Upgrading with no points

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Casinocim

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Aug 16, 2008
Messages
295
Location
Colorado
Here is the story.

On my Chicago to Denver leg of my trip I booked coach using AGR points. At the Chigaco station I looked up the fare for a roomette(no points left), it was priced at $196 dollars. I assumed I would be able to do this upgrade and just be charged the $196 for the roomette since I already had my rail fare.

I went to the ticket window, she could not do the upgrade and told me to call Guest Rewards. The AGR agent on the phone said I would have to pay the rail fare along with the roomette price, total $312 and I would lose the points I used to book coach. I kept my coach seat.

Is this correct? I was a bit irritated but okay since my plan was coach to begin with.

Thanks
 
Unfortunately, yes, that is correct. Amtrak treats an AGR award as a zero dollar reservation.

As an example, if one books a roomette using points, a last minute upgrade or when they were still available an onboard upgrade did not take into account that the roomette was already paid for. You got zero dollars credit for that roomette, and therefore were essentially throwing away your points. And then one still had to pay the price of the Bedroom without any credit from the roomette to help offset the cost of the Bedroom.

Now, I'm not sure why you were told that you would lose the points. They should have still been able to cancel the points reservation for the coach seat without penalty, as it was before the train's departure time. But no matter what, you would have needed to pay that $312 to get the room.
 
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