Select Quest 2007

[DragonLoaf]

I did it! With steely determination and great patience, I completed 50 train trips in 7 weeks, qualifying me for Select status. I thought of the idea after I was offered triple bonus points for trips taken from May something through July 31. Starting in the 2nd week of June, I took train trips after work, and sometimes on the weekends. Most of the trips were between Oregon City and Portland, or vice-versa, at a one-way cost of $2.98 with Cascades promotion code H715. The rest of the trips were between Portland and Vancouver, WA. There was a lot of waiting... more waiting, a good deal of running, lots of walking, many Tri-Met bus trips, and a whole passel of interesting people.

You are correct, this is not the behavior of a sane, rational person, and I don't recommend anyone doing this. About halfway through I was wondering if it was worth it all, but I couldn't accept letting go of my goal. Yes, I earned 15,000 AGR points plus 25 bonus on the last trip and 2500 points for the Special Redemption Offer once I reached Select status, for a total of 17525 AGR points. I also earned 6300 Alaska Airlines miles for the 42 trips taken up through July 15, when Amtrak's relationship with Alaska Airlines sadly ended. So my earnings outstripped my expenditures, and now I have enough points for my son's travel during the school year. However, if you put a dollar value, even a small one, on the time it took for me to do this, then I certainly lost money. On the other hand, as I told my incredulous family members, I wasn't going to be making money during those hours anyway!

So I am pleased and proud, but I can't imagine doing it again. Like Army Basic Training, it was a great experience, but there is no interest in a repeat performance. The conductors were greeting me by name on sight after a couple of weeks... I am impressed with the Cascades personnel, they are doing a great job with what they have to work with, and most are very friendly and professional.

Other than the points, I can't really explain why I did this, I guess it is like climbing a mountain; I did it because I could. Oh, and I can't wait to get what I hope are really attractive luggage tags!

 

[The Metropolitan]

Congratulations!

Those Double and Triple Points promos are definitely a plus when it comes to encouraging someone to book often, as despite a level of travel that was far from super regular, I would up with some 6000 points last year.

Now, as I look at my Guest Rewards, it tells me I need 3,064 points to reach SELECT status for 2008, and I'm trying to figure if it's worth it. I already have about 1800 points to be made in trips booked but not yet taken, so that leaves me just a little over 1200 points shy of Select, which in essence is 6 R/T's to DC to make it, so a DC Daytrip every 3 weeks when I'm not taking one of the other trips could meet the goal. If I get desperate, I could cheat and book multi trip with a "stopover" at BWI before taking the next train, but that would be pushing it.

I'm still trying to figure if its worth it.

Congrats on making it and racking up that healthy slew of points!

 

[Steve4031]

Congratulations!
Those Double and Triple Points promos are definitely a plus when it comes to encouraging someone to book often, as despite a level of travel that was far from super regular, I would up with some 6000 points last year.

Now, as I look at my Guest Rewards, it tells me I need 3,064 points to reach SELECT status for 2008, and I'm trying to figure if it's worth it. I already have about 1800 points to be made in trips booked but not yet taken, so that leaves me just a little over 1200 points shy of Select, which in essence is 6 R/T's to DC to make it, so a DC Daytrip every 3 weeks when I'm not taking one of the other trips could meet the goal. If I get desperate, I could cheat and book multi trip with a "stopover" at BWI before taking the next train, but that would be pushing it.

I'm still trying to figure if its worth it.

Congrats on making it and racking up that healthy slew of points!

You could do 4 trips on the Acela and nail that easily. I know the Acela is expensive, but damn that train is fun to ride.

 

[Superliner Diner]

Don't feel bad.... in order to get a few hundred needed points for my son's Select status for 2006, we headed for Pennsylvania in late December, where we rode some Keystone Service trains back and forth on the cheap and got him his legitimate 100 points per trip.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Don't feel bad.... in order to get a few hundred needed points for my son's Select status for 2006, we headed for Pennsylvania in late December, where we rode some Keystone Service trains back and forth on the cheap and got him his legitimate 100 points per trip.

You guys have some interesting ideas.

The Acela could be an idea, particularly if I slightly extend the booking as a WAS-NYP instead of a BAL-NYP so that I can get a 500 point minimum per trip. Of course, in the process, I'm spending at least $300 on a trip that can be had for $128, and still only getting a little more than 3 points per dollar. On a $14 DC hop, I garnish over 7 points per dollar, but it takes 3-5 days of travelling to get the points I can get in one day on the Acela. Interesting trade off to think about.

The Keystone offers some other ideas. Perchance a multi-stopover trip from Baltimore that visits Wilmington, Philly, Lancaster, and Harrisburg

I'm off on Columbus day, so I think I'll explore some ways of racking up some points and travelling like a nomad!

***EDIT: Looking about on Columbus Day, I've opted to sort of piggyback off of Kevin's concept, and have constructed a daytrip using 7 different trains in one day!!! BAL-WIL-PHL-LNC-HAR-PAO-PHL-BAL. All told, using some creative booking techniques, this wild ride will run me about $83. I still fall about 600 points shy, but I think I can make those up with a few other little hops.