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saxman

saxman

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May 18, 2004
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I would love to make select status again next year, and still need a whopping 3,336 points to get there. But I also need to be economical. So what are the best short trip out of NYC to get there. I know first class on Acela will get me 750 points between Boston and NYP. And if I buy far enough, those tickets are $88, and then I'll use my upgrade coupon to upgrade. I know its double points now too, but don't those double points only count as bonus points and not rail points? Also thought about a trip or two to Albany, and just buy a seperate ticket for each city pair. Any suggestions?
 
saxman66 said:
I would love to make select status again next year, and still need a whopping 3,336 points to get there. But I also need to be economical. So what are the best short trip out of NYC to get there. I know first class on Acela will get me 750 points between Boston and NYP. And if I buy far enough, those tickets are $88, and then I'll use my upgrade coupon to upgrade. I know its double points now too, but don't those double points only count as bonus points and not rail points? Also thought about a trip or two to Albany, and just buy a seperate ticket for each city pair. Any suggestions?
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Not sure what you mean by "separate ticket for each city pair." If you have to board a different train, you will get at least the 100-point minimum no matter what (since each train requires a separate physical ticket anyway, even if the trains were designed for connections, as is the case with the Boston branch of the Lake Shore Limited, or the Springfield shuttles). If you buy multiple tickets for the same train (say, Albany-Rhinecliff, Rhinecliff-NYP), you'll only get one set of points for the entire train (so, in that case, it's better to just buy the whole trip with one reservation).

It is possible, if you have already made select status, for them to give you a special offer (not everyone gets this) where your double-point bonus points will count towards qualification. This would happen through e-mail, and you wouldn't have to register (other than for the double-point bonus, which you probably already have), AGR would do it automatically for you. Just keep an eye out for anything coming from Guest Rewards.
 
Probably one of the better options is a NYP-RTE Acela round trip on Saturday. Saturdays seem to have the best chance at a low bucket and if you belong to AAA or NARP, the discounts are applicable to Acela on the weekend. Taking 2290 north gets you to RTE at 10:53am. Southbound 2253 leave RTE at 11:24am. At $88 each way ($79.20 with AAA) you will get 1000 points. Add First Class ($66 each way) bumps that to 1500 points.

Taking 7 Acela segments in Business Class over a couple of weekends will net you 3500 points and will cost about $560. Taking four segments in First and one in Business will also net you 3500 points and will cost $660. Neither is a particularly cheap means of getting points. I guess the analysis is whether the benefits of AGR Select justifies that time and cost.

Once upon a time you could book a trip on a single train, say New York to Albany, as a series of short segments using multi-city booking. You paid the same price as a standard one-way, but got 100 points for each of the embedded segments. A rather well publicized caper by an enterprising but not entirely ethical fellow that netted him over 80,000 points for tickets costing $256 brought about the closure of that loophole. So now your options are limited to actual trips costing real money.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
PRR 60 said:
Probably one of the better options is a NYP-RTE Acela round trip on Saturday. Saturdays seem to have the best chance at a low bucket and if you belong to AAA or NARP, the discounts are applicable to Acela on the weekend. Taking 2290 north gets you to RTE at 10:53am. Southbound 2253 leave RTE at 11:24am. At $88 each way ($79.20 with AAA) you will get 1000 points. Add First Class ($66 each way) bumps that to 1500 points.
Taking 7 Acela segments in Business Class over a couple of weekends will net you 3500 points and will cost about $560. Taking four segments in First and one in Business will also net you 3500 points and will cost $660. Neither is a particularly cheap means of getting points. I guess the analysis is whether the benefits of AGR Select justifies that time and cost.

Once upon a time you could book a trip on a single train, say New York to Albany, as a series of short segments using multi-city booking. You paid the same price as a standard one-way, but got 100 points for each of the embedded segments. A rather well publicized caper by an enterprising but not entirely ethical fellow that netted him over 80,000 points for tickets costing $256 brought about the closure of that loophole. So now your options are limited to actual trips costing real money.
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There is just one thing that I learned the hard way recently. AAA discounts HAVE to have a three day in advance booking. If you just walk up to the ticket window on the day of travel and expect to get the discount you're outta luck.
 
Wow, you are starting a tad bit late to ramp up the points. I'm still trying to scheme out my last 450 or so to make Select.

The Acela plan that PRR laid out is probably the fastest option. Barring that, you might be able to work some magic and plot a multi-stop trip using Keystones one day, and Empire service another day. I did something similar a few weeks ago (see the Travelogues section) and it worked flawlessly to get 800 points towards my status for a little over $80 total, but it took up the entire day. I loved the novelty of the trip, and the places I visited, but I certainly would not repeat the itinerary just to make status.
 

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