Amtrak Guest Rewards Program

[Deggesty]

Sam1, I had to request the points I had earned for our trip in April of last year--I knew they had not been applied because the updates I received showed that they had not.

[Anonymous]

If you belong to Amtrak's Guest Rewards Program, watch it like a hawk.  The program failed to capture more than 3,000 points that I had accumulated in the last half of 2011.  I noticed that the total points appeared to be low, so I called the program call center.  Sure enough, they had failed to capture any of my points from August 2011 through January 2012.

Here is a program pitfall.  I booked an August trip from Baltimore to New York. Unfortunately, something came up, and I had to cancel the trip. The ticket was non-refundable, which I knew in advance and was willing to accept the risk in exchange for a lower price. However, I was surprised to learn that although I had booked and paid for the trip, I did not get any guest rewards points because I had not traveled.  

Also, the program is a bit awkward.  By the early part of 2011 I had accumulated enough points for a coach trip to Chicago.  Good I thought. Going to Chicago in the spring sounded like a nice trip.  So it should not be a problem to use the points for the rail fare from Austin to Chicago and then upgrade to a sleeper.  Wrong!  The program customer service agent told me that I could book the coach fare with the points, but I would have to take a chance on getting sleeping car space, i.e. I would have to see whether I could upgrade after getting on the train. Needless to say, I did not want to take a shot at not being able to get a roomette on the day of travel. 

So I used the points for a trip to Dallas.  Interestingly, it took the same amount of points to go from Austin to Dallas as it would have taken to go from Austin to Chicago.  

I have belonged to American Airlines and Southwest Airlines frequent flyer programs for more than 20 years. Never had a single problem with them.  I have belong to Amtrak's Guest Rewards Program for approximately five years.  I have had two significant problems with the program.