I first got the notion of taking this trip late last summer. Back then I envisioned it as a simple little jaunt down to Southern California for an Airline Collectibles convention. It would be a nice break from our long cold winter up here in Alaska’s Interior. I figured I’d fly from Fairbanks down to LAX on Friday, hit the convention on Saturday, then rent a car and spend two or three days up the coast or out in the desert enjoying some of that warm southern California sunshine before returning home to chilly Alaska.

That simple plan began to unravel soon after I started to actually plan this trip. What was I thinking? No way could I just fly down to California for the weekend, especially on an award ticket. I worked hard for those award miles and if I’m going to get out of Alaska in the dead of winter, I might as well get as much out of the trip as I reasonably can. Besides, I didn’t have any pressing need to be back home right away so why not have a little fun?

I’ve got an active imagination that’s steeped in years of practical experience, so for the most part if I think of it, I can usually figure out a way to make it happen. And because I love the planning involved in figuring out how to get somewhere every bit as much as I enjoy actually being there, I’m happy to spend hours checking out all the various options, fares and times involved.

So – I got to thinking… What if I flew into Las Vegas, rented a car and then drove out to LA and back? No wait – maybe I could fly into Oakland and then catch the Coast Starlight down to LA. Or I could book a one way award from Fairbanks into San Antonio, visit friends there and then catch the Sunset Limited back to LA. Then again, as long as I’m down below the 49th parallel, maybe I should pick up a few extra miles along the way. I could use my award mileage to fly from Fairbanks to somewhere distant like Philadelphia and then start earning my 2013 status with a good fare from there back out to LA. Or I could fly into LA, do the convention and then fly somewhere else afterwards. The options were myriad… and many a late night hour was spent cogitating over the possibilities…



Where my trips are born

Finally, I decided to fly straight down to LA and attend the convention first. Whatever else I might do would have to wait until after that. I gave some thought to renting a car and amongst other things, checking out some of the sites where the show Sons of Anarchy is filmed in the hills outside of Burbank. If the weather was good, I could then drive north to Ojai and head up into the Sespe for a day or two. Then I could return the car to LA and catch a scenic ride on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight up to the Bay Area before flying home from one of the three airports serving that region.

That plan fell apart when I came across this great fare on Alaska from LA up to Billings, Montana for just $94.00. I hadn’t had a proper visit to Montana for a good long while – nearly eight years, I reckon – and since Billings was just 140 miles and a two hour bus ride away from Bozeman, it’d give me a good opportunity to visit with a couple friends and fellow Denali Drivers who’d recently moved to Bozeman from New Hampshire. Sold!

I figured a couple of days in Bozeman ought to do it before heading back home to Fairbanks. I vaguely remember logging on to the alaskaair.com website with intent to book my return home but then it all gets hazy. Now, seven weeks later as I sit here trying to come up with a good introduction to this trip report, I still have no real recollection of how I stumbled across that $98.00 fare from Bozeman down to Phoenix. It was available on a late afternoon departure out of Bozeman, connecting in Seattle to a 7:00pm nonstop down to Phoenix. As an elite level flyer residing at the very highest echelons of Alaska’s Mileage Plan, I also knew there was an excellent chance that I would be sat in the First Class cabin on the two and a half hour flight down to Phoenix. Dinner would be served enroute… Hmm…

One of the things that makes trip planning such an enjoyable pursuit for me is that I’ve always been able to visualize myself doing whatever it is that I’m considering doing. In this case I could clearly see myself comfortably reclined in the First Class cabin of Alaska’s southbound 737 enjoying a double Jack Daniels on the rocks whilst awaiting a nice Beef Wellington dinner. It was such an alluring visage that all resistance to the more responsible decision to head home collapsed like a cheap umbrella in a windstorm. Soon I was the recipient of yet another six digit record locator to add to my growing collection.

An unintended but nonetheless very real consequence of having booked those flights down to Phoenix was that I had now picked up momentum. Much like a full blown alcoholic after two or three drinks, I was more receptive than ever to the idea of following my impulses wherever they might take me. Be that as it may, I don’t have unlimited cash reserves and a part of me still recognized that the responsible thing to do would have been to call it a nice trip right there and make my way back home. After all, as presently booked this trip covered only five days so far.

Day 1: Fly from Fairbanks to Los Angeles
Day 2: Attend the convention, and then fly from Los Angeles to Billings that afternoon
Day 3: Bus from Billings to Bozeman
Day 4: Bozeman
Day 5: Fly from Bozeman to Phoenix

And you know, after a day or two in Arizona I might well have succeeded in booking a return straight home to Alaska were it not for my desire to ride a train at some point during this trip. Logging on to Amtrak’s website, I planned on booking a seat aboard the Southwest Chief from Flagstaff to LA. From there I could get an award ticket home from any number of southern California airports. Then again, maybe I could use 1500 of my Amtrak Guest Rewards points toward a discounted trip on the San Joaquin from LA up to Sacramento or I could spend $50.00 for the more scenic ride aboard the Coast Starlight from LA up to San Jose or Oakland.

A check of my AGR account showed a total of 14180 points, just shy of the 15000 needed to book a one zone roomette award. Hmm… I didn’t know I was that close! A banner advertised extra points being sold along with a 30% bonus. I don’t recall what 1000 miles was being sold for, mainly because I was so impressed by the price tag on the maximum of 10000 points plus 3000 bonus points offer: $275.00! Holy Guacamole – 13000 miles is almost a free First Class sleeper ticket in its own right, and it was going for only $275! I entered my credit card number, pushed the appropriate buttons and moments later had 27180 points in my Amtrak account.

At that point, any pretense of this being a week-long trip vanished.

Amtrak award travel divides the US into three zones – Western, Central and Eastern. Because of the limited number of passenger trains still operating in the U.S., train travel – even within one zone - can occasionally involve some rather circuitous routings. This worked perfectly for me because what I was really looking for was a nice long train ride rather than a desire to get any place in particular. My only consideration in picking an origin and destination was to get as long a train ride as I possibly could.

Consulting Amtrak’s system route map, it appeared that Denver to Havre, Montana would deliver a nice combination of scenery and distance travelled. A quick consult of the schedules indicated that I could depart Denver aboard the California Zephyr, traveling 1320 miles west through Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Utah and Nevada’s high desert and California’s Sierra Nevada mountains to Sacramento. From there I’d board the Coast Starlight for the overnight journey to Portland, Oregon. After a brief layover in the City of Roses, I’d board the Empire Builder for the 890 mile journey up the Columbia River gorge and across Montana’s Glacier National Park to Havre. It all added up to three days and 2,850 miles of First Class rail travel through some of America’s most beautiful landscapes, all seen from the comfort of my own private roomette, the lounge car or the dining car where all meals would be included in the fare. That sounded mighty fine to me. After confirming with Amtrak that this routing was allowable and available, I booked an airline ticket from Phoenix to Denver (only $53.00 one way on United) and then called Amtrak to confirm my rail journey.

If I were to describe the multiple permutations that this trip has undergone since then - not to mention the reasoning behind those changes - this introduction would stretch into four or five pages. It’s already longer than many trip reports right now and I suspect those of you who are still with me would much rather read about the actual trip, which has now morphed into a three and a half week, 23000 mile extravaganza involving twenty-seven flights and seven long distance train rides through every state in the West and even a few in the Midwest. Along the way I’ll have plenty of occasions to visit with friends and family and oh, yeah, I get to go to an airline collectibles convention, too.



My Weekend Trip To California

Though this trip involves no international travel, I’m as excited about it as any I’ve ever taken. So – if this sounds like a journey you think you’d like to read more about, go find yourself a comfortable chair and don’t forget to bring along a bottle of your favorite libation as well as a plate of something tasty to nibble on. It’s gonna be a long ride. Ready? Alright then, let’s head on out to the airport –