jackal

Keep in mind that $193 is a one-way coach ticket. As mentioned above, coach on Amtrak is quite comfortable--it's actually got more room than most domestic airlines' first class seats--but it's still a seat. If you're of the type that needs to lie down to fall asleep and be comfortable, you'll find a roomette a much better environment. (Bought with real dollars instead of points, a roomette is much more than $193.)

Oh, boy do we have the deal for you!!! [/QUOTE]

I almost posted this in my first response above, but I didn't want to give you information overload. Besides, you seemed fixated on New York.

I see that darben touched on this above, but let me try to explain this a bit clearer for you. You can roll your cross-country trip into a trip to New Orleans, get more time and mileage on the train, and actually pay FEWER points!

If you attempt to book an award from PDX to NOL (New Orleans), Amtrak Guest Rewards will probably route you through Chicago and then straight south to NOL on the City Of New Orleans. HOWEVER--due to the idiosyncrasies of the Amtrak Guest Rewards booking engine, if you attempt to book an award from PDX to SDL (Slidell, Louisiana--one stop EAST of NOL on the Crescent), one of the options given to you will be to route through Washington, DC (sample routing: PDX-SPK [Spokane]-CHI [Chicago]-WAS [DC]-SDL)--giving you in effect a cross-country trip with an extra leg to the south tacked on.

But it gets even better! AGR determines the number of points needed for your award strictly by your origin and destination cities. It completely ignores the route you take. In other words, if your origin is in the western zone (PDX) and your destination is in the central zone (SDL), it will only charge you for a two-zone award, even though you are crossing into (and back out of) the third (eastern) zone during your journey!

Thus, a roomette award from PDX to SDL can be had for 20,000 (instead of 35,000) points, even though the total distance traveled is longer!

Around here, we affectionately call this "the Slidell loophole."

(Because you have to book your award to SDL and not NOL, you'll need to purchase a separate ticket from SDL to NOL, which, as darben mentioned above, is usually around $14 for a coach seat. At SDL, you'll need to present that ticket to the conductor [make sure you pick it up from a Quik-Trak machine or ticket agent at another station before leaving or somewhere en-route], who may or may not make you move all of your bags back to coach for the short ride. )

ALTERNATIVELY--for 35,000 points (the same as the three-zone roomette award you were considering earlier), you could work the system in a different way as suggested by guv1976. Again, because AGR calculates the points needed strictly by the origin and destination zones, you can do some creative redemptions that allow for some interesting routings. Normally when booking from PDX to the east coast, you're given a small number of options: PDX-SPK-CHI-xxx (via the Empire Builder) or PDX-SAC-CHI-xxx (via the California Zephyr). While both of those trains have beautiful scenery and are worth taking, you can also "force" a redemption along a different route by doing two separate awards: one one-zone and one two-zone. For example, you could book PDX-ABQ (a one-zone award) and then ABQ-NYP (a two-zone award--ABQ is the border city). This would give you the chance to ride the Southwest Chief through the high desert--an option not normally available on PDX-CHI/eastward bookings. (For the first-time rider, though, I would suggest sticking with the Empire Builder or California Zephyr trains--the scenery is more interesting than along the Southwest Chief corridor.)

Hope this isn't too confusing--search these boards for "Slidell" and I'm sure you'll see lots more info!