# Walk me Through This Please



## TrainMama (Jan 10, 2011)

Hi guys,

I'm new around here and frankly to AGR. But I love trains and have traveled on overnight/long-distance trains in several countries (Europe, Japan, Thailand). We want to take our family on a Coast to Coast trip this summer- we are 2 adults and 4 children (age 6, 6, 5, 3). We've ridden the train and think we need 2 deluxe bedrooms with an adjoining door. I have two newbie questions and I apologize in advance!

1) How many points do we need to make this happen? We want to go from DC to SFO, and I've read that the California Zephyr from Chicago is the way to go. I'm really confused because I can't figure out the points needed for the room vs the tickets etc.

2) Is there a good way to split up the trip to do one night or two off of the train and see "stuff" without wasting a huge number of points? Like is there a zone cutoff or something? Or, is there a good place to stop for a minimal number of points...

Sorry to be so dense... but we're really looking forward to this trip and want to do it right.


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## jb64 (Jan 10, 2011)

Here is the zone map from the Guest Rewards website: https://www.amtrakgu...rds.com/zonemap

From DC to SF is 3 zones. So, that would be 50, 000 per room one way. You would need 200,000 points total for two bedrooms roundtrip if you are trying to use all reward points for this trip.


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## Ryan (Jan 10, 2011)

From Washington, that would be 50,00 points (per room) to get to SFO (and then 50,000 to get home), so 200,000 points to do it in two rooms from here to there.

Here's what I would do. Pay for a ticket to Chicago (it's relatively cheap). Stay as long as you want. Then go to SFO on points, then come back to either Cincinatti (Cardinal) or Toledo (Cap Limited) on points (and pay for your ticket from there back to DC). Then it's a 2 zone award (30,000 per room one way), which would make it only 120,000 points total.


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## the_traveler (Jan 10, 2011)

First, Welcome!






Have you already joined AGR?



If not, you *EACH* should join AGR and have separate accounts. (6 accounts in total.) The reason is that only the person named on the ticket can earn AGR points from his/her own ticket. If they are not AGR members, those points are lost. (No one can claim them.



)

Each account must have their own email address. But you can get free email addresses at places like hotmail, yahoo or gmail. Your ISP may include multiple accounts too. (Mine IIRC includes 5.)

Depending on the size of the kids, you may do better getting a Family Bedroom. The cost would be less than getting 2 bedrooms. A Family Bedroom has 4 beds, but 2 are less than 4'2" long. A "regular" Bedroom (what was formerly called a Deluxe Bedroom) only has 2 berths.

The cost would be 50,000 AGR points *EACH WAY* for a Family Room (but that includes everyone including rail fare and all meals in the Dining Car), while the cost for 2 Bedrooms would be 100,000 AGR points *EACH WAY*! If you have to pay, usually the Family Room costs about the same as a Bedroom. Sometimes it is less, sometime it is more. But it will always be less than 2 separate bedrooms!

With an AGR award, there are no stopover allowed. But this would be a 3 zone award, and the cost of a 3 zone award is the same as a 2 zone award plus a 1 zone award. The border cities that you could stop over at without penalty (in this case) would be Toledo, OH or Denver, CO!

No need to apologize. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask because it's too "dumb"!


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## Rail Freak (Jan 10, 2011)

First, since you just joined AGR, it will take time building your point balance! To answer your questions, I would:

Take the Capitol Limited #29 (WAS-CHI) connecting to the Southwest Chief #3 (CHI-ABQ) (2 bedrooms for 2 Zones will be 60,000 points) At this time you could stay however many days you wanted.

Then, take the next Southwest Chief #3 (ABQ- LAX),the Coast Starlite#14 (LAX-PDX) connecting to th#8 Empire Builder(PDX-WPT) (2bedrooms for 1 Zone=40,000 points), the #8 Empire builder (WPT-CHI) & the Cardinal #50 (CHI-WAS) (2Bedrooms for 2 Zones = 60,000 points)

Nice Trip = 160,000 points

HAVE FUN


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## Devil's Advocate (Jan 10, 2011)

the_traveler said:


> With an AGR award, there are no stopover allowed. But this would be a 3 zone award, and the cost of a 3 zone award is the same as a 2 zone award plus a 1 zone award.


You've brought up two big questions of mine in one sentence.

*1.* Why on won't AGR allow even a single stopover on long-haul award tickets? I love trains as much as the next enthusiast but even I don't want to be couped up on a train for days on end without any respite.

*1b. * Which fare buckets allow for stopovers? From what I remember all of LD tickets say "Special Fare, NO Stopovers" regardless of when, where, or how I buy them. Doesn't seem to matter if it's a $50 coach fare bought five months in advance or a $500 roomette bought five hours before departure.

*2.* What is the point of having a three zone award that provides no benefit over a much more versatile 2+1 arrangement?


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## the_traveler (Jan 10, 2011)

daxomni said:


> the_traveler said:
> 
> 
> > With an AGR award, there are no stopover allowed. But this would be a 3 zone award, and the cost of a 3 zone award is the same as a 2 zone award plus a 1 zone award.
> ...


Not to put down the folks who live in these cities, but unless you want to stop in ATL, CIN, TOL, ELP, ABQ, DEN or WPT, you can not get a 3 zone trip for the cost of 2 zones plus 1 zone. If you want to go from WAS to LAX and want to stop in CHI or DAL, it would be 2 zones plus 2 zones!


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## Devil's Advocate (Jan 10, 2011)

the_traveler said:


> daxomni said:
> 
> 
> > What is the point of having a three zone award that provides no benefit over a much more versatile 2+1 arrangement?
> ...


The 2+1 option gives you one of "only" seven possible stopover points while the 3-zone award gives you ZERO options for _any_ stopover _anywhere_ for the exact same number of points. Just seems odd to me, but whatever.


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## Long Train Runnin' (Jan 11, 2011)

daxomni said:


> the_traveler said:
> 
> 
> > daxomni said:
> ...


I think its a revenue management thing. With no stop overs Amtrak only looses the one room for one day. If they started allowing stop overs they would then start to loose multiple rooms on multiple days.


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