So the bus segment gets me 100 points?
Yeah. Neat trick huh?
Someone said 100 points min for each ticket, but it's more like 100 points min for each segment, since there could be multiple segments on the same ticket. They also cap it at a maximum 4 minimum-point segments that accrue points per day. I could conceivably pay for a single ticket booked as a multi-city trip with 8 segments, but at most that would earn 400 points. I understand that there were people on points runs amassing tons of points this way until they capped it.
I needed less than 400 points to make Select. So I booked the trip I referenced for Dec 30 - a Sunday with the 50% Capitol Corridor discount. $6 each way. Two train and two bus segments. Scheduled time was less than 2.5 hours. The bus arrived early and I had time at the SF Ferry Building to buy bread, get a cup of coffee at Blue Bottle and even walk around. Points posted in a day and I was at Select.