I noticed today that I had Select status despite having finished the year around 4,000 TQP's. I was confused until they sent an e-mail telling me that they had granted me status even though I was short. Surprised because this was not a soft landing--I've actually never had Amtrak status. My travel is about 90% business class and about 75% Acela--not sure if that matters. Just sharing as an FYI in case others should check.

Same hear. Unexpected.

That happened to me last year, but it was a soft landing - I was close to getting Select Plus status and actually would have gotten the status except I had to cancel a few trips near the end of the year. Fortunately this year got Select Plus without any problems.

Same happened wrt Select Plus for me. I did have 1k TQPs post from the card a week before, but I'm pretty sure that was only bringing me up to 8k. Did not travel Amtrak last year.

I suspect they have a targeted structure requiring a certain number of members with each status. If WFH has reduced the NYC-PHL supercommuters to 1-2 trips a week from 4-5, that would really cut down the number of Select Executives, so a lot who only qualified for Plus get bumped up, which flows through to Selects becoming Plus and non-elites getting Select.

Wouldn't surprise me if the effective Executive requirement (for TQPs earned last year, it will probably be higher if we're seeing a return to office in Manhattan) was 14-15k, Plus was 8-9k, and Select was 4k.

I also received this email, although I qualified under the 6-trip select challenge in September of 2023 and thought that would carry through all of 2024. I probably ended the year with ~4,000 qualifying points. Either way, I appear to be set through all of next year.

Of course it matters. The NEC/Acela is their vastly most profitable operation, and also their most competitive vs airline travel.

I went back and checked... My 7k TQP was good for Select Plus.