Originally Posted by
sedonanative
Thanks so much.
Are you seriously allowed two persons for a bedroom on the same itinerary? I could travel with another person to San Francisco from NYP (3 zones) for 50,000 miles? This seems incredible to me. The website you gave uses the term "zone" and "region" but they dont look interchangeable. Is it three zones to San francisco?
Why is it then 30K for the OP to travel to FL, which looks to be within the eastern Region?
I've been semi curious about a long distance train ride but its so time consuming AND expensive. Since I can cut the expense part of it, I will seriously consider doing this.
Yes, 50,000 points covers two people in a bedroom from SF to NY. You can even get tickets for two people in a roomette redemption for 35K. Remember this is a one way so it would be double for a RT. You are right that this is incredible. A single round trip domestic flight with CO can get enough miles/points to redeem for free Amtrak travel.
The zone and region thing is kind of screwy on the website. The main thing to remember is there is the Northeast zone that is independent and then everything else follows the 1,2,3 zone rewards.
The reason why it is 30K for the OP to go to Florida is because he is riding the Auto Train. It takes 20K for the bedroom and then another 10K for his car.