Introducing our newest and most rewarding tier: Select Executive
 

Amtrak Guest Rewards will soon announce the launch of our newest and most rewarding tier: Select Executive. Starting on January 1, 2013, members who earned 20,000 or more Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs) in 2012 will enjoy this new status.

Select Executive members will receive:

• a 100% tier point bonus on Amtrak travel
• no annual limit on point purchases
• one-class upgrades (48-hour) and free companion coupons with the new member kit
• an additional one-class upgrade for every 3,000 TQPs earned while a Select Executive member
• an exclusive Select Executive customer service line
• unlimited access to Amtrak ClubAcelas, Amtrak Metropolitan Lounges, Amtrak First class lounges, as well as all United Clubs worldwide
• auto-registration for eligible promotions throughout the year
• exclusive partner offers and promotions

Select Executive benefits will begin on January 1, 2013 for those who reach 20,000 TQPs in 2012. Member kits (including the new member card, upgrades, and companion coupons) will arrive by March. In the meantime, Select Executive members should continue to use their 2012 Select Plus cards for lounge access. In future years, status will be earned as soon as a member qualifies, for the remainder of that calendar year as well as the following program year (just like Select and Select Plus).

We appreciate your support for our program, and look forward to extending these new benefits to our most frequent travelers.

While we may debate the value of the new benefits, I'm glad to see some incentive for high Acela TQP earners to continue riding. Also glad to see that United Club access will continue, in some form, in 2013.

Which leads me to ask: I presume Select Plus members will retain their unlimited Amtrak and United lounge access benefits in 2013?

Is the number of one-class upgrades (48-hour) and free companion coupons with the new member kit same as S+ and then additional are given after every 3000 points?

Currently at ~17800 so not sure if I will make it to SE during the month of December. Not sure if it is worth it to do MR to attain SE status?!

Didn't see this yesterday, but just received my email notification that I have qualified.

Very happy to see the addition as I have been harping on this for some time. The 100% bonus is long overdue. I will avoid commenting on the other perks other than to say "it's a start".

The Select Plus benefits have not changed and will remain the same as in 2012.

Select Executive members will receive 4 one-class upgrades and 2 free companion coupons with the welcome kit. This is in addition to 1 one-class upgrade earned for every 3,000 TQPs once Select Executive status has been reached.

Thank you; that was my primary concern as well.

Honestly, as an off-corridor S+ who rides mostly one-class coach trains or long-distance sleepers, I haven't even used my 4 upgrades this year. While I appreciate that AGR continues to exist as a driver of Acela revenue and that the new SE tier was needed especially that regard, many of us are still waiting for a more flexible suite of benefits that provide relevance outside of the Northeast (e.g. priority boarding at major stations, drink coupons, or other on-board recognition). If I wasn't also a UA 1K, and thus able to heavily utilize the UC benefit, I would not find S+ very rewarding beyond the 50% point bonus.

Thanks as always for considering our feedback in the course of making program changes. ^

How about some sort of priority boardinig system at NYP? PHL/DC you go through the lounge. NYP is a mess.

+1 ^

While we're at it... how about a lifetime status program? ;)

Select Executive members will receive 4 one-class upgrades and 2 free companion coupons with the welcome kit. This is in addition to 1 one-class upgrade earned for every 3,000 TQPs once Select Executive status has been reached.[/QUOTE]

These upgrades would be a lot more valuable if first class was made more enjoyable. Any thought to making a first class quiet car? How about making the food available that is for sale in the cafe car. I personally would enjoy a hot dog and chips better than any of the food served in first class.

These upgrades would be a lot more valuable if first class was made more enjoyable. Any thought to making a first class quiet car? How about making the food available that is for sale in the cafe car. I personally would enjoy a hot dog and chips better than any of the food served in first class.[/QUOTE]

(I love the FC/quiet car idea.) The biggest issue in my mind is the seating layout. The reason that there's such a mad dash for seats is the that many of the seats are undesirable - especially the four-seaters if you're not a group of four.

I'd much rather see a straight, forward-facing 2x1 seating pattern for the entire car, omitting the hard tables. But the tray tables should come out of the seat it serves, rather than from the seat ahead (as airlines do). I'm sure you've all experienced having a drink on the drop-down table when the occupant in front plops down, and the drink goes flying. That happened to me once when the train was completely still at a station! The seats should all face forward, and be easily reversed by the crew at terminal stations.

It would also make it easier for Amtrak to re-implement assigned seating, as was initially tried when Acela service debuted in 2000. With all seats essentially the same, there will be far fewer unhappy customers with their seat assignments. This system works very well in Asia and Europe, where trains have similar route lengths and stopping patterns.

This is great news -- I was considering throwing in some shuttle flights once I had S+ locked down next year but now I'll definately make sure I hit this. AGR Insider -- would you be able to share what % of S+ became SE? Also - will the upgrades be online or will a coupon be mailed every 3K?

Got a (very nice) envelope in the mail from Amtrak Guest Rewards yesterday. Very thick and quality paper. I got pumped because I figured, after the email, that this was a new card or a bonus upgrade or something interesting like that. Instead it was just a notecard with an insert re-hashing the Select Executive email. Seems like a bit of the waste to me.
One major disappointment though - the letter said card wouldn't arrive until MARCH 2013. Why on earth does Amtrak have the world's slowest membership card process? I mean 2 months every time you hit a status, minimum, to get your new card and no way to speed it up. :td: And we always see posts on here on a regular basis from new elites asking if they can get their card in time for a United trip, etc.

While you've qualified for the new level GreenHawk, the actual program year doesn't start until March. At present Select Exec is not really a status yet; no Club Acela would even know what to do with such a card. You qualify for status based upon the calendar year. However, the actual status year runs from March until Feb of the next year. Even if they sent you a card right now, it's valid dates would be March 1st through Feb 28, 2014. And therefore none of the benefits will be provided until March 1st.

Select Exec's first day of existence isn't until March 1st, 2013.

Now if they can make the upgrade coupons electronic, and available for on-line request/confirmation/printout, that would be great.

Well, AlanB, just seemed like a waste of trees. I thought the train was the environmentally-friendly choice? ;)

It is. Which is why you need to chop down some trees to keep it overall carbon-neutral. ;)

Per AGR Insider's initial post, Select Exec benefits begin on January 1, 2013.

Maybe I can help clarify things - for 2013 only, those who hit the 20K TQP mark in 2012 will enjoy their new tier benefits as of 1/1/13. This means the 100% point bonus on Amtrak travel and the earned upgrades (every 3K TQPs) will both begin on 1/1/13 for those members. We wanted to keep the annual member welcome kit on the same March-Feb program year schedule, because that's when the S and S+ kits will go out, and future years will adhere to that schedule as well.

The 1/1/13 SE start date (instead of 3/1) is a special deal for the inaugural year for those who qualified in 2012. Since everyone who hit SE for the inaugural would have been S+ at some point in 2012, they already have a lounge access card good through 2/28/13, so there was no need to accelerate the production of the SE kits in advance of S and S+.

What this means is an SE member who travels 3K TQPs before March 1 would in fact receive an earned upgrade before their tier welcome coupons. More on this to come...

Chicago Metropolitan Lounge Employees
 

I'm pleased to be a member of the Select Executive freshman class, but I have a special request for the AGR management team.

As you roll out the new Select Executive program, I would respectfully ask that you formally train the Chicago Metropolitan Lounge agents about the meaning and benefits of SE. And while you're at it, it would also be sensible to do a remedial training on the meaning and benefits of S+ as well. Personal experience and other anecdotal evidence suggest that some ML agents neither understand AGR's benefits nor realize what Select Plus represents. It's a breathtaking lapse of training when ML agents are seemingly oblivious to the distinction that Amtrak gives to its very best customers. I've even heard of some S+ members being denied entry after agents deemed them to be inadmissible.

This is low hanging fruit that can be addressed before SE deploys. Every Metropolitan Lounge agent in Chicago should understand that S+ and SE members are among Amtrak's best customers, and should be treated with a modicum of appreciation when they check in at the lounge. A big part of that is simply knowing that these pax have every right to be there and should never be turned away.

Thanks in advance and see you out on the Rails...

Two steps ahead of you :cool: ... Chicago is on our short list (along with the ClubAcela stations) for training this month.

As we move forward in the first several weeks of the year, we ask for everyone's patience as we get all of our agents (at both call centers and stations) on the same page with regard to our various benefits and procedures for the new tier. The AGR call center (1-800-307-5000, or the special # for SE members) is best equipped when it comes to all of the nuances of our program. We work closely with the supervisors at both call center locations to ensure they have the best information. We also accept private messages here on FlyerTalk if there is anything we as a management team at headquarters can do to inquire about or resolve a situation.

Thanks for your support!

Alan, this isn't correct under general practice. Once someone reaches a tier (whether it is Select, S+ or the new Select Executive) they would get the perks of that level for the remainder of the current year, as well as for the year that starts on March 1. So it would have been nice if Amtrak announced the new tier and made everyone who qualified Select Executive immediately - the January 1st date is not an acceleration, but a delay.

Since there is no current promotion, and I am not earning the 100% bonus I should as Select Exec. in December, it just means that I have no incentive to focus my travels on the rails right now....

We always look forward to seeing you onboard our trains, even when a promotion is not running.

:):):):):):)

Just made Select Executive....looking forward to the new benefits especially the extra upgrade coupon every 3000 points!:)

Select Executive airport lounge access
 

Hi,
For SE, can we access only United lounges, or the lounges of the Star Alliance as well? I'm traveling in Europe and United's lounges are all Star Alliance there...
Thanks.

Only United Clubs. Affiliated clubs like *A are not included.

+1