Cheapest points run

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benjibear

benjibear

Conductor
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
1,078
I was looking what it would take me to get to select plus if I got no other points. So for 10,000 points, I would need 100 short trips. On the keystone, the cheapest trip AAA discount is $5.85. This is between any two stations but only one point can be either HAR of LNC (HAR to LNC is $7.20).

So to make 100 trips it would be $585.

To make the 100 trips, you can do 4 a day so it would take you 25 days. That would take two days a month with one month being 3.

Of course select would be half of this.

Now I get other points and am thinking of a couple of trips next year (one will hopefully be a reward trip) but I am trying to think if I should try going for the points.

Any other way I can get TQP?
 
I live in New York City and wish the same the cheapest is NYP-YNY for $16 and you could nurse that on a multi-city trip for $18 and 200 points by taking the next train to Croton-Harmon, it's something I would never do unless I realized I was that short on TQP points and didn't have time to do a more substantial trip, or spend a day on the bus/NJ Transit to Philly for a Keystone points run. The Springfield Shuttle is $4 New Haven to Wallingford and I once headed up there for a points run and some station photo essays during triple points week.

I can think of a couple in terms of cheapest points run:

$2.50 St. Louis to Alton, IL (probably the most classic) --> I've done this was on a Lincoln Service train (heading to St. Louis) over an hour late and decided to stop off in Alton to get some lunch, an extra 100 points and another station photographed.

$2.50 Chicago to Summit --> $2.50 (don't hear about people on this trip too often, it only works from Chicago to Summit, not to Chicago, otherwise its discharge only Summit to Chicago).

In the East:

You could get 400 points one-way over a little over five hours with lots of hour layoversand the right schedule on a multi-city trip for $6.50 (many trains skip Ardmore) on a Keystone service train PHL-Ardmore-Paoli-Exton-Downington. I did something similar 300 points except for Ardmore and another 100 coming back, 400 for $13.00 (well I actually spend $16 since it was a Friday).

My main way of getting extra points is working multi-city trips which is why my website has so many small town stations, on my last trip coming back from Port Henry I had a POH-YNY-NYP-NWK-PHL trip that I nursed over four days, the middle to days I had stuff I needed to do but had a great day railfanning in Philly two days after my trip back from Port Henry on the Adirondack, plus an extra 200 points free of charge since you can add a NEC trip to PHL on an Adirondack multi-city trip, usually for free and sometimes it makes the trip cheeper.

$2.50 per a single segment and $6.50 for a segment that can easily be nursed into 400 points (in theory) if you have time for stopovers (remember 400 is the maximum number of segments per day) is the cheapest I've found, anyone know of anything cheeper?
 
Folks in the Northeast where there are 5,000 trains a day :) have the advantage on stacking up fast cheap Points. Now I can actually do Norman to Purcell for $5 each way and that entails a whooping 17 minutes of train time, not enough to even warm a seat. If I preposition a car in Purcell I could go down in the morning, drive back home, drive back that evening, leave the car parked there, return home on the Heartland Flyer and do it again the next day! Usually when I do my Points runs I head all the way to FTW and make a lunch run out of it with "breakfast" and "supper" on the train.
 
Milwaukee to Milwaukee Airport is my point runs... $6.75 with NARP discount.

Not as good as the $2.50 deals, but also not as bad as pricing in the NEC.

I find I travel enough to make S+ without having to do too many "point runs" anymore.

My exception is the couple of weeks of triple points... then it's atleast 1 roundtrip MKE-MKA airport every day... I mean c'mon... $14 for 700 points... who can beat that??
 
WBG-NFK is blasted close at $17 on a two-week advance purchase, since WBG-NPN and NPN-NFK post separately and the Thruway isn't a 7000-series. That should be 200 points, or effectively $8.50 per leg. Also, with WBG-NPN posting at $14, NPN-NFK Thruway is technically $3 for 100 points.

Put another way, I spend as much burning gas to get to NFK as I do on the resulting leg.
 
Hi,

Although it is not the cheapest here in the NorthEast it is a beautiful ride on the Downeaster. $20 BON - POR and $20 back for 200 points. I just did it the other day to make up the difference to get to Select Status. Enjoyed the ride, the view, Portland ME, and the Shipyard brew was delicious. I know BOS-PVD is only $11 on the regional and a much quicker trip too for 100 TQPs.

BOS-T-Time
 
The cheapest trip in NJ by Amtrak AFAICT is $20 with advanced planning. With no advanced planning is more like $28, in general about 3x NJT in low bucket and 4x with no advanced purchase.... all ballpark. So at least in some parts of the Northeast, trains are plentiful, but not cheap by a long shot. In terms of per mile charge, LD trains have the Northeast by quite a bit. Afterall that is one way in which the NEC breaks even by some calculation while the rest of the system does not.
 
SubwayNut said:
$2.50 Chicago to Summit --> $2.50 (don't hear about people on this trip too often, it only works from Chicago to Summit, not to Chicago, otherwise its discharge only Summit to Chicago).

In the East:

You could get 400 points one-way over a little over five hours with lots of hour layoversand the right schedule on a multi-city trip for $6.50 (many trains skip Ardmore) on a Keystone service train PHL-Ardmore-Paoli-Exton-Downington. I did something similar 300 points except for Ardmore and another 100 coming back, 400 for $13.00 (well I actually spend $16 since it was a Friday).
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I looked into the Summit run, the Metra schedule really doesn't supplement all that much, the station is a bus shelter in a small park in a residential neighborhood.

Multicity on Keystone is genius. Could probably do both an east and westbound multicity and just shuffle around the burbs possibly with the help of SEPTA.
 
The San Joaquin also has extremely good deals, and is often up on Rail Sale. Great way to take lunch in Wasco or Corcoran on the way to somewhere else. Or a quick ride on Capitol Corridor in the East Bay, perhaps on the weekend with the 50% off advance purchase fare.
 
RGH-CYN CYN-DNC and GRO-HPT are all $5.50 so with discount $4.95. You can do RGH-CYN stay on for CYN-DNC then reverse. There are three RT per day from Raleigh to Durham. (you can also do RGH-CYN on the Star but base fare usually $7)
 
rtabern said:
Milwaukee to Milwaukee Airport is my point runs... $6.75 with NARP discount.

Not as good as the $2.50 deals, but also not as bad as pricing in the NEC.

I find I travel enough to make S+ without having to do too many "point runs" anymore.

My exception is the couple of weeks of triple points... then it's atleast 1 roundtrip MKE-MKA airport every day... I mean c'mon... $14 for 700 points... who can beat that??
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$8.07 Airport to Sturtevant. (Senior) You can park on Grange for free and walk the few blocks to the station. Not sure what you do for Downtown to Airport, but I'd be interested. I'm not sure what the machine charged me for my ticket using the AGR card and I didn't play with it to see if I could enter Senior and AGR? AAA card shows as an option, but the price never changed?

Anyway, if your $14 is with parking, then the $16.14 is close? Your run, Senior is $6.37.

For someone who doesn't memorize all the schedules, the Hiawatha runs seven times a day, I wouldn't want to take the two early or two late trains, they can be very busy. But that means, I could get in six trips a day for about $50?

Not sure I'll ever have enough points for Select Plus unless I could find a job to commute to. That would make the accumulation enjoyable.
 
The number #2 rule of points runs is you can only get the 100 point minimum four times on a calendar day, so you can just do up to two points runs per day.

One day this year when I was whistle stopping my way through California for my website (I've visited every station on the San Joaquin!) I did five segments including the San Joaquin Bus: MCD-MDR-FNO-HNF-BFD-LAX, the BFD-LAX segment appears on my AGR statement but with points earned blank. Clicking on it gives an error message "Not eligible for points" since I had four previous segments and that was the last one to post.
 
SubwayNut said:
The number #2 rule of points runs is you can only get the 100 point minimum four times on a calendar day, so you can just do up to two points runs per day.

One day this year when I was whistle stopping my way through California for my website (I've visited every station on the San Joaquin!) I did five segments including the San Joaquin Bus: MCD-MDR-FNO-HNF-BFD-LAX, the BFD-LAX segment appears on my AGR statement but with points earned blank. Clicking on it gives an error message "Not eligible for points" since I had four previous segments and that was the last one to post.
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Hadn't even thought of that. Someone could book a trip one station to another, segment at a time and gain a huge amount of points. I suppose someone from AGR figured that out. It never came to mind. :unsure:

I still won't take 50 rides in a year.
 
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You also can only earn one entry of points per train number and date (ovnight trains post on the day they leave there departure city, not actually the day you board) to milk the 400 points out of a trip you need to make actual stopovers. If you have two tickets for different segments of the same train the second segment will just vanish and never appear. At least the time I skipped a layover I was thinking about on the Surfliner and handed over the tickets for two unreserved segments, only one posted.
 
PPorro said:
SubwayNut said:
The number #2 rule of points runs is you can only get the 100 point minimum four times on a calendar day, so you can just do up to two points runs per day.

One day this year when I was whistle stopping my way through California for my website (I've visited every station on the San Joaquin!) I did five segments including the San Joaquin Bus: MCD-MDR-FNO-HNF-BFD-LAX, the BFD-LAX segment appears on my AGR statement but with points earned blank. Clicking on it gives an error message "Not eligible for points" since I had four previous segments and that was the last one to post.
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Hadn't even thought of that. Someone could book a trip one station to another, segment at a time and gain a huge amount of points. I suppose someone from AGR figured that out. It never came to mind. :unsure:
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Several people figured it out and were doing just that, buying 5 or 6 tickets to go from for example Philadelphia to Harrisburg; and there are other places where it was happening too. AGR, if they were even initially aware of it, seemed to accept that abuse. Then several people started buying 3, 4, or even 5 tickets for the same train with the same origin and destination and just handing them in.

The house of cards came tumbling down when someone from Flyertalk purchased something like 100 tickets for the same train figuring that he'd get Select Plus Status with just 1 ride. He managed to even talk the conductor into accepting that many tickets, even though he was only going like 1 or maybe 2 stops out from Philly. Needless to say, AGR wasn't exactly pleased with that development and the rules that we now have were implemented to prevent that type of abuse from ever occurring again. Namely a max of 4 trips per day and only 1 ticket per train number earns points.

Don't know if the offender's account was closed or suspended, but I do know that they took away the points he'd initially earned.
 
The last Double Points Promo this Fall Allowed OnlyTwo Segments a Day (or One R.T.)to Earn Points, here's hoping the Next One goes back to the Four a day! :unsure:

My Point Runs are AUS-TAY on the Eagles, it's $12.74 RT Senior for 400 TQP Points,Plus Bonus and I get to eat the Best Bar-B-Q in the Country and hang out in a really Great Small Town Library for a Few Hours waiting on the Eagle to Return to River City! ;)
 
There are a few points runs you could do with the Surfliner, but nothing spectacular. The shortest trip I usually take is SAN-SOL, which coasts $12 each way - I usually take the Coaster one direction and Amtrak the other. SOL-OSD is a bit cheaper at $10, and there are a few up in Orange County that are even cheaper ($8.50 for ANA-FUL, and $6.50 for ANA-OGE, though the latter only works once a day). Most of my short trips aren't points-run oriented, though - it just happens to be the fastest way to get back to SAN when going to North County on transit (and the Coaster is limited on weekends/nights).

I might have to try a multi-city ticket sometime if I've got a real urge to get points (ie if I'm real close to Select/Select Plus, or if its double/triple points). Could do SAN-SOL-OSD-SOL-SAN for $34 , which would get 400 points. Though this really only works where there are frequent trains (like the NEC, California corridors, or the Hiawatha). Bus connections also work great for getting points - I remember getting 300pts (triple points week) for an ARB-TOL thruway..
 
jimhudson said:
The last Double Points Promo this Fall Allowed OnlyTwo Segments a Day (or One R.T.)to Earn Points, here's hoping the Next One goes back to the Four a day! :unsure:

My Point Runs are AUS-TAY on the Eagles, it's $12.74 RT Senior for 400 TQP Points,Plus Bonus and I get to eat the Best Bar-B-Q in the Country and hang out in a really Great Small Town Library for a Few Hours waiting on the Eagle to Return to River City! ;)
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Though it's crappy in terms of points-per-dollar, my NPN-RVM dinner trip did wonders this year: BC ran just over $35 (I think it was $38 each way; it would've been $35 WBG-RVM, but I didn't want to have to drive home from WBG that night), so I managed an out-and-back at dinner and managed to get a friend into AGR, burn a companion coupon, and get him a couple hundred points (and myself an additional 500 for the trouble). I think I managed to net 1000 points for $76 or so (he got 700 for $28 for the BC charge, I think), and I got not only a good Cuban dinner, but a new convert to my recreational train riding.
 
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Just throwing on an additional note, but there's some real use-and-abuse room on the Regionals in VA. WAS-RVR is $33 much of the time. As long as you stick to Regionals, WAS-FBG-RVR is also $33. As is WAS-ALX-FBG-RVR. Granted, my schedule today doesn't allow the third of those, but I am planning a nice, recreational trip on the Star up to DC for lunch, followed by meeting a friend for dinner in Fredericksburg.
 
$28.00 CHI>LAG / LAG>CHI / CHI>HMI / HMI>CHI Depart 7:35a Arrive 3:58p

$28.00 EMY>BKY / BKY>EMY / EMY>BKY / BKY>EMY Depart 5:40a Arrive 7:08a <-Most time efficient

$17.00 LAX>GDL / GLD>BUR / BUR>GLD / GLD>LAX Depart 7:35a Arrive 4:55p

Is anyone doing these just for fun to earn TQPs? I think I'll start doing this since I work from home/my computer and have a wireless aircard where I can be productive on these trips.
 

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