Paying for sleepers

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How do you most often pay for sleeper accommodations?

  • Money

    Votes: 84 54.9%

  • AGR points

    Votes: 61 39.9%

  • Some other form of point reimbursement

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Another method (i.e. company reimbursement)

    Votes: 2 1.3%

  • I don't take sleepers yet feel oddly drawn towards voting in this anyhow

    Votes: 6 3.9%
  • Total voters
    153
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Oh! I love polls!

AGR points. Can't justify the cost even though we know it gains points. I think it is cheaper to to the train in general if it is more than a 2 day trip. We are driving my daughter and her car out to Santa Fe next week and training coach back. the coast of the gas and hotels is surprisingly huge! LOL not to mentiont he toll of driving some 2000 miles in a little Aveo.

The points we get form everyday stuff and bills and it earns enough for a nice trip every year or two.
 
I have an Aveo too! :) I have the four-door sedan, and it's surprisingly roomy on the inside, but I agree that 2000 miles would be a bit much. :)
 
It's really a combination of both. We have paid for the whole trip with cash, but since then, what we do is use the 'online Shopping Mall' on AGR, and accrue points that way. We are usually still shy some points, so then we buy those. Since we use the AGR Shopping Mall, really, we are still paying for the trip, just not directly to Amtrak. I guess if I just saved the money and had it laying around, I could book as soon as the tickets would be available, if hubby was wanting to go.
 
I have yet to pay for an amtrak LD sleeper - I have traveled exclusively with points on the LD network. I get lots of points using NEC travel and my AGR credit card.
 
Most of my NEC rides are less than $50, so if I want to earn serious AGR points, I pay for sleepers. At this point, I have enough AGR points for a one-way cross country sleeper ride in a roomette. So far my AGR point redemptions have been to substitute very high bucket NEC fares. (last winter they wanted ~$200 for a BOS -WAS one way on a regional, I used some points for that.)

So yes, I usually pay for sleepers, but I'm getting to the point that I might have enough points to redeem a sleeper ride, especially if I'm stuck with a high bucket when I want to travel.
 
Anne said:
I also,don't understand AGR? Thanks.

Anne said:
How do you "buy" points?
Sorcha said:
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.
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Anne, you have probably figured it out, but once you have signed up with Amtrak Guest Rewards, you can purchase up to 10,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards Points per year. There are other ways to collect points, such as the "Points for Shopping", located under the "Earn" link. Just remember to log into Amtrak Guest Rewards first, then go through there to whichever site you want to shop at. Of course, you also get points for travel. If you have not signed up, go ahead and sign up, then call Amtrak to add your Amtrak Guest Rewards number to your upcoming trip.

If you want to know how many points you would need for a trip, go to the "Redeem" link. You can also create a 'wish list' and they will notify you when you have the points you need. If you redeem for a bedroom or roomette, you need to call Amtrak Guest Rewards to do it. If you are redeeming for coach, you can do it on amtrak.com.
 
Thanks Suncatcher and Ryan. Do points ever expire? I am really new to this, as you can tell.
 
No worries, we were all new once.

Points expire if you don't ride Amtrak for 3 years. As long as you take one trip (no matter how short), all of your points are "kept alive". You can also get around that by having the Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card (from Chase bank) - if you have the credit card, your points never expire.

For me, having the credit card is the best way to earn points - I put all of my spending through it (gas, groceries, etc) and pay it off at the end of the month and pile up the points for free travel.
 
Points expire after 3 years of non paid travel, I believe!!!

EDIT: OOPS, any one notice an echo?

Sorry
 
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Most often? AGR points, though I get my points by biting the bullet and travelling coach most often... sleepers are like treats that I bank points for... and I don't even have the credit card.
 
I go sleeper on overnight trips or not at all. I road coach extensively in the 60s and 70s, but at age 56 I can't/won't do that anymore. I far prefer the sleeper experience, quiet, privacy, and full meals. Also, my girlfriend has not traveled overnight by coach and is not about to start.
 
I tend to combine trips but I will always travel sleeper on an overnight. An example would be in December, where we paid eastbound and rode AGR westbound on the return. To go roomette for two was the same as flying.

I'm not a snob (I literally sleep in the dirt at work,) but I do not enjoy having only a coach seat to sleep in on an overnight. It's either a bed, or no trip at all.
 
Same here. We're paying for the roomette to ABQ since it's low-bucket and then using points on the way home since it's high-bucket. It's less than we'd pay to fly round-trip, so it works out really well, and we'll earn some points back from our purchase.

Like you, I can't sleep in Coach, so if we can't afford a roomette, we fly or drive.
 
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For business use, I take the train overnight a couple times a year. For personal/leisure use, it's points only, or we fly. Usually, it's the time involved, that's the limiting factor. Thankfully, points add up faster than we tend to use them, and I see us doing a train trip every couple of years or so.
 
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I don't really have anything to add to the discussion. I'm only posting because no matter how many times I view this topic in the last two days it always shows as "unread" for me. Multiple browsers, multiple computers. So, I logged out and am posting to bump the thread to make it legitimately unread to see if that changes anything.

Please forgive the intrusion.
 
Aaron said:
I don't really have anything to add to the discussion. I'm only posting because no matter how many times I view this topic in the last two days it always shows as "unread" for me. Multiple browsers, multiple computers. So, I logged out and am posting to bump the thread to make it legitimately unread to see if that changes anything.
Please forgive the intrusion.
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There might be a "bug" in the software that is causing the issue. It is being looked into by the "powers that be." Thanks for being patient.
 
Ryan said:
AmtrakBlue said:
I think that happens when someone votes but does not post a comment.
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This is the answer. :)
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Yes, it is true that normally a vote triggers the unread indicator. However, upon viewing the thread normally the indicator is reset. For reasons unknown with this particular topic for some reason, sometimes the indicator is reset and sometimes not. Whenever someone adds a post, it's almost always reset in my experience. But for votes only, about 80% of the time I've had to click "mark all topics read" at the top of the forum to reset the indicator.

NOTE: Do NOT click that "mark all topics read" link until you've read everything else that is new within that forum!
 
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