# The Year in Rail Travel Points



## The Metropolitan (Dec 15, 2007)

I find it interesting to read how many first time "Select" members we have this year. I myself am one of them, reaching a goal I only began considering in late August.

As I write this, my account shows 92 points shy of select with 3 $14 tickets between here and DC still to post. I still have a NY daytrip planned for Tuesday, so I should wind up with about 5425 rail travel points for the year.

Since reaching this goal is so novel for me, I thought it would be neat to analayze how I accrued them, and for other AGR members to share their "Year in Points" to get a little feel for the wide range of ways people use Amtrak service.

Here's my break down (with some rounding to the nearest '25)

200 - FEB Presidents Day Weekend trip to Chicago in Coach, using Weekly Specials.

300 - MAR California short trips - Capitols and Coast Starlight hops while visiting SF.

200 - MAR Return from Pittsburgh via Capitol Ltd. and Regional (flew up)

975 - MAY Return from Denver via Zephyr, CL, and Regional in Roomette (flew over)

300 - AUG Odd 3 stop trip BAL-PHL-ALX-BAL using Silver Meteor on middle leg.

200 - SEP Weekender in Charlottesville using Crescent and Cardinal.

800 - OCT Columbus Day AGR Marathon via NEC and Keystone Lines.

100 - OCT Chicago to Joliet hop while visiting CHI.

450 - OCT Return from Chicago on Capitol Limited and Regional (Flew up)

This accounts for about 3500 points - almost all of the rest (1900 or so) were notched on little weekend or weekday daytrips to DC on the NEC, with the last 225 being the not yet taken NY daytrip.

Then there are those trips, I booked, only to cancel. These consisted of a January weekend trip to Raleigh whose plans got disrupted, the "make up" trip all the way to Charlotte that got scaled back to the Charlottesville trip I actually did take, one New York daytrip in August that got scrapped the day before, and a Cleveland return trip (Baseball trip) that bacame hopeless when that region got pelted with lots of late season snow!

Nearly booked was a Tampa to Baltimore return trip in June which then shot up in price to the point I could no longer afford it.

Even if I had made all of these, I'd still be well short of Select Plus. But, heck, I hadn't expected to make Select this year, so this is truly a plus anyway!


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## Trogdor (Dec 15, 2007)

I'll probably finish the year 204 rail points short of Select Plus.

However, I got an e-mail from AGR a month ago saying that points received for the "double points" promotion during November and December would count towards Select Plus status, so if you include those, I'll easily make it over the top.

I'm not sure exactly how it works out, but the past two years, I've qualified for Select Plus (so this would be the third year, now), and I've received a Select package first, then a Select Plus. If I make it to Select Plus (say, by adding another couple of Hiawatha trips), would they only send me a Select Plus package?

Even though the benefits of Select Plus are better, having a Select package gives you a few more coupons, should you have the occasion to use them (which I haven't, since I've only used one upgrade coupon this year).

Anyone know if it's standard to send both a Select and a Select Plus package to S+ members?


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## wayman (Dec 15, 2007)

rmadisonwi said:


> However, I got an e-mail from AGR a month ago saying that points received for the "double points" promotion during November and December would count towards Select Plus status, so if you include those, I'll easily make it over the top.


Did the email imply this was true for everyone in AGR? I haven't gotten such an email, and when I log in to AGR the "points needed for Select" total definitely doesn't take into account any double-points bonus points. (If those wind up counting, five more Keystone trips by 31 December (at the normal 100 points per leg) gives me Select Plus--which would be worth it.... Maybe I'll call AGR on Monday, but if I do I'd appreciate knowing more about the email they sent you so I can mention that to them.)


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## wayman (Dec 15, 2007)

The Metropolitan said:


> Since reaching this goal is so novel for me, I thought it would be neat to analayze how I accrued them, and for other AGR members to share their "Year in Points" to get a little feel for the wide range of ways people use Amtrak service.


Here's my breakdown:

"Normal Travel":

JAN 100 Sel (100 AGR) PHL-WAS (to pick up Dad's car and drive back)

And then seven months of lots of SEPTA for my commute, but no Amtrak travel

AUG 436 Sel (436 AGR) LYH-NOL-LYH (drove to LYH with my cats to board them with my parents)

AUG 206 Sel (206 AGR) PHL-WAS-PHL (visiting friends)

SEP 734 Sel (1468 AGR) PHL-WAS-CHI-GJT and LMY-CHI-PHL (big vacation, with a week of car rental in the middle)

That was what made me start thinking about Select... plus having discovered and joined this forum just before the big trip.

NOV 334 Sel (334 AGR) PHL-LYH-PHL (Thanskgiving)

DEC 636 Sel (1272 AGR) PHL-BOS-PHL (visiting friends, with lowest bucket Acela on the return only)

"Let's Get Select Travel, and Hey, Double-Points Too":

2/11	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

7/11	100 Sel (200 AGR)	PHL-ARD

9/11	200 Sel (400 AGR)	ARD-DOW,DOW-ARD

13/11 200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

14/11	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-PAO,PAO-PHL,(SEPTA),PAO-PHL (but the third leg didn't count)

26/11	200 Sel (200 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

28/11	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

30/11	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

4/12	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-DOW,DOW-PHL

6/12	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

10/12	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

12/12	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-EXT,EXT-PHL

13/12	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

14/12	200 Sel (400 AGR)	PHL-ARD,ARD-PHL

Ardmore has lots of shopping including a Trader Joe's (my regular grocery store). Downingtown has a specialty organic grocery in walking distance. Paoli was mostly for railfanning, with the Pennsylvanian stopping there. Exton was just for variety, but I lucked into finding a circa-1980 SEPTA system map on the platform (when SEPTA was still split into Penn Central, Reading, and Red Arrow divisions and seven lines went far, far, far further out than they did by the mid-'80s).

And now I know that if I just spread out those Keystone trips, just one a week in 2008 will get me Select Plus :lol: (And a couple Acela-trips to BOS--where several close friends moved in 2007--plus a couple Crescent trips to LYH will cut that back to maybe just 25 Keystone trips over a year.)


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## diesteldorf (Dec 15, 2007)

wayman said:


> Did the email imply this was true for everyone in AGR? I haven't gotten such an email, and when I log in to AGR the "points needed for Select" total definitely doesn't take into account any double-points bonus points. (If those wind up counting, five more Keystone trips by 31 December (at the normal 100 points per leg) gives me Select Plus--which would be worth it.... Maybe I'll call AGR on Monday, but if I do I'd appreciate knowing more about the email they sent you so I can mention that to them.)


The email is only sent to members who had status the year before or to those that are chosen specifically by AGR. I wasn't one of them either, but I'll manage to get Select Plus by the end of the year. The Bonus points don't even show up in the AGR line graph. Your account is manually reviewed and status is awarded in February. Sometimes mistakes happen, so keep a copy of that email.

The good news is, you will hopefully get that email for next year and can use it to your advantage.

60% of my points came from taking trips on the Builder from La Crosse to Tomah, La Crosse to Portage, La Crosse to Minneapolis, La Crosse to Chicago, and back to La Crosse. Those weekly specials really help.

600 points came from taking the Lincoln service from Chicago to Dwight, IL and back 3 times.

I would take the train from Chi to Dwight. Eat dinner at one of Dwight's restaurants that I enjoy:

including: http://www.thecountrymansion.com/

and take the train back to Chicago.

Got another 200 points for going from Chi to Joliet, IL and back just as a way to ride the train before

taking the Builder back from Chicago to La Crosse

Earned another 600 points by taking 3 Chicago day trips on Sunday afternoons. 2 were for round trips from Chicago to St Louis in Business Class. The last one was from Chicago to Pontiac< Michigan, also in Business.

Earned 500 points from taking an Amtrak throughway bus between Chicago and Rockford, IL to visit relatives in Freeport, IL

Earned about 900 points from taking a trip to La Crosse, WI to Charlottsville, VA over memorial Day weekend to see relatives. Part of that came from having a roomette on the way back from DC to CHI.

Recently, I wanted to take a trip out East and go back to NYC for a weekend. One of my goals was to try Acela since we have nothing like that in the Midwest.

Here is the breakdown:

12/6 La Crosse to Chicago 100

12/6 Chicago to Pittsburgh 100

12/6 Roomette from Chi to Pitt 160

12/7 Pittsburgh to New York in Business 120

Total = 480

12/9 New York to Boston Acela-upgrade coupon 750

12/10 Boston to Washington DC Acela 1st Class 750

Total= 1500

12/10 WAS DC to Chicago in a Bedroom 403

12/11 CHI to La Crosse 100

Total = 503

Grand Total= 2483 Points

I should finish the year with around 10,500 Rail Points


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## JimInVa (Dec 15, 2007)

Hi,

If I were to detail my trips as others on this thread have done, it would hog all the bandwidth on this server! :lol:

But in general, my AGR points rack up because my job is now effectively split between Washington, DC and NYC. I'm on the Acela at least once a week, more often than not twice a week, and it seems every month I wind up doing a week with three roundtrips. So let's just say I'm doing an average of eight trips per month...

The AGR points breakdown for each trip works like this:

WAS-NYP 500 pts

Bonus 250 pts

NYP-WAS 500 pts

Bonus 250 pts

TOTAL 1500 pts (per trip)

X 8 trips (average/mo) = 12,000 points per month (most of the time)

However, they had a double points promotion twice this year, running for about two months each time. So four months out of the year, each of those trips is worth 2500 pts. That's a cool 80,000 points just for those months!  Plus another 96,000 points for the other eight months of the year! Last year, I took my wife on a really nice jaunt out to Los Angeles on the SW Chief, Deluxe Sleeper out and back. This summer, I've already cashed in points for a Deluxe Bedroom and two Roomettes from CHI to EMY, then EMY to SEA, then SEA back to CHI (the Zephyr, the Starlight and the Builder), as a graduation present to one of my sons. I have four boys, and we'll stick two in each Roomette. That trip is coming up next July, and we can't wait!

I know I'm really, really lucky that my travel is mostly on the Acela...it's a huge points-generator.


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## AlanB (Dec 15, 2007)

rmadisonwi said:


> Anyone know if it's standard to send both a Select and a Select Plus package to S+ members?


If you had no status at all when you started the year or were at Select at the beginning, then depending on just when you qualify for the various levels, you might very well get the Select kit first, followed by the Select + kit several months later. Otherwise it is not normal to get both kits in the same year.

Now that said, since the offer to certain members to count the double points towards status is a manual process, if a mistake is made then you might get lucky. I had that happen to me last year, I didn't quite make Select + on normal points. But I did receive the email, so with the double points counted I made Select + for this year. However during the manual review process they somehow missed me.

So I was sent a Select kit for this year. Once I received that, I called to complain and after the reviewed things again, I was given Select + status and received that kit too. I was not asked to return the Select kit.


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## Steven B (Dec 15, 2007)

I got to Select for the first time this year with just three round trips:

Wilmington, DE to Seattle, WA and return:

WIL to NYP -- Acela Express -- 170 points

NYP to CHI -- Lake Shore Limited -- 782 points

CHI to SEA -- Empire Builder -- 1,382 points

SEA to CHI -- Empire Builder -- 1,360 points

CHI to WAS -- Capitol Limited -- 308 points

WAS to WIL -- Regional -- 100 points

Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL and return via Auto Train: 884 points

Wilmington, DE to Baltimore, MD and return via Regional (with fall promotion and Select bonus points): 450 points

Total -- 5,436


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