# Discounts for monthly travelers



## Gordon (Sep 27, 2011)

Hello,

I am a guest rewards select member - soon to be guest rewards select plus. Are there any incentives or discounts for monthly travelers? I only travel with a monthly pass, rarely with a single pass. Are there any discounts to the monthly ticket?


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## the_traveler (Sep 27, 2011)

The fares are lower for a monthly pass than 60 OW tickets. However when you buy a monthly pass, you only earn 2 AGR points per # for the *PURCHASE* of the pass!




You do not also earn the 100 point minimum per segment.

Just to make it easier, say the monthly pass costs $200. (I know they cost more!) You would earn 400 AGR points only! If you bought 60 OW tickets earning the 100 point minimum, you would earn 6,000 AGR points!

If you bought a monthly pass, and you do not travel much elsewhere, you may not remain Select for long!


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## amamba (Sep 27, 2011)

My H travels with a monthly pass that costs $342/month. Unfortunately there are no discounts on the monthly ticket - if you think about it, they are already getting a discount over buying 40 one way tickets (I say 40 because that commuting to work and home 5 days a week/4 week/month).

The one thing you can do, if your employer offers this, is buy the tickets on a pre-tax basis. The federal government allows up to $250 (don't quote me on this) of train tickets a month to be done pre-tax. So with my H, he orders the train ticket through a third party that is paid for by his employer and he does payroll deduction to pay for the train ticket. Then the cost of the train ticket (up to the monthly max) is income that he doesn't hav eto pay income tax on. So that is a discount because it is reducing our taxable income each year.


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## PRR 60 (Sep 27, 2011)

In the NEC, a monthly ticket can be a pretty good deal, even considering the loss of AGR points.

The fare PHL-NYP at low bucket (refundable) is $49. A daily commuter making 40 trips a month (and there are a bunch of them) would spend $1960 a month for single-trip tickets, and that assumes low bucket for every train. A monthly pass costs $1260, a savings of at least $700. The monthly pass would earn 2520 AGR points a month, or over 30,000 per year (S+). 40 trips with single tickets would earn 4000 points a month, or nearly 48,000 per year (also S+). The monthly pass holder would save about $9000 per year, but would loss 18,000 AGR points. At 50 cents saved per point lost, that is more than enough to compensate.

One huge advantage of a monthly pass for commuters is flexibility. You do not need advance reservations. You can walk in the station and take the next train out (with Acela and a handful of NE Regionals excluded). If you are running late or early, you do not need to cancel and rebook, and probably pay-up to a higher fare bucket. You just board and ride.

Where fares are low anyway, the AGR advantage of single tickets may tilt the scale. In the NEC, the monthly passes are usually the best deal for commuters.


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## gatelouse (Oct 1, 2011)

Are monthly pass purchases eligible for seasonal double/triple points promotions? If not, then I suspect that single tickets—if they're in the $10 range—could be advantageous over a monthly for those months covered by such a promotion. Of course you do lose the flexibility if you're riding reserved corridors, but if there's commuter rail service available (MARC, MBTA, Meira, etc.) on the same route, then you have a fallback if you miss your train.


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## amamba (Oct 1, 2011)

gatelouse said:


> Are monthly pass purchases eligible for seasonal double/triple points promotions? If not, then I suspect that single ticketsif they're in the $10 rangecould be advantageous over a monthly for those months covered by such a promotion. Of course you do lose the flexibility if you're riding reserved corridors, but if there's commuter rail service available (MARC, MBTA, Meira, etc.) on the same route, then you have a fallback if you miss your train.


Yes, the passes are available for the seasonal double/triple points promotions. But the points always post with the date of the first of the month - so for example, in May, when they do dboule at the beginning of the month and triple at the end, the points only post with the double bonus.

Personally in the circumstance of my family, the monthly is really the best because my H takes different trains home pretty frequently depending on what is going on at work. So the flexibility to take any train is really nice (although the conductors are pretty good about letting one travel between BOS - PVD with a ticket that is for an earlier/later same day train). And the MBTA price is something like $8.75 now for a one way ticket between BOS - PVD - not to mention it takes almost twice as long and is packed like sardines with the dreaded 3-2 seating (middle seat).


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