Multi-ride ticket vs. individual reservations

Hi all,

Warning: newbie questions ahead.

I've recently begun a weekly commute between NYC and Washington, DC. For the first few weeks, I've been making individual reservations for each trip, averaging about $118/leg or $236/trip.

I just found out about the Multi-ride tickets, and at $957, the 10 pack seems to make a lot of sense to me, but I want to make sure I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot on TQPs.

Is there a reason I'd do individual reservations vs. the multi-ride?

And a co-worker just recommended I get the Amtrak credit card, at least for Amtrak purposes. That something I should do, too?

Thanks in advance for advice!

It makes plenty of sense. It gives you a fixed price and can be a hedge against a train selling out since you don't need a reservation.

As for TQPs go, you get all your points based on the first time you use the ticket. You're obviously not going to get more overall points, but your route isn't so short that individual points would have been subject to the old minimum 100 points. You're going to save money if you ride enough. Also, you no longer have to use up all the rides to get your points with eTicket multi-rides.

Under the old system I had a shorter ride where I could take advantage of discount codes. Each ride was maybe $13.25 with discount and I'd get 100 points (or more if I split it with munition-city). A 10-ride was $108 and got 216 points. Under the new rules each ride would get me 26 points. At this time, saving the money makes more sense since short rides no longer earn minimum points. I definitely used those short rides to make Select Plus.

With the exception of a handful of trains, multi ride tickets are valid on any non-Acela train at any time, regardless of whether it is sold out or not. That's why it's more expensive than 10 times the cheapest possible one way fare (if you travel at odd times, it's better to book 10 tickets, but since you're paying $118/leg that's probably not the case). You may have to sit in the cafe car, but you'll get there.

Definitely get the Amtrak credit card - you can get as many as 4785 points for each 10 trip ticket. This equates to "buy 8 get one free", without even considering the sign up bonus or other charges you might put on the card.

Note: Multi ride tickets are only good for 45 days - if you're commuting weekly it's fine, but keep that in mind if you want to take a vacation, etc.

Please not the expiration date! As long as your 10 one ways will be completed within 45 days, it sounds like a good deal for you.