M
MDRailfan
Guest
Does anyone know when the next 30 % sale could be. Is it twice or once a year? I know when last one was!
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bratkinson
Conductor
They just had one if memory serves (it's going fast these days). I recall getting an email maybe 2-3 months ago. If you've signed up on the AGR site to receive promotional emails, you should have gotten one. I'm thinking they typically have a points sale in Jan-Feb or so and again Aug-Sep, give or take. Others may have better memory than I do regarding dates.
As always, though, consider the 'value' of the points you're looking to buy. The usual exchange rate when buying tickets is 34.5 points per dollar ticket price, except for Acela tickets. Others have reported the rate worsens for tix around the holiday seasons, etc. costing more points per dollar of ticket.
So, unless you need about $100 or less worth of points to buy a pricey ticket (Bedroom on the Empire Builder CHI-SEA, for example), buying points usually ends up a loser. As I recall, I did the math not too long ago and if one needed to buy enough points to get the 30% bonus (10K points or more, or something like that), it'll 'cost' you more than than the 34.5/dollar cash ticket price. In other words, if you spend $131.95 to buy 3500 points right now, it turns out you're only getting 26.52 points per dollar, not 34.5! (I just checked the AGR site). The sliding percentage scale of bonus points increases from 5% to a maximum of 30% as one buys more points. Only when it hits 30% bonus does one actually buy the points at the 34.5/dollar rate (10000+3000 bonus points / $377 = 34.48, actually)
Remember, too, that you don't have to book your entire multi-train trip (1 or more segments each way) using points. I typically save up my points and come up a bit short for my vacation, so I may book $1200 worth of tickets using points, and the last leg or two getting home using cash. If I had bought points for the last part of the trip, my total cash outlay would have been higher.
As always, though, consider the 'value' of the points you're looking to buy. The usual exchange rate when buying tickets is 34.5 points per dollar ticket price, except for Acela tickets. Others have reported the rate worsens for tix around the holiday seasons, etc. costing more points per dollar of ticket.
So, unless you need about $100 or less worth of points to buy a pricey ticket (Bedroom on the Empire Builder CHI-SEA, for example), buying points usually ends up a loser. As I recall, I did the math not too long ago and if one needed to buy enough points to get the 30% bonus (10K points or more, or something like that), it'll 'cost' you more than than the 34.5/dollar cash ticket price. In other words, if you spend $131.95 to buy 3500 points right now, it turns out you're only getting 26.52 points per dollar, not 34.5! (I just checked the AGR site). The sliding percentage scale of bonus points increases from 5% to a maximum of 30% as one buys more points. Only when it hits 30% bonus does one actually buy the points at the 34.5/dollar rate (10000+3000 bonus points / $377 = 34.48, actually)
Remember, too, that you don't have to book your entire multi-train trip (1 or more segments each way) using points. I typically save up my points and come up a bit short for my vacation, so I may book $1200 worth of tickets using points, and the last leg or two getting home using cash. If I had bought points for the last part of the trip, my total cash outlay would have been higher.
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