Obtaining Select status: Worth it?

[Astorian]

Hi, all:

I've been lurking around these boards for the last few months finding great information & enjoying the lively conversations. I finally built up the confidence to join & throw a question out there. I apologize in advance for the long post.

First, a bit of background: I've been taking Amtrak for years, but only between NYP & WAS, so this is the first time that I've gotten remotely close to Select status. I don't really travel for business. Within the last several months I've made many more trips between NYP and WAS than usual, including a handful on the Acela, plus two round trips to Montreal (3rd visit overall...I'm addicted to that city!), & then I acquired a bunch of points from my one-way Auto Train trip in a roomette. Next week I am booked in a roomette for the entire length of the southbound Crescent to New Orleans. It has been quite an Amtrak year for me!

I'm not using the train to return to NYC (lack of time & $$$), & I don't have any other train trips planned for this year, so that puts me 326 measly points away from Select status! I don't plan on taking so many train trips next year since my mom has now moved away from the D.C. area.

So, now to my actual point. Would it be silly of me to take the Acela down to D.C. & hop on the Crescent there JUST to get those 500 points even if it adds $134 to the cost of my entire trip? Is Select status worth it or am I just trying to compensate for my overall lack of accomplishments in life? People talk about upgrade coupons, Club Acela passes, bonus points, & that shiny Select card. Do Select members still get all of that, & do the benefits quickly outweigh that $134?

Thank you all in advance! Happy holidays & happy travels!

 

[saxman]

Absolutely!! Getting those extra 326 would be a cinch for you and could be done at minimal cost. I'm not sure exactly where you live, but take 4 quick one way trips for as little as a few dollars and you'll get your points. After that since you seem to ride the train a lot, you'll get a 25% point bonus on all your trips. So a 500 point trip on Acela to NYP with actually be 750 points. Plus many other benefits, like free upgrades (to get you 750 points on Acela), passes to the ClubAcela a few other perks. So well worth to spend a few bucks to get to Select. You have about a month.

 

[RRrich]

Problem - to get Select Status, you need 5000 railpoints as I underrstand it, if you take a $4 ride (STL - KWD) you will get 200 points, but only 8 railpoints. But I may be wrong

 

[The Metropolitan]

I'd say you're too close NOT to just go ahead and accomplish it. You don't have to use Acela, but could use Empire Service and just take a little bang/bang trip up the Hudson and back with a pair of stopovers if you like.

The two upgrade coupons, if used on Acela are worth as much as $100 a piece in the right circumstance. You'll get 3 coupons good for passes to Club Acela or a 10% discount on coach fare. These can easily be worth $15 a pop.

Plus, if they do what they did this year, you can get 2 more upgrade coupons or Companion Vouchers. My Companion vouchers came in great handy and wound up being worth $200.

Another bonus is the Select Redemption offer that puts something like 2500 more points in your account that you can use for subscriptions, or simply hang on to for a later trip redemption.

So, if you do what you need to do to get those last 326 points (particularly if you do it while Double Points are still on), you will actually come away with over 3,000 points, a pair of upgrade coupons worth up to $200, passes you can use to take a breather in the lounge or save another 40-50 odd dollars, and possibly a pair of companion coupons that are worth another $200 or so dollars.

So spending $134 to get about $450 in values and about 3,000 points is definitely worth it to me. You're the ultimate judge though if its worth it to you.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Problem - to get Select Status, you need 5000 railpoints as I underrstand it, if you take a $4 ride (STL - KWD) you will get 200 points, but only 8 railpoints. But I may be wrong

Hate to break it to ya, but ya are.

A 100 point minimum granted on a $4 ticket counts as 100 rail points as well. Many of my Select Points were accrued on $14 Regional rides between BAL>WAS. I got 100 points for taking a $5, 30 minute rail trip on the Heritage coach equipped Piedmont from RGH to DNC, and got a morning snack and coffee as well.

I loved that train.

 

[Astorian]

Wow! There is a lot more that comes with Select status than I thought! I appreciate all the input. I think that I will go for it. The AGR website really downplays the "special offers" that comes with Select status. I would think that it would be promoted more and people would be coming up with reasons (like me) to spend the money to travel by Amtrak.

Unfortunately, it's kind of last call for me as I forgot to mention that I will be spending most of December in New Orleans. I do plan on going out to L.A. to visit family during that time, but the Sunset Limited is out of my price range, & having no toilet in the Superliner roomette was the deal breaker for me. While I enjoyed my Auto Train trip in the Superliner roomette, I'm a little too jazzed about having running water in my Viewliner roomette during this upcoming Crescent journey. The trip from NOL to LAX is way too long for me to cope.

So, this leaves me with my kooky detour (or more accurately, head start) on the Acela to meet a train that orginates where I live. On the plus side, Washington Union Station is really nice to walk around, and I hear that its Club Acela is marginally better than the one at Penn Station, so I get to visit that. Now, I'm not knocking New York. I love New York. I've been living here for 10 years, but the subterranean nature of Penn Station and other urban related factors keeps it from being as immaculately maintained as Union Station, so I'd rather hang out in D.C.

I could also take an earlier Acela, check my baggage, and jump on the Metro to visit a museum or something. So, kicking around D.C. a little and meeting up with the Crescent is not such a bad trade off, plus I obtain the no-longer-elusive Select Status! I'm sorry that I'm rationalizing all of this aloud!

Thank you again for all the responses. I'm looking forward to experiencing for myself all the recent changes in Amtrak service (hopefully more good, than bad), and also hope to meet some interesting people along the way. And I'm looking forward to the goodies when I hit Select level. I'll report back if anything interesting happens, like an alligator under the train which another poster experienced first hand! Take care!

 

[AlanB]

I could also take an earlier Acela, check my baggage, and jump on the Metro to visit a museum or something. So, kicking around D.C. a little and meeting up with the Crescent is not such a bad trade off, plus I obtain the no-longer-elusive Select Status! I'm sorry that I'm rationalizing all of this aloud!

You can also leave your luggage in the DC Club Acela lounge baggage area for free.

 

[RRrich]

Problem - to get Select Status, you need 5000 railpoints as I underrstand it, if you take a $4 ride (STL - KWD) you will get 200 points, but only 8 railpoints. But I may be wrong

Hate to break it to ya, but ya are.

Me Wrong??? First time ever - AGAIN :blink: :blink: :blink:

I made select recently - I got the 2,500 points, but thats all I have gotten so far. Am I just being too impatient??

 

[Astorian]

I could also take an earlier Acela, check my baggage, and jump on the Metro to visit a museum or something. So, kicking around D.C. a little and meeting up with the Crescent is not such a bad trade off, plus I obtain the no-longer-elusive Select Status! I'm sorry that I'm rationalizing all of this aloud!

You can also leave your luggage in the DC Club Acela lounge baggage area for free.

Oh, yes! Thank you! You're right. I guess that I would check my suitcase (I'm almost positive that it won't fit in that roomette storage cubby over the hallway) and then store my carry-on at the Acela lounge whilst sightseeing. Is there a separate storage room in the lounge to look for or do the front desk folks just take it? Thanks again for the tip!

 

[Kevin L.]

You should take pictures of the DC lounge while you're in there. Of all the many times I've been to Union Station, I've never been able to go in

The sign at the door says "first class ticket must be presented", so I showed them my sleeper ticket. Unfortunately, that didn't work, as they insisted that the sleeper ticket had to be for the same day

Of course, I already knew that, but it was worth a shot.

BTW, good luck with going to a museum. Any museum on the mall takes a day in itself, especially the Smithsonian's Natural History museum, as it just reopened after 2 years. Also, I strongly recommend that you do not waste any time with the Capitol tour. We were among the first in line, but it still took us over 3 hours to complete a 30 minute tour. This tour only showed us 3 halves of rooms, and was not worth it. There is no free-reign exploration whatsoever. (Not to mention the propaganda and PC rot that they showcase)

Any monument which reflects American basic principles will be effortless to see. Oh, considering that the Washington monument keeps selling out tickets less than 2 hours after they go "on sale" (they're free), rolling down the metro to federal triangle and then going into the Old Post Office Tower--the 3rd tallest structure in dc--is rather enjoyable.

To pose a question, I remembered on my recent trip to DC to make sure that anything even vaguely resembling a "security threat" was left behind, as only Amtrak, the Metro, and the Monuments don't metal detector and x-ray you enough to cause cancer. Even the Reagan Food Court requires scanning. However, when I entered into the Capitol, they tried to tell me that my keys were a threat to "national security" and wanted to "confiscate" them. Naturally, that didn't happen, and I still got into the Capitol, but has anyone else suffered such over the top absurdity there?

(Turning this tangent into a secant, if the Lounge isn't like everything else in DC and you can take pictures, please snap some shots of that there lounge)

 

[AlanB]

I could also take an earlier Acela, check my baggage, and jump on the Metro to visit a museum or something. So, kicking around D.C. a little and meeting up with the Crescent is not such a bad trade off, plus I obtain the no-longer-elusive Select Status! I'm sorry that I'm rationalizing all of this aloud!

You can also leave your luggage in the DC Club Acela lounge baggage area for free.

Oh, yes! Thank you! You're right. I guess that I would check my suitcase (I'm almost positive that it won't fit in that roomette storage cubby over the hallway) and then store my carry-on at the Acela lounge whilst sightseeing. Is there a separate storage room in the lounge to look for or do the front desk folks just take it? Thanks again for the tip!

There is a special room to the right of the front desk and behind it. Just put your bag in there. Don't leave anything really valuable in there, as it's not guarded. But I've not heard of any problems either.

And the cubby is pretty large, the rolling suitcase that I normally travel with is 14 inches wide, stands 23 inches tall, and is 7 inches thick. If I had two of those bags, I could just barely fit both of them side by side in the cubbyhole above the hall. And don't forget that if you sleep on the bottom, you can always store bag on the upper bunk too! Granted checking you bag is also free and you don't have to move it between trains.

 

[RRrich]

One minor advantage is you get a special reservation number to call - bypasses Julie and goes right to a semi-human agent. At least it did for me.

 

[AlanB]

One minor advantage is you get a special reservation number to call - bypasses Julie and goes right to a semi-human agent. At least it did for me.

Quite right. In fact you go right to the head of the queue.

That's one perk I always forget to mention.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Problem - to get Select Status, you need 5000 railpoints as I underrstand it, if you take a $4 ride (STL - KWD) you will get 200 points, but only 8 railpoints. But I may be wrong

Hate to break it to ya, but ya are.

Me Wrong??? First time ever - AGAIN :blink: :blink: :blink:

I made select recently - I got the 2,500 points, but thats all I have gotten so far. Am I just being too impatient??

Actually, you reminded me of how wrong I am!!!! LOL!

If you make Select for the first time within the calendar year, you can take advantage of the CURRENT year's redemption offer and clock in 2,500 points for the current year. When March 1st of the next year rolls around, you can redeem this offer AGAIN! So all told, you're getting 5,000 bonus points when you make Select for the first time as long as you hit in within the calendar year!

Add this to the points you'd get for the trip and the double points bonus, and the $134 for that Acela ticket is getting you 6,000 points plus the coupons.

As I first stated, to me, once you get within 1,000 points on your own natural accord, it's almost a no-brainer to try to figure out a way to stretch across the finish line.