How about a petition to bring back the 100 points min.

I was thinking that people do it often, why not us? It couldn't hurt.

What are your thoughts

Bigval109 said:

I was thinking that people do it often, why not us? It couldn't hurt.

What are your thoughts

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Why? Its only purpose is to take advantage of the rules for those that live where the trains are plenty and the stations are close. The rest of us have to earn our points.

forgot to add the smileys:

:giggle: :giggle: :giggle:

Yeah, we don't want anyone " gaming the system " do we? <sarc>

I suppose one can justify what some may call gaming the system until the system shuts the loophole. Amtrak has closed the loophole.

I think that ship has sailed...or rather, will have sailed by the end of next January.

Can it hurt to start a petition? Well, people do that all the time with varying degrees of success, most of which are hard to differentiate from failure.

So I suppose it can't hurt. But I'm of the persuasion of waiting until the new program fully rolls out, then lobbying for tweaks based on the "new world"

of AGR. There may be even worse shortcomings that we haven't even discovered yet.

Nope... no signing a petition for me. If Amtrak doesnt want the $800 a year that I would spend doing point runs... I will gladly give that $$$ to United or Delta for access to their lounges.

Since this is not important enough for me to bother with, I will not be signing such a petition. But for those that it is an important issue, they should go ahead and do so if they wish.

I am with rtabern. In any case points runs on United turn out to be more valuable for me in the bigger scheme of things. Almost continuous complementary upgrade to F is a nice perk for being Platinum or above. And status is based on actual miles with 500 mile minimum + minimum spend, a number that I reach relatively easily with a couple of international trips per year and a whole bunch of domestic trips.

I haven't decided how much of a push I'll make to get Select+ this year.

There are times when I would make a few trips to Chicago on weekends, to hang out, ride trains, and relax. It was nice to have access to the Metropolitan Lounge.

A year or two ago, Anthony (AGR Insider) mentioned that AGR offers a "soft landing" to current members, basically reducing one's status by one level from the previous year, even if they may not have even earned their reduced status.

Under that system, someone that was Select+ would automatically be given Select status the following year.

If that holds true, I've already got Select Status in the bag.

Realistically, I can't think of a scenario where I would spend at least $5000 to earn Select+ under the new system.

I would guess I probably spent around $1200-$1500 that I wouldn't have spent if I didn't have status.

This includes a few trips to Chicago. along with a week vacation on various points of the Northeast Corridor.

I don't have anyway to back this up, but I would imagine that those people that earned their status, in part, due to frequent riding and the 100 point minimum, were those that lived outside the Northeast corridor.

For those people, Amtrak would give companion and coupons, lounge access, and bonus points. These perks certainly had a monetary value, but only when one was fortunate to be in the Northeast corridor.

If I lose my status, Amtrak is certainly saving on some chips and soda the next time I visit Chicago, but it's not going to suddenly make the lounges in DC, Boston, New York, or even Chicago, less crowded., nor will it maximize their revenue on Acela because I won't have any upgrade coupons next year.

The privilege of being Select+ as it stands is not persuasive enough for me to try to maintain that status. The big thing about United Club access is of no value to me since I am already a United Club member, and indeed I would just use that membership to gain access to Club Acelas. As for rest of the clubs, the only way I go to those stations is by Sleeper so they are a non-issue for me.

The other thing of course is the bonus miles, and that is indeed a loss but not worth the trouble that I have to go through tog et a Select+, now that I live in Florida.

I'm taking advantage of the Point Runs during Double Days now.. I use the Keystones quite often and that's how I accumulate points. Point runs will end on January 23rd. Being retired and not having a lot of disposable income my long distance travel will be greatly curtailed. I am Select currently. With many little trips the next two months I might keep that status into early 2017 and that will be it.

I understand Amtrak's position and I'm amazed it lasted this long. We also took advantage of Wyndhams reward program on our cross country Amtrak trip last June earning many free nights. Right before we left they changed their rules. We got eight free nights on our trip using the minimum 5500 or 8000 points per night. At least AGR's new program won't be in effect for four months. Wyndham's program changed immediately. Glad we took advantage of Amtrak and Wyndham's rewards program when we did..

Ah, Double Days. I just happened to be planning a trip *anyway*, and whoa, it's Double Days. And furthermore, this trip is ridiculously convoluted and full of short segments, so I'm actually benefiting from the 100 point minimum. This has never happened before. I guess I'll cash in before the rules change!

But I'm not really sympathetic to the people who were making "points runs", since I was never in a position to do that. Since the train station is two hours' drive away from my home, I don't make gratuitous train trips.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I do like that the Amtrak World Mastercard offers the ability to earn 1000 TQP for every $5000 (up to 4000 TQP)spend under the new system.

Granted, it has a $79 annual fee, but if offers the potential to earn TQPs that'll be lost by eliminating the 100 point minimum.

I haven't applied yet, but, to my knowledge, AGR has never allowed TQPs to be earned from anything other than riding trains.

Of course, I don't know if other rewards cards do the same thing. It may be more beneficial to put that $5000 on another card, if the other rewards program was more valuable than AGR

The United Presidential Plus Card from Chase, which is not available any more for new members, but is grandfathered for members from Continental days gives you 2000 points for each $5000 spent which you can bank and withdraw amounts needed in any year to convert one for one to United EQM. Handy for making it to the next level upto Platinum. Not usable to get to 1K though. I have some18,000 banked at present, collected over many years. Used some last year to make Platinum