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J

jtoddander

Train Attendant
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
61
I see various posts where people reference doing points runs. I know what it is but to be honest I have never seen enough points in it to make me want to do it.

To those of you who do points runs from time to time...how many points do you get out of a typical run and is it worth it?
 
While the value of the Points may not add up to the Fare spent, the actual Reward is a nice chance to enjoy a bit of train time and hopefully sit back and relax.
 
If you spend less than $51 for a ticket, you get 100 points. If you spend more you get the 2x points.
 
Yes, for example, I've been getting to my first select status and since I want to achieve it before my first LD trip, I'm doing a points run on the Keystone. It costs me $5.85 for 100 points. With double days, I am spending $11.70 for 400 points of which 200 are TQP's. Seems a good value to me ;)
 
It also has to be worth doing for what you want/expect to get out of it. For me it used to be good when I could go SAC to Davis for $5 one way. Now that it's $9 for the same 15 minute ride it's not so worth it anymore. Also, if you live out west or arguably outside the NEC the perks of select aren't great. For me upgrade certificates are fairly useless since there are no Northern California trains where I could upgrade to business class/first class. As with everything your circumstances and mileage may vary.
 
During Double Days which are on now and in the Spring I use the Keystones to rack up those points. Once a week I'll travel from Elizabethtown to Harrisburg or Lancaster for $11.04 round trip.. Being a Select member I get 50 extra points, so it's 450 points for these quick trips. Later this week I will in Chicago and take a couple of short trips, as well.

I'm lucky I can use the Keystone service. It is a good value. Only thing better is when AGR will give you a 50 percent bonus,which doesn't happen very often. It took me two years to accumulate 40,000 points good for two two zone rewards in a roomette, which we are using next June. I'm currently working on my next big trip and even though these are quick runs, it's still a train ride and those points add up quickly.
 
Thanks you all for the info. I use credit cards to get my AGR point....not just the Amtrak mastercard but Amex etc when they allow point transfers to AGR.
 
I had not really thought about issue of TQPs and their value or the value of higher status level.

Probably to late to work on it this year but couple questions for future....

How long is you status level in effect....current CY only or current year and following CY? It would be disappointing to earn higher level in November and then lose it when January comes around.

Is it possible buy and get credit for individual segments that are back to back. For example, I live north of Detroit. Could I buy separate tickets from Pontiac to birmingham then from Birmingham to Royal Oak and then from Royal Oak to Detroit and ear 100x2 points for each segment for total of 600 points during double days? I presume that I would need to ensure conductor scans each separate ticket to get credit or is there something in the system that would stop this?
 
Current and following year (and I think "year" is March-March. Someone earning status now would have it through Feb 28 2016.

Yes, the rules prohibit earning on the same train number on the same day:

Additional tickets for the same train or individual train number, on the same day, will not earn points.
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For routes where two train numbers are actually the same train (8/28, 22/322/422) you can maybe game the system a little bit.
 
benale said:
During Double Days which are on now and int the Spring I use the Keysones to rack up those points. Once a week I'll travel from Elizabethtown to Harrisburg or Lancaster for $11.04 round trip.. Being a Select member I get 50 extra points, so it's 450 points for these quick trips. Later this week I will in Chicago and take a couple of short trips, as well.

I'm lucky I can use the Keystone service. It is a good value. Only thing better is when AGR will give you a 50 percent bonus,which doesn't happen very often. It took me two years to accumulate 40,000 points good for two two zone rewards in a roomette, which we are using next June. I'm currently working on my next big trip and even though these are quick runs, it's still a train ride and those points add up quickly.
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Yeah exactly. I've been slacking a bit but I tend to go to Philly often so I just get double points then.

The select status is good just for the 25% extra bonus, if you travel a lot. If you do, it racks up points a lot faster for the final goal, whatever that might be. :)
 
Double points for DAL-FTW for $8.00 to $9.50 is a decent deal. Can take afternoon Eagle back or the TRE. Get a great cupcake in FTW and ride home later.
 
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Last year I wasn't getting that many points (to make Select) because I tended to buy a lot of 10-ride tickets. They only earn double the dollar amount spent, and at about one a month that wasn't getting there.

What I did to get points fast was a few round trip RIC-EMY-SFC-EMY-RIC which got 400 tier qualifying points for 4 segments, which maxes out the minimum trip points per day. Cost was $12 (50% off Capitol Corridor weekend special with 3-day advanced purchase) and if I did it in the morning it took 150 minutes. I also booked a few SFC-EMY-RIC trips with my kid, where I got to San Francisco on BART. During that fare special, I could have done BKY-EMY-SFC-EMY-BKY for $10.50, but Berkeley to Emeryville is 2 miles and often not enough time for the conductor to pull the ticket.

Also the bus runs help because you're not waiting for the next train.

Another trick is to do one longer trip and break it down as a multi-city trip for the same price as a straight shot. Doesn't necessarily work for some of the specials I noted unless there's a specific promotion code. That weekend fare special I used couldn't be used along with multi-city selection. However, I could use the Oakland A's promotion code V763 (nothing in the terms requires it be used for attending an event) to do RIC-BKY-EMY-OKJ-OAC - all for $9. However, those are 7, 6, 18, and 9 minutes trips, so you're back with the same issue of whether an conductor will lift your ticket. However, with that particular plan, if everything goes perfectly to get points, you max out at 400 points and you can take BART back to Richmond. I could theoretically do that on 521/523/525/527 and total time is a little over 3 hours.
 
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jtoddander said:
Cool. Clearly the bus component speeds things up and makes it feasible.
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Just in case I wasn't clear, the only way that Amtrak serves San Francisco is by thruway buses. There's even a full service bus station next-door to the San Francisco Ferry Building (SFC station) with baggage handling, Quik-Trak, and a ticket window. Although the bus ride can be short (some of the San Francisco stops can take longer since the bus makes its way with several stops, the one thing that works well for points runs is that the driver comes out and checks tickets. That's not always a given on trains, where a conductor has occasionally failed to find me all the way on a trip that took me an hour.

I've also had conductors who had to recharge their iPhone scanner and then just wrote down the reservation number; those always ended up with my points posting. Once my kid and I were the only passengers getting on the San Joaquin at Richmond and the conductor shouted out "are you going to Emeryville?" from two cars down, and then motioned us to get in. I tracked him down at Emeryville, where he said he'd already lifted our ticket because we were the only passengers with reservations getting on at Richmond. The points posted. With the "unreserved" trains, I've gotten points to post when I took a different train, and even when I bought a Capitol Corridor ticket but used it on the San Joaquin.

I do like the multi-city reservation if I have a place I can get breakfast or otherwise kill some time. I get charged the same and can apply promotional discounts. I've even had a conductor ask me if I was doing it for more points.
 
Interesting to hear some of your stories about tickets not being lifted. Whenever I'm on the Keystone, conductors walk through all the cars after every station, so I never had a situation where my ticket wasn't lifted. Maybe it's got something to do with the train being unreserved between Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
 
Barciur said:
Interesting to hear some of your stories about tickets not being lifted. Whenever I'm on the Keystone, conductors walk through all the cars after every station, so I never had a situation where my ticket wasn't lifted. Maybe it's got something to do with the train being unreserved between Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
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It gets interesting with bi-level cars. There's also a lot of freight traffic around here that the conductors have to deal with. However, I've tracked down both conductors at their "office" in the lower level of a cafe car to get a ticket lifted.

I suppose walking through an Amfleet is much easier, and there's less freight traffic that might divert their attention.
 
jtoddander said:
Is it possible buy and get credit for individual segments that are back to back. For example, I live north of Detroit. Could I buy separate tickets from Pontiac to birmingham then from Birmingham to Royal Oak and then from Royal Oak to Detroit and ear 100x2 points for each segment for total of 600 points during double days? I presume that I would need to ensure conductor scans each separate ticket to get credit or is there something in the system that would stop this?
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It's been mentioned, but I'd clarify. The simple answer is no. If you don't get off the train and get back on another train, it won't count as a new segment. Doesn't matter if you bought another ticket or if it was booked as a multi-city trip. AGR points are accounted for by date and train number; if these match you won't get the second set of points. I'm pretty sure the conductor can do something about that if you've got two tickets like that, but I'm not sure how that works out regarding points. If it costs more than $50 together, I don't know if that will count as double the dollar amount.

I've done multi-city, which is great for AGR points if you've got the time to spare. Last Friday I was planning on going OAC--FMT-GAC early in the morning but forget to turn the alarm on. Woke up an hour later and could only make the later train. I have flexibility with taking Capitol Corridor trains, and the conductor asked if I was going all the way through or stopping.

I'm thinking of doing multi-city with a stop in Berkeley (on the way to Richmond) sometime this month, although I'm not sure what my wife would think. The Sierra Nevada brewery has a tasting room in Berkeley a half block from the station. That would be a good chance to sample some suds and take the train and BART to sober up a bit before driving home.
 
You have to be kind of aggressive if you're doing ultra short segments. Me and another member rode between the two stops in Oakland last weekend, and spent about half of the ride walking through the cars until we found a conductor, and I asked him to please scan my ticket. He seemed a little taken aback and actually thanked us for finding him.
 
Long Train Runnin' said:
You have to be kind of aggressive if you're doing ultra short segments. Me and another member rode between the two stops in Oakland last weekend, and spent about half of the ride walking through the cars until we found a conductor, and I asked him to please scan my ticket. He seemed a little taken aback and actually thanked us for finding him.
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Just check out the "AGR Points from Gathering Posted?" thread, where people are joking about breaking down the system with Berkeley-Emeryville runs. I remember the last time I rode this segment, the announcement was made as soon as the doors closed.

Berkeley coming up in 3 minutes.
 
BCL said:
Long Train Runnin' said:
You have to be kind of aggressive if you're doing ultra short segments. Me and another member rode between the two stops in Oakland last weekend, and spent about half of the ride walking through the cars until we found a conductor, and I asked him to please scan my ticket. He seemed a little taken aback and actually thanked us for finding him.
Click to expand...
Just check out the "AGR Points from Gathering Posted?" thread, where people are joking about breaking down the system with Berkeley-Emeryville runs. I remember the last time I rode this segment, the announcement was made as soon as the doors closed.

Berkeley coming up in 3 minutes.
Click to expand...
Hey, we were returning from the group dinner. We all stood by the door and had our tickets scanned before we arrived.
 

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