Bonuses when using upgrade coupons

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Northeastern292

Service Attendant
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Nov 9, 2013
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Location
Ferndale, NY/Brooklyn, NY
I'm thinking of using an upgrade coupon on 4/15 for Acela train 2205 (which is currently $330 for FC). Here's some questions:

1) does anyone think that there will be FC seats left by 4/14?

2) Do you get the 50% bonus with a coupon or is it just the upgrade?

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Amtrak Forum mobile app
 
I'm thinking of using an upgrade coupon on 4/15 for Acela train 2205 (which is currently $330 for FC). Here's some questions:

1) does anyone think that there will be FC seats left by 4/14?

2) Do you get the 50% bonus with a coupon or is it just the upgrade?

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Amtrak Forum mobile app
Usually you can aget an FC seat on the day of travel on weekends. But as Bob Dylan here says YMMV

I don't know if this has changed, but when I used an upgrade coupon to get into Acela FC I found that you do not get any class specific bonus when you get into that class using an upgrade coupon, just like you don;t get anything when you use points for the ticket.
 
I'm thinking of using an upgrade coupon on 4/15 for Acela train 2205 (which is currently $330 for FC). Here's some questions:

1) does anyone think that there will be FC seats left by 4/14?

2) Do you get the 50% bonus with a coupon or is it just the upgrade?

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Amtrak Forum mobile app
Usually you can aget an FC seat on the day of travel on weekends. But as Bob Dylan here says YMMV
I don't know if this has changed, but when I used an upgrade coupon to get into Acela FC I found that you do not get any class specific bonus when you get into that class using an upgrade coupon, just like you don;t get anything when you use points for the ticket.
Thanks Jishnu! That's what I thought.
Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Amtrak Forum mobile app
 
Previously when you had the city pair rates of 500 points for BC or 750 points for First, when you used an upgrade coupon, you got 750 points. Now, you just get your originally booked fare amount (the 500 points).

Thus, I don’t think you get anything additional.
 
They fixed that even before AGR 2.0 happened, by a couple of years as I seem to recall. I used to rack up those 750s or Acela First Class points using upgrades until they put a kibosh on it.
 
I don't know if it was supposed to happen this way, but when I used an upgrade coupon on the Cardinal last month, I got the BC bonus.
 
They mostly fixed it after Select Executive got rolled out. I suspect (quite strongly, indeed) that someone figured out that the extra 500-750 points (500 normally, 750 during Double Days) you'd get per upgrade with what was, at the time, a pack of five upgrades for 10k points (it's now four, but it was five at the time) was potentially slightly broken (during Double Days, you'd get 3750 points back from the coupons...and kick out an additional coupon to boot), especially when combined with the Select Executive coupons (which you'd get every 3000 TQPs...so you'd be getting a coupon for every four city pair-qualified Acela First legs regardless of how you got there, giving you a fifth upgrade gratis) [1].

You didn't /quite/ have a feedback loop, but it was close enough to one to merit closing: The effective points recovery on points spending was a real potential revenue killer among the Acela commuter brigade.


[1] So, consider the following scenario under regular circumstances: I get my four "welcome upgrades". I use them to upgrade on the Acela. I get 1500 points per leg plus any credit card spend under normal circumstances (thus 6000 points, 3000 TQPs) and a free upgrade card as a result. If we're on low bucket on the old credit card, we're now at 7200 points earned. I upgrade again (so now we're at 7500/3750 plus the CC...probably another 1500, so 9000 overall)...and IIRC with the CC you'd get 5% back on the redemption for upgrade cards. Basically, if you have ANY other travel in regular season you'd be perpetually pulling 48-hour upgrades. In Double Days, this would get even worse: 10,200 points earned (9000 for four Acela First legs, 1200 for CC spend) gets you another five upgrades for 9500 plus a free upgrade (for the 3000 TQPs). Using the earned upgrade first, you're now at 12,750 points in and 9500 out (so net 3250). "Earn Select Executive, Never Pay for Acela First and get a 50% discount on your required status renewal spend" is not a winning model.
 
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