Please tell me if I am I crazy for wanting to do this or if it is even practical?

In November I have to travel WAS-NRO for a quick family trip. This requires a regional train which usually costs about $160 in coach after discounts. The $160 fare results in a 320 or so AGR points at 2 points per $1. Now were I to book a multi segment ticket on the same train number I would be able to get a lot more points at AGR gives at least 50 points per segment. I would get about 600-700 points for the round trip. Instead of booking WAS-NRO I would book WAS-BAL-WIL-PHL-TRE-NYC-NRO or some combination all on the same train number. Would I be able to get all of my boarding passes in Washington from the machine? Would the conductor collect all of the passes at once?

Another way of doing it would be to use every station on the route, however this would be more stops then the website will allow. If I were to book one ticket WAS-PHL with all intermediate stops and one PHL-NRO with all intermediate stops would I have to pick up my PHL-NRO boarding passes in PHL?

If anyone has any thoughts, ideas or experiences with this please do let me know. I spoke with AGR CS and they told me that it would be legal.

Thanks,
GWU

Yes, what you describe will work. If you use the website to book your tickets, you're limited to four segments. You will receive a minimum of 100 pts for each segment, and you can give all the tickets to the conductor. Since this is still one reservation, you'll get all your tickets at once, whether you visit the Quik-Trak machine or have them mailed to you.

However, while this works for me on the unreserved Capitol Corridor trains in California (where there is generally only one "fare bucket"), breaking up an itinerary into separate segements may subject you to the highest "fare bucket" on other trains.

If it works, you could get over 800 AGR points for your r/t, BUT because of the higher fares for each segment - it will cost you about 75% more! (About $140 o/w vs about $80 o/w.)

Actually I just priced out WAS-NRO v. WAS-BAL-PHL-NYC-NRO both on the same day on train 136 and both spit out a price, without any discounts, of $104.

Using the multi-city options seems to work normally, but trying to use that option for multi-segment ticketing on Acela does not, at least with this example:

My selections:

first segment
PHL-NYP 29OCT #2250
and second segment
NYP-BOS 29OCT #2250

The system returns
PHL-NYP 29OCT #2250
NYP-BOS 29OCT #164 (Regional)

with no explanation why my choice was changed.

And the punch line: the quoted full adult fare is $160 (Acela all the way).

Oh well.

Added later:
Breaking the #2250 Acela trip at NYP or NWK does not work. But breaking it at MET and STM does. Three segments: one (STM-BOS) a 500 point select city pair. All points doubled with the fall promotion.

I broke a trip between San Jose and Sacramento at Oakland; due to vagueries in the cost structure, the fare is the same as a single trip straight through. I received the minimum for each segment, as well a bonus for a promotion that was running at the time (which I otherwise would not have received).

I've done a multi-segment trip going from NYC - Hartford, CT (I think I did NYC-Stamford-New Haven-Hartford) on a regional train, but the conductor didn't seem very happy when I handed him my tickets. Dunno if he was just having a bad day, or if there was some extra work invovled on his end to process the extra tickets.

How does one go about booking a multi-segment trip?

Do you just book each segment separately, or just one trip (NYP-HFD)? If only one trip, how do you get more than the 100 point minimum? If booked separately, the price comes up on Amtrak.com being MUCH higher!

On the Amtrak homepage, click on "Multi-City Trip" in the "Fare Finder" box. Then input up to four segments for your trip from NYP to HFD, and price the itinerary. When you ticket the itinerary, each segment will have its own coupon, and each coupon will give you at least the Amtrak minimum of 100 AGR points per coupon.

I never noticed that link before.

Should the price be the same as a direct (one) ticket? In an attempt to try the link, I priced KIN-OSB and KIN-WLY-NLC-OSB. For the same train and day, with a AAA discount, I got fares of $11.70 for the one ticket and $16.20 for the multi-segment ticket!

Was it the same train and date for each segment of the multi-segment ticket? As noted above, sometimes, due to a glitch in Amtrak's system, even if you request the same train on all segments, the computer will spit out different trains, and price the ticket accordingly. If one of those trains has different seat availability than the others, you might end up with a higher fare than if you were able to book all segments on the same train. A multi-segment ticket on a single train should price the same as a single-segment ticket with the same starting and ending cities.

All segments were for the same train (#93) on the same day (11/9), both with a AAA discount. I received a multi-segment fare different than a single ticket.

Currently, the single ticket fare, with AAA discount, is pricing at $16.20, the same as the multi-ticket fare that you were quoted. There are other trains on the route that have lower-priced seats available.

Usually my points post fairly quickly when I do a regular (not multi-city) trip. However, It's been over 2 weeks since I made a multi-city trip (Phl-Balt-BWI-Wash) roundtrip and my 600 points haven't posted. Anyone else having this problem?

I recently did a couple of multi-segment trips. Both RT have posted after the usual lag time of 1-2 weeks.