Costco and Amtrak

[TraneMan]

Saw this at Costco tonight. Kinda a good advertising for Amtrak in a way.

-Sent from my iPhone 5 using Amtrak Forum App,

 

[Paulus]

Huh. Didn't even know Amtrak had gift cards.

 

[TraneMan]

Huh. Didn't even know Amtrak had gift cards.

This is for the Amtrak Vacation package, so you can't just book a trip itself on Amtrak, have to go though Amtrak Vacation.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

And like any other vacation package scams, err, plan you can save money if you do the research and legwork and book all the components yourself. Plus you then get exactly what you want.

 

[haolerider]

And like any other vacation package scams, err, plan you can save money if you do the research and legwork and book all the components yourself. Plus you then get exactly what you want.

Wholesale travel packages are certainly not scams! They are put together for people who want the simplicity of not having to book all the component parts by themselves and by having a company stand behind their product, providing all elements of the travel. Not everyone is willing to do the research and make all the bookings by themselves. While the Amtrak Vacation packages do not involve international travel, a package deal for travel to other countries gives a consumer a "door to door" package deal, without the hassles!

 

[haolerider]

And like any other vacation package scams, err, plan you can save money if you do the research and legwork and book all the components yourself. Plus you then get exactly what you want.

Wholesale travel packages are certainly not scams! They are put together for people who want the simplicity of not having to book all the component parts by themselves and by having a company stand behind their product, providing all elements of the travel. Not everyone is willing to do the research and make all the bookings by themselves. While the Amtrak Vacation packages do not involve international travel, a package deal for travel to other countries gives a consumer a "door to door" package deal, without the hassles!

Also meant to mention that I am pleased to see Amtrak Vacations - which is not operated by Amtrak - placing advertising in COSTCO, to reach a mass market.

 

[jis]

Yeah I know. All of the plumber services are a scam since each individual can get the parts and do it themselves for much less.

 

[neroden]

Vacation packages are nice for boring, average people who like "typical" tourist attractions and like to look at them for "typical" amounts of time.

If you're an aficionado -- of anything -- then they suck; they don't give you the right amount of time for any of the things you're interested in. They're no good if your tastes are weird in any way -- and most people's tastes are weird in *some* way. As a result, I, and nearly everyone I know, have found them quite worthless.

Travel agents can provide the same "they do all the planning work" aspect, but they can also accommodate your individual tastes, so they're more useful. (My dad can say "I want to see all the archaeological sites", I can say "I want to see all the railroad stuff" or "We need a lot of time at the zoos", we can explain that any museum will occupy us for a minimum of a full day and generally longer...)

 

[D.P. Roberts]

What surprised me was the amounts - $79 doesn't get you very far towards an Amtrak Vacations package. They're generally $1000-$3000 per person.

 

[Eris]

They're $79.99 for $100 gift cards- presumably you can apply as many of them as you like to a trip, so you're just buying them in $100 increments at a 20% discount.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

And considering the time of the year, probably pushing them as Christmas presents.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

And considering the time of the year, probably pushing them as Christmas presents.

That's what I thought too, which is why I thought the gift cards were strange.

Since trips cost $1000-$3000 per person, buying someone an Amtrak Vacations gift card is buying them roughly 3-10% of a trip. I suppose that if someone were to tell all their friends and family that they were planning an Amtrak Vacation & asked everyone for Amtrak Vacation gift cards, they could be of some use.

Alternately, I could see a scenario where shoppers could see these and think "Hey, I know someone who loves trains/Amtrak, he (or she) could use this." And since it's only good on Amtrak Vacations and not actual Amtrak travel, it would basically be useless to regular Amtrak travelers, and a waste of $79.

 

[NorthShore]

I wish they could buy me gift cards for points.

 

[neutralist]

What surprised me was the amounts - $79 doesn't get you very far towards an Amtrak Vacations package. They're generally $1000-$3000 per person.

You can use them for those single city "Getaway" packages that cost a few hundred bucks, but these don't include the rail fare to/from the destination.

What you can do, is buy these getaway packages for various cities, and chain them together using the USA Rail Pass. Much better than the escorted trips IMHO.

 

[calwatch]

If you don't know anything about a city the Getaway packages are fine. Guided tours are fine to get a broad overview of a city or region. I do them sometimes when traveling overseas. They have less utility for people already in the United States.