductor punched it and turned it in after the trip and last week 5,000 miles posted to my account for the trip bringing the cost of the trip down to only 25,000 miles for two. I looked at all of the literature and it does not state that you cannot earn miles, but I think the biggest reason you can do this is that the Amtrak portion is not yet automated, so they do not know you are traveling on miles. Try it, you'll like it.