Tweed Jet Set

First off, sorry for the newbie questions. Mods, feel free to move if this would have been better elsewhere.

It's been almost a decade since I was a frequent user of Amtrak and they've obviously changed the AGR program a bunch since then. If I remember correctly, there used to be fixed point earning values between city pairs, with a segment minimum, I want to say 100 points per segment and 500 for Acela?

I noticed that with advanced purchase fares, it's actually cheaper to take the Springfield-bound NER between NYP-NHV than Metro-North, so I could see myself doing this fairly often. But, boy it seems a lot harder to earn status under the current program.

To earn Select Plus status requires 10,000 TQPs. You earn 2 TQPs for each $1 spent on tickets, so you have to spend $5,000 on tickets. Or with the bonus, you earn 3 TQPs on Acela First class tickets, so you'd still need $3,334 spent on tickets. The only other way I can see that there is to earn TQPs is through the Preferred Credit card, you can get up to 4,000 TQPs if you spend $20,000 on the card.

So, am I missing anything? The FT-er in me is confused that the program is really that simple. There's no mileage runs, hotel partners that award TQPs, or other ways of squeezing out more TQPs per dollar? Even the airlines adding dollar spending requirements have weird workarounds with partner tickets, etc. After I discovered you could get a $1 Amtrak ticket between New Haven's two stations, I briefly thought, "Ooh, minimum segment credits!" before I remembered the program doesn't work that way any more.

Eager to hear if I've overlooked anything.

musicalbox

The new card doesn't have a max so if you put every single thing you buy on it, you could get more than 4k TQP's. And the Acela or Regional BC earns 2.5 points per dollar spend. That won't save you over MNRR, though. But other than that I don't see anything you've overlooked.

Long Train Runnin

Unfortunately, I really don't think there is a good ol fashion Flyertalk way to hack AGR status these days.

If I'm missing something I'm all ears!

This year I only have OPM travel on Amtrak to make select.

Would love to bump that up.

Tweed Jet Set

Oh, you're right. I don't know why I had a max of 4,000 TQP in my head. I guess the best option might be MS-ing your way to Select Plus. Just $50,000 of spending!

Bummer.

Any one know how bid-ups get counted towards TQPs? My guess would be the bid counts as spending, but that you don't get any bonus multiplier, even if you're upgraded to first/business.

Mr. BoH

Maybe there is an opportunity here if you can find a really cheap bidup, but hard to see it making that much of a dent

https://www.amtrak.com/bidup
If you are an Amtrak Guest Rewards member, you'll continue to earn two points per dollar spent on your trip. Upgrades to Business Class will receive a 25% point bonus while upgrades to Acela First Class will receive a 50% point bonus.

musicalbox

Probably because the old BoA card had that restriction but the new FNBO one does not!