Why are reward certificates not offered?

A friend's birthday is coming up, and I wanted to get him something like a 2 zone reward certifcate from AGR. This way, he would've been able to plan his own travel at his convenience. To my great surprise, this option is not offered by AGR -- the only choice is to book him a ticket to some random destination, and have him mail it in for an exchange when he decides when and where he wants to go. Or I guess I can tranfer my AGR points to my OnePass account, and then to his AGR account. Either way it's something of a pain. The "reward certificate" option is offered by all frequent flyer programs that I know of -- why not AGR?

How about you just print up your own "certificate" that you can give him? :huh: The card could say something like:

This certificate is good in exchange for an Amtrak trip of your choice! Please let ______ know when you would like to redeem it, and where you wish to travel to, so travel arrangements can be made!

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I have done this many times (both on Amtrak and for FFPs), and it is always appreciated! Much more than "Here's a ticket to Miami for May. I don't care that you want to go to Seattle in October, and you have to return it and get a new ticket."