# SAC-CHI w/points CHI-WAS w/$: workable?



## chris (Aug 9, 2017)

Amtrak novice here so be easy on me. Planning a cross-country trip, SAC-WAS via CHI, and have found the most optimum plan for me, considering my Guest Rewards points balance, is to book 2 separate legs. Sac - Chi on points and then Chi - Was with $. Just wondering how booking two separate legs would effect the second leg if the first one comes in too late to catch my second leg connection. Is it like airlines that would definitely take care of you if this was all booked on one ticket and a first leg delay caused you to miss the next flight, but if I tried to book such a trip with 2 separate bookings and the first one made me late for the second one, they could care less I missed my next flight and wouldn't do a thing to help since they were 2 entirely different bookings? Hope this is making sense. With Amtrak I can't see any other way to use points on part of a trip and cash on another part via one booking.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!


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## the_traveler (Aug 9, 2017)

Technically, when you book from point A to point B, your trip ends at point B - even if you have another from point B to point C. But you can and should call an agent and have both associated with each other. (If you call, the agent could book both for you.)


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## chris (Aug 9, 2017)

So I managed to work out a SAC-WAS online, no problem. But I can't get a EUG-SAC connection to come up for the entire route. I can get an Empire Builder route easy enough, but a big reason for this trip is the Zephyr route, so going north is not an option for me. I can easily bring up the overnight EUG-SAC leg that comes in 4 or 5 hours ahead of the Zephyr leg. But when I called to see if they could combine that leg with the rest of the trip they said the option wasn't coming up on their computers and couldn't combine them. She said the option was available on other dates but that there must be some sort of track problem or something on the particular date I was looking at. Which leads me to believe there is some sort of miscommunication here. If there was some sort of track problem, why am I seeing no such thing and can easily book this particular leg no problem? But not happening. She said only way for those dates was to book 2 separate tickets and pray your first leg doesn't come in too late. (The first leg that she said she couldn't see on her computer.) Great.

Any other ideas? Maybe a HUCA occasion?


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## chris (Aug 9, 2017)

O.k., so if it's not a published route, they can't guarantee anything with separate leg bookings, even if they manually "combine" the legs after the fact. Which leads me to wonder why bother manually "combining" them if it really doesn't help. A very nice rep did suggest that if you do happen to miss a connection you may have a chance at some compensation if you plead your case well, but again, nothing guaranteed. So basically, if you miss a connection, you just have to hope you talk to an agent who is in a good mood. Guess Clint sums this whole thing up best: "You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?"


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## the_traveler (Aug 9, 2017)

Call again, and if you get the same answer ask for a Supervisor!


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## Lonestar648 (Aug 9, 2017)

ALways try again and/or ask for a supervisor. a call back may give you a more experienced agent, also the supervisor should be more experienced and have more authority.


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