As spring emerges across the country, brands are looking to jumpstart the season with promotions that welcome and encourage shoppers to take advantage of the warmer temperatures to get back into a spending mindset. Like other companies, Amtrak is accomplishing this through its Amtrak Guest Rewards loyalty program.
The program is offering Amtrak riders double points now through May 21, a prime window of time for consumers to engage with the brand after perhaps traveling less during the cold winter months.
Vicky Radke, Senior Director of Amtrak Guest Rewards, talked to Loyalty360 about how the promotion came to be and the value it offers Amtrak customers.
“We are always looking for ways to enhance the customer experience and Double Days is another exciting opportunity to engage with our loyal customers,” Radke explained. “The Double Days double points promotion is a fast and easy point accelerator for Amtrak Guest Rewards members. Not only can members earn double points on their Amtrak travel to over 500 destinations, they can earn up to six times the points with special Double Days offers from Amtrak Guest Rewards program partners—including hotels, rental cars, retail partners and more. Plus, we make it easy by offering one-click promotion registration straight from our email communication, no log-in required.”
The quest for customer engagement is nothing new for Amtrak, but the company recently overhauled its loyalty program, primarily in service of lowering barriers to entry and providing members with a more streamlined experience.
“The recent relaunch of the Amtrak Guest Rewards program in January of this year included several program enhancements designed to make it easier for customers to sign up for the program and quickly get to their first free Amtrak trip,” Radke added. “We’ve added new bonuses for Business class and First class travel, made it easier to keep points from expiring by expanding qualifying transactions to include partner earnings and redemption travel, eliminated blackouts, and lowered minimums on point redemption. Our members have always earned points based on spend and now we’ve based the cost to redeem on price as well. And we made it easier for members to use their well-earned points when booking an Amtrak.com by allowing users to toggle between dollars and points.”
While passenger rail travel has seemingly fallen out of favor in recent years, Amtrak continues to operate at a steady pace; more than 30 million riders have used Amtrak in each of the past five years.