jackal

Well, I'll give you that, too, considering that flight is almost entirely over water!

You bring up very valid points. Amtrak can be a vacation in and of itself (in fact, if I ever do get around to doing the nationwide rail pass, I plan on spending the 30 days doing nothing but criss-crossing the country to cover every line possible--I can't waste any time spending time in cities! I can always do that later...)

Still, a Superliner bedroom might be nicer and offer better scenery than a first-class lie-flat suite on Qantas, but I'm still drawn to the forbidden fruit of that $17,000 value... Then again, the railfan in me (isn't there one in all of us?) is what's making me stick around here on this forum and try to help spread the joy of train travel--and why I take Amtrak when I can even though I won't ever earn enough AGR points to replace my airline miles.

AlanB

Just as a PS. once I've taken my trip this July where I've used another 20,000 points included in my earlier totals, I'll have covered a little over 15,000 miles using my points; moved 6 people not counting myself and a car; and I've had 1 family room, 1 bedroom, 10 roomettes, and 7 business class seats to accomodate all those people including me. I'm not even going to try to count all the free meals.

AlanB

And as yet another PS, if one picks dates during the summer months, one gets more bang for the buck as it were. For example to go from NY to San Fran departing on July 13th, it would cost you almost $2,000 in a bedroom. Wait another two months to price it and I'll bet that it will be even higher.

And depending on just where one lives, if you get more creative, you can better the margin even more. For example at trip from Atlanta to San Fran, departing July 12th, is a two zone award at 30,000 for a bedroom. Booked through Amtrak's site right now, that trip would cost you $2,319 for a bedroom the whole way. And you'd be crossing 3 zones, since they'll route you from ATL to WAS to CHI to EMY. That would greatly increase the bang for the buck as it were, while upping the number of nights and meals.

the_traveler

That is exactly why I chose to travel BHM-PDX! I can get 3+ zones, an extra night, some extra meals - and still save 15,000 points!

wallaby

Riiiight, best of luck getting that QF first-class seat. One of the notoriously almost-impossible-to-get awards.

AlanB

That highlights one of the best features of AGR, no capacity controls. And except for a few blackout periods around holidays, if the room you want or the seat you want is available, then it is yours. Even if it is the last room or seat on that train that day.

And if one has status, one can even overcome the blackout periods, although it will cost you extra points to do so.

jackal

Well, I have a few backups: Cathay Pacific and British Airways (the "wrong" way around the world--I choose to look at it as getting to experience 30 hours of first class...). And if I can plan ahead and call at 12:00:01 a.m. 330 days in advance, I'm hoping I can get it, eventually...

mbflyflyaway

Don't forget that Diners Club is also a transfer option to AGR. I wanted to take my family (wife plus child who is <2 y.o.) from DEN to upstate NY this summer but had absolutely no Amtrak points (hard to earn living in Denver). I noticed a promo shortly before it expired giving a 50% bonus on Diners Club points when transferred to Midwest Express Airlines. Again, never even flown them let alone having an account. So I opened one up, transferred the 20K points into 30K miles, which I then transferred into 30K AGR points. I had orphaned miles in both my and my wife's CO accounts which we stealthily transferred to my AGR account bringing my total to 70K AGR points. We decided we wanted to take a detour on our return trip and go from upstate NY to Montana (where the in-laws live), so we would have to book the more expensive 3-zone award (bedroom, not roomette). So after another $10K in spending on my Diners and a quick transfer, I had my 80K AGR points. A helluva deal if you ask me. Our trip is planned for this June, tickets are booked and in hand. I don't really care what the true point value is of my tickets or my transfers or whatever....we will just thoroughly enjoy our 3 days enroute to NY and 3 days back through some beautiful country up North. Looking forward to it!

-Mike

Shanghai

Sounds like a lovely trip. I hope you and your family enjoy it.
Maybe the snow upstate will be melted by June!!

ClimbGuy

So if i book an ATL to San Diego and "miss" the Crescent "ATL-WAS" and just pick it up in WAS or somewhere along the Capitol Limited will i run into any trouble?

the_traveler

I'm not sure, but personally, I wouldn't try! Just like the airlines, if you miss a segent, they may cancel your res from that point on.

So unless it was the last segment (say ATL-WAS-CHI-LAX-CHI-WAS-ATL, where you "miss" the WAS-ATL segment), it wouldn't matter if your future res get cancelled. However, if it was the first segment (where the future res are cancelled), it would matter.

Even if you lived on the east coast (say NYP or BOS) and got a separate award from WAS, and a separate award from ATL-SAN, it may be possible to "miss" the WAS-ATL segment and just get on the WAS-BOS train -because even if they cancel the remaining portion of the ATL-SAN-ATL award, that was the last segment! But I'd still hesitate to try it!

ClimbGuy

wait come to think of it does amtrak 'know' you missed the first segment since it takes a couple days for the tickets to post? Or if you had a sleeper would they radio it in to say you weren't there.

AlanB

Actually I'd be more worried that once AGR sees that the ticket goes unused, that they would figure that you've pulled a fast one, and would then charge you for a three zone award.

And having taken more than one free trip I can tell you that the award tickets do still show up on your account when used. They get scanned just like regular tickets and they will post to your account, albeit with zero points earned.

Whatever you do, don't ever plan to miss your boarding station and board the same train further up the line. That definately could get you into trouble, as once the crew sees that you didn't board, they may resell your room to someone as an onboard upgrade. And doing that would inform headquarters, since the conductors have to call into space control & allocation, in order to get the amount that they need to charge for the upgrade.

kspeed55

What about a coach seat? I was interested in a weekly special one time and wanted to get on farther “up” the line. I called Amtrak twice about this (to be sure) and got two different answers. One yes and one no. Consequently I paid the full fare.

AlanB

Well technically it really shouldn't matter, but I guess that one needs to define "further up the line." If you're talking about two or three stations up the line, other than a strange look you probably wouldn't have any trouble. If you plan to board 3 states away from the origination point on a ticket, you might find that a conductor would give you a hassle.

Most probably won't and frankly it really shouldn't matter to the conductor, since you technically paid for more distance than you traveled. And many conductors never look past the destination point on the ticket and could care less about the fact that you got on late. In fact a friend of mine just told me a story yesterday while I was on an Acela, about a trip he had taken where a lady boarded in ABQ and for some reason no one ever collected her ticket until she reached Kansas City. And then it was only because a conductor came looking for tickets from those who had just boarded and she decided to be honest and handed over her ticket.

Now of course management might argue with this, since they may have a reason for charging a premium at that up line station and you're circumventing that. But again, most conductors would not bat an eyelash at it. And I'm not sure just what they can do about it, since it is still a valid ticket. Just tell them some story about plans changing at the last minute and no time to rebook.