2006 Philly-to-NYC Commuting Options and Cost Saving Ideas

I'm still not sure on my plan of attack to keep my Phi-NYC commuting costs to a minimum in 2006 and forward. I know I will never buy a monthly pass again. I am currently an Amtrak Guest Rewards member as this does offer excellent cost savings. But being an AGR member you realize cost savings over time as points add up, I can't realize cost savings every month via AGR. The new Amtrak pricing is now in full effect, so that's $1,008 for the monthly pass and I believe ~$450 for a 10 trip ticket good for 45 days.

So I need a month-to-month plan now. I know on average I take a little over 20 one way trips between Phi and NYC per month (let's call it 22/mo), so that's my starting point. I plan on doing the following and seeing how things work over the coming months:

1. Buy 10 trip tickets only
2. Supplement legs with AGR tickets where I can
3. Pursue other options where I can

Let's talk about option 3, some other options are:

• Take NJ Transit (cheaper but basically twice as long)
  
• Buy discounted Amtrak tickets where I can (see this Frommer's story on discount codes to enter when buying tickets via amtrak.com "Amtrak Forecast: Codes Continue Into Spring")
• Take a Chinatown bus. See "GOTOBUS.COM ADDS LINE RUN BUS SERVICE BETWEEN MIDTOWN MANHATTAN AND PHILADELPHIA" (and their site directly http://www.gotobus.com/philadelphia/). Also a story here in the Daily Pennsylvanian: New bus line to NYC hopes to compete with mainstays.

I prefer to take Amtrak whenever I can; it's just the most convenient and quickest. But I don't know if I can keep this in my ideal monthly budget of $600 or less. NJ Transit is long, maybe I can do this on the leg home a couple times a month. I've never done the Chinatown bus, I may have to just this once to see how it is, it certainly is cheap. The Frommer's link will help get discounts on Amtrak trains but they are subject to change and the discounts don't go deep enough to make my $600/mo figure. So I have options, and I'm looking for more, I just need to find the most optimal case and hope it's inline with my budget.