Originally Posted by
AlanB
I'm honestly not sure what will happen. The general rule is if you can't plan the trip using Amtrak's website as a paid trip, then you can't get an AGR award for that routing either. In this case you can't book such a trip in one shot, one has to use the multi-city option.
On the other hand, there are technically no rules that would prevent such an award and you aren't trying to take advantage of the program and prolong your trip.
Best advice, call and ask. If you don't like the answer, wait an hour or two and try again. I'd suggest trying three or four times before giving up, assuming that you don't get the answer you want.
.....And now the conclusion.
It worked just as I was hoping it would. I told her I wanted to begin in Tomah and travel to Austin. I asked how many zones that was and she said ONE. I also told her I wanted the most direct route---since I know they strongly encourage or perhaps require their agents to book that route.....unfortunate when having to take an 11hour bus ride from Pasco, WA instead of the train.
Of course, the most direct route is to overnight in Chicago. I asked her if there were any other options and she said going to Chicago and overnighting wa the only way to get to Austin.
Long story short, I was able to book the entire trip under a single reward with both overnights in Chicago. The round trip was a total of 40,000 points.