Paying for sleepers

The comments in the snobby roomette thread had me wondering just how many people actually pay for sleeper accommodations on Amtrak's long distance trains and thus a completely non-scientific poll was born!

Sometimes points, sometimes I pay $. It depends.

Voted points - if it's cheap, I'll pay, but things haven't been cheap in a while.

just too expensive for us unless we use agr points

If I have the points that's what I'll do. If not, I pay for the sleeper and earn the points!

I usually pay for my sleeper fare to maintain my S+ membership, but I sometimes use points too.

Maine Rider said:

Sometimes points, sometimes I pay $. It depends.

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Ditto. Depends on the price. I am not sure how to vote.

Have only paid money for my trips so far because I don't have enough points yet.

My first LD trip was with my daughter and we were in a roomette on both trains. I had originally booked coach for the first overnight train, but the price of the roomette dropped a few months after I booked (is someone listening?) so I decided to book a roomette on that train too. Since I was paying for the two of us, I figured the cost difference wasn't that much.

Have a solo LD trip planned for later this year & am riding coach one way (~26 hrs) because the rooms are expensive & a roomette coming back since I felt the price was reasonable.

pennyk said:

Maine Rider said:

Sometimes points, sometimes I pay $. It depends.

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Ditto. Depends on the price. I am not sure how to vote.

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Sorry, knew I was forgetting something. Based on the preponderance (51%) of trips made.

I buy most of the points I need (since it's still cheaper than paying for the room outright), so I answered "points", but it's a combination of both.

I have done both but I use points when available. It's a better deal than airline FF miles and my CC's generate a fair amount of points.

IMHO there should be a choice for money and points. I chose points because I use the credit card, and I have generated several additional trips thanks to that credit car.

Our first trip 2 years ago, we paid for the roomette, and signed up for AGR CC at the time, so last year was AGR points, and our up coming trip is also AGR.

How come an AGR CC isn't on the list? That's how I always pay for my Amtrak trips.

Cho Cho Charlie said:

How come an AGR CC isn't on the list? That's how I always pay for my Amtrak trips.

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Because you use money to pay off the charge to your CC?

Money and points probably describes it best. If we can get a low bucket fare then we will most likely buy a ticket. If the prices are at high bucket we will use AGR points. On short trips points are usually a poor buy but if you travel long distances using points is the most cost effective. If you use the online shopping portal there are some very good points deals there. For instance, if you buy a new washer and dryer from Home Depot, (or anything else) you get 4 points per dollar spent. Magazineline gives 20 points per dollar. Need to rent a car, check out the Hertz deals. About 1/2 of my points come from online merchants with special points deals. The other half comes from AGR MasterCard purchases and Amtrak trips. I have only purchased points once when the 50% deal was in effect.

I would also fall into the “it depends” category.

I value AGR points at 2 cents each. For example, when I look at a one-zone roomette trip that would cost 15,000 points, I value the points for that trip at $300. If I can purchase the trip for about $300 or less, then I buy it and save the points. If the cost is more than $300, then I use points. Over the last few years, I’ve probably purchased more trips using money rather than AGR points by a small margin.

Of course, redeeming points means no accumulation of TQP’s, but I personally see little value in the elite levels of AGR, so that is not an issue for me. If the Select levels matter to someone, then that could move the buy/AGR line upward. When I do this same sort of analysis for air travel, the accumulation of EQM’s toward status is a very big deal for me and can often swing the decision away from award travel.

I voted 'points' because that's usually the way I pay for sleeper trips.

I accumulate my points by using my AGR credit card for my automobile expenses.......... gas, tires, oil changes, registration, etc. and since my daily commute is an 85 mile round-trip, I generally earn enough points for a trip in the sleeper every 8-9 months. I also will make a half-dozen 'points runs' on the NCDOT Piedmonts between Salisbury, NC and Raleigh, NC each year.

Having said this however, just yesterday I BOUGHT (using my AGR card of course) a roomette on the City of New Orleans from Chicago to Jackson, MS in July. I found a low bucket roomette priced at just $130 over the rail fare thanks to Amsnag. I'll be on my way home from the reunion of a youth group I once worked with in Iowa and with roomettes that time of year running around $300 on the Capitol and Cardinal I was actually considering flying both ways!

To elaborate on my earlier post:

Notelvis said:

I found a low bucket roomette priced at just $130 over the rail fare thanks to Amsnag.

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Right, that is how I have planned a couple of LD trips: Looking at a range of days, I find the lowest price roomette going either way, then plan the other leg of the trip as an AGR reward - pretty much whenever I want, since price won't matter.

Also taken into consideration... for example if I go roundtrip CHI-LAX-PDX-CHI, with PDX as the stopping point to visit, then the CHI-LAX-PDX is obviously the one to take as an AGR award and PDX-CHI the paid leg.

Sometimes vouchers fit into this planning process as well as points and cash.

And yes, when paying for tickets, I use the AGR card for double points.

Ryan said:

Voted points - if it's cheap, I'll pay, but things haven't been cheap in a while.

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Ditto!

PRR 60 said:

I value AGR points at 2 cents each. For example, when I look at a one-zone roomette trip that would cost 15,000 points, I value the points for that trip at $300. If I can purchase the trip for about $300 or less, then I buy it and save the points. If the cost is more than $300, then I use points.

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What PRR said. On that basis, right now I have 3 paid reservations [2 of 'em to & from Gathering VII] plus one AGR reservation. When I go up and down NEC I never even consider using points to purchase cause it way outside the above ratio.

City of Miami said:

PRR 60 said:

I value AGR points at 2 cents each. For example, when I look at a one-zone roomette trip that would cost 15,000 points, I value the points for that trip at $300. If I can purchase the trip for about $300 or less, then I buy it and save the points. If the cost is more than $300, then I use points.

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What PRR said. On that basis, right now I have 3 paid reservations [2 of 'em to & from Gathering VII] plus one AGR reservation. When I go up and down NEC I never even consider using points to purchase cause it way outside the above ratio.

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Correct - coach travel for me is always pay as I go......... points are saved for sleeper accommodations only. When I find something cheaper than $250-$300 I'll generally buy it outright.

Glad to see I'm on the same page with a number of other folks here.

In the past, we've always paid because we never had enough AGR points. In the future, I plan to use AGR. I bought last year's max points and have an AGR credit card, so I'm trying to build my points balance.

Also, I was surprised there was no choice: "Have done both."

Next trip, paid half with AGR CC and half with AGR points.

AmtrakBlue said:

Because you use money to pay off the charge to your CC?

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The difference is that the US Treasury doesn't give you bonus AGR miles when you use money (cash). However, if you use your AGR CC, you do get bonus miles. That is what makes the two forms of payment, different.