# Cross country trip in 2020



## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 7, 2019)

Hello!

I am planning a cross-country trip with my family next year from Harpers Ferry WV to Portland OR (Empire Builder) Then renting a car from Portland to Emeryville CA. Then taking the train from Emeryville back to Harpers Ferry. 

I have a bunch of questions, and I have reached out to Amtrak by phone twice, but I must have caught people at the end of a bad day or something because it wasn’t particularly fruitful. If anyone has any advice on any of the subjects I would greatly appreciate it. 

1. My plan is to book 4 Coach seats from Harpers Ferry to Chicago (15hrs) and then move into a Family Bedroom for the rest of the way to Portland. On the trip back I plan on doing the same thing in reverse. Family Bedroom from CA to Chicago, and then Coach seats back to WV. Is this a bad idea? Will I still get the sleeper features (meals, extra luggage, etc.) for the Coach seats even if I still book it under the “premium” section. I want to bring a cooler with me, which I understand is okay in a sleeper but I’m a little fuzzy with the Coach seats. If they were normal Coach seats I don’t think this is possible, but I would be booking them as part of a “premium” trip. 

2. My plan is to sign up for the Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card, and charge the trip out within 90 days of receiving it. (Around $2400) Then applying the bonus 20,000 points, plus any points accrued from the trip itself to the return trip. Plus I believe I will also receive a Companion Coupon and Upgrade Bonus as well. How will I be able to use this when booking my return trip? I believe I will have access to the 20,000 points within 30 days of the initial purchase, but I’m not sure about the other extras. Also how will this affect my two children’s tickets (ages 12 and 8 at the time of the trip). I would like to book the return trip as soon as possible after booking the outgoing trip to ease my mind. I would prefer not to have to wait until I complete the first trip before I can utilize those bonuses (which was what was suggested by Amtrak Customer Service) because the period between the two is only 10-12 days. 

3. Is there any discernible difference between 2 Roomettes and 1 Family Bedroom. I have two children and a wife so the Family Bedroom seems like the better option, but I have read in other places that 2 Roomettes will feel roomier. Is this true?

4. Will there be multiple opportunities to get off the train and stretch the legs, even if it is for only 10mins? My kids are excited about visiting a total of 14 new states on our trip, and it would be nice if they could actually put their feet down in each one. 

5. Is there anything that I probably haven’t thought of yet? This is my first time traveling by train and I’m sure there are a ton of things I haven’t taken into consideration yet. The train trip is supposed to be one of the real highlights of the whole trip for me and my family and I want to make sure we have the best time possible. 

Sorry for the long post, and if most of this information is located somewhere else on this board. I’m just looking for any assistance or guidance at all.

Thank you!
-Nick


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## pennyk (Jul 7, 2019)

Nick, I will attempt to answer some of your questions. 

When in coach, your meals will not be included. I assume you will be on the Capitol Limited between Harper's Ferry and Chicago. That train does not have a dining car. It has a sightseer lounge that sells snacks (pizza, sandwiches, burgers, etc.) You can bring an ice chest with you when in coach. There is a sleeper lounge only available to sleeper passengers. Sleeper passengers on the Capitol Limited will receive box meals (that some passengers think are good, some think are OK and some think are awful) and an alcoholic beverage.

The family room may be more comfortable depending on the size of your children. Here is a link to information regarding sleeping accommodations.
https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/onbo...r-all-your-needs/sleeping-accommodations.html

The length of the 2 children's berths are 4'7" and 4'9" 

Yes, there will be plenty of opportunity to stretch your legs. There will be service stops (where crew is changed) and fresh air/smoking stops. Here is a thread regarding smoke/stretch stops: https://discuss.amtraktrains.com/threads/stretch-smoke-stop-list.72231/

With regard to using points from your new credit card for your return trip. I do not know. There are some on this forum that state that you get the best price for sleepers 5 months out; others state that they book as soon as possible (11 months out). Popular routes in the summer may sell out. The upgrade coupon may not be used to upgrade from coach to sleeper, however, the companion coupon may come in handy for the return trip. If you use points on the return trip (or a leg of the trip), you will not be able to use the companion coupon in conjunction with points. Currently, Amtrak's reservation system will not permit a combination of cash and points, but if you make 2 separate reservations on your return trip, you could use points on one reservation and cash on the other. Because the 2 segments would not be on the same reservation, if the first train is delayed, Amtrak will not guarantee the connection and you may have to spend a night in Chicago on your own dime.

Please feel free to ask more questions. There are plenty of "experts" on this forum.

It should be noted that Amtrak currently has outsourced some of its customer service calls. You may have been unlucky to reach the new call center in Florida that is staffed by non-Amtrak employees.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 7, 2019)

Thanks for the quick reply!

That’s interesting, I did not know that you cannot combine points and cash. Just so I’m clear, unless I have enough points to book an entire trip with points, then the points are unusable for that trip? 

Would those Coach rules apply even if I booked the Coach seats as part of a Sleeper Trip? The whole eastbound trip would be booked as one trip with a stopover in Chicago.


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## pennyk (Jul 7, 2019)

Nickolas Jackson said:


> Would those Coach rules apply even if I booked the Coach seats as part of a Sleeper Trip? The whole eastbound trip would be booked as one trip with a stopover in Chicago.


Yes, the coach rules would apply regardless of whether you book as part of a longer trip or book alone.



Nickolas Jackson said:


> Just so I’m clear, unless I have enough points to book an entire trip with points, then the points are unusable for that trip?


I am not an expert using points. I only use points when I have enough for the entire trip. If you do not have enough points, it may be worthwhile to purchase points to pay for the entire trip so that both segments are on the same reservation. However, many on this forum recommend overnighting in Chicago when traveling east from the west coast. If you were to split up the trip, you could use points for one segment and pay for the other.
You may want to phone Amtrak Guest Rewards to confirm this. The AGR agents generally are more competent than the non-Amtrak call center agents. I think the AGR phone number is 888-707-6600.


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## zephyr17 (Jul 7, 2019)

Coach rules apply to any train where you are in coach. It is on a train by train basis, not a reservation basis. You can have a small cooler in coach if you like.

You have the right to use the Metropolitan Lounge on the same day as sleeper travel.

While you cannot use a combination of points and cash on a single reservation, if you are on a long trip you can break the trip into multiple reservations, some point, some cash. Be careful that you don't do this at a point with same day connections, as you will lose the guarantee if the connection is on a separate reservation. I've done this, with a trip LAX-NOL on points, then NOL-NYP cash. You can book it all, both cash and points redemptions for your trip, with AGR agents.

You can use the bonus points as soon as soon as BofA credits them to your AGR account, which will likely be at the of the end billing cycle in which you accrue the charges that qualify you for it. That under BofA's control, not Amtrak's. You can't use the points until they are in your AGR account.

Upgrade coupons are only good for upgrades from coach to business class, or Acela Business to Acela First. They are not good for upgrading to sleepers at all. The companion coupon you might be able to leverage. The coupons are issued soon after credit card approval. My recollection is actual Amtrak travel had no effect on the issuance of the coupons.

Best prices no longer tend to be right after space is released to sale inventory (the 11 months), as Amtrak has gotten more sophisticated in their yield management practices over the last few years. If anything, they tend to come in a little high initially now. Then inventory is moved into lower buckets if sales don't materialize as expected. Hence the 4-6 months rule of thumb. Prices within 3 months tend to be on the high side when space is available at all.

Note that usually there is only ONE family bedroom on the Portland section of the Builder. Right now, the Portland section is running with two sleepers this summer, which hasn't happened in prior years, so I have no idea if that will be the case next year or not. So at most there are just two family bedrooms to Portland. On the other hand, there are 13 roomettes for sale in each Superliner sleeper as opposed to one, single family bedroom.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 7, 2019)

Again, thank you so much for the quick responses!

This may work out well. I can book one of the legs, probably the Chicago back to Harpers Ferry with points and then use the companion coupon for the first Emeryville to Chicago leg. How will the children’s booking (1/2 off with an adult) work with an adult utilizing a companion coupon?

That’s interesting about buying extra points, though. Does that generally work out to be significantly more expensive than just paying cash? 

My trip is planned for September 2020 so I’m still too far out to book. I was planning on applying for the card and booking as soon as the 11 month window opened up.


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## zephyr17 (Jul 7, 2019)

The child discount would appear to only be good with a fare paying adult:

One *child* ages 2 - 12 is eligible to receive a 50% discount on the lowest available adult rail *fare* on most*Amtrak* trains with each *fare*-paying adult (age 18+). If any additional *child*per adult will be traveling, reservations must be made for that *child* as an “Adult” and the full adult *fare* will be charged.

As to buying points, I have done that to get me over the top for trips where I was just short of the points I needed. That was cost effective for me, but I doubt it would be to purchase enough points for the whole thing.


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## Willbridge (Jul 7, 2019)

I'm a fan of the Portland section of the Empire Builder, but there also are Family Rooms on the Seattle section and Amtrak's reservation computer will offer you that with a Business Class or Coach connection from Seattle to Portland.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 7, 2019)

So it looks like if I use a companion coupon for my wife, I’m only really going to end up saving the 50% child discount because I will end up paying for one of the kids as an adult. 

But I think the companion coupon doesn’t include sleepers, so I’d end up paying an upgrade on that too I guess? 

Honestly I was planning on paying full price for the whole thing at first, so anything is better than nothing. 

So the general consensus is that I should wait until 5 months before my trip to book? I’m nervous about that considering there is only one Family Bedroom on the Portland route.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 7, 2019)

Wow. You guys are right! I just priced my eastbound trip WV to OR for November (5 months out) on the website for $1570 and the same trip and accommodations for May (11 months out) and it was $2570. 

That’s a dramatic difference, and without using any discounts or points. Looks like I will be waiting a little now before I apply for that AGR card!


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## pennyk (Jul 7, 2019)

Nickolas Jackson said:


> So it looks like if I use a companion coupon for my wife, I’m only really going to end up saving the 50% child discount because I will end up paying for one of the kids as an adult.
> 
> But I think the companion coupon doesn’t include sleepers, so I’d end up paying an upgrade on that too I guess?
> 
> ...



Others may disagree with me, but I like to book as soon as possible. Before deciding on the Family Bedroom vs. 2 roomettes, please consider the height of your children vs. the length of the child's size beds.

It is my understanding that companion coupons may be used for sleepers now (for the rail fare portion in the sleeper). At one time it was only roomettes, I am not sure if the coupons if it has been expanded to bedrooms.


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## zephyr17 (Jul 7, 2019)

Sleeper accommodations are charged by the room, not the individual. There are two components to the sleeper fare, the individual rail fares of all passengers occupying the room, which is always equal to low bucket "value" coach fare and one accommodation charge for the room itself. The coupon would cover a rail fare, not the accommodation charge. I just looked at the terms and conditions of my own AGR companion coupon and it can only be used in roomettes (upon payment of the accommodation charge), no other sleeping car accommodations.

I'd start monitoring Amsnag.net now to get an idea of the pricing and availability of family rooms to Portland. While I think 11 months may not be necessary, i your case I'd tend to book earlier rather than later. Also, you will find that having a range of possible dates and booking the days with the best fares within that range usually works well. This means you need to retain some flexibility until you actually book and lock it down.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 7, 2019)

There seems to be plenty of availability 4-6 months out now, but that may have to do with the fact that those are winter dates. 

I was going through the dates and the prices on both trips seem to drop around $1000 between 3-6 months out but jump back up around 7 months out and stay that way until the 11 month period is reached. 

I am somewhat flexible on both trips as I am planning on leaving on Monday Labor Day 2020, and that Tuesday or Wednesday wouldn’t be the end of the world. But that also means I can’t book anything else until I have that locked down. No rental car or hotel rooms. Which kinda sucks. 

But $1000 is a lot of money. Like a third of the entire train trip. That would essentially pay for my rental car. 

I’ve said this before but thank you to everybody’s advice! This has been VERY helpful!


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## zephyr17 (Jul 7, 2019)

Agree with that strategy, that is what I generally do. Since the rail fare is generally the most variable expensive item. I get the best I can on that, and then work everything else back from there.


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## Michigan Mom (Jul 8, 2019)

For train accommodations, booking 3 months out is way early for me. Others, as noted above, will have different perspectives.
I would advocate more strongly for not booking hotels a year in advance unless it's for a sold out or "special event" in which case, it will also be nonrefundable which makes me uneasy and I would not go those dates.
The train rates may or may not drop but in my experience hotel rates definitely will fluctuate.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 8, 2019)

Do you think the week of Labor Day would be a particularly popular weekend? Ideally I want to leave on Labor Day 8/31/20 or 9/1/20. 

Are holidays more expensive? How about weekdays vs weekends? 

I know that Labor Day 2019 week is already fully booked in the Family Bedroom to Portland. But that’s only really a month and a half out. And as somebody wrote before there is only one Family Bedroom on the Portland route of the EB. 

Again, thank you to everyone who has helped out on this! I have gathered more information in one day then the months I have been digging into this!


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## Barb Stout (Jul 8, 2019)

Yes, train travel around holidays is more expensive, especially roomettes and bedrooms. I would use Amsnag. That's what I did to figure out when to travel around this next Labor Day.


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## zephyr17 (Jul 8, 2019)

Amtrak pricing is yield managed similar to airlines, demand is higher around holiday weekends, so yes, it will be higher.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 8, 2019)

One last question; there is about a 4hr gap in time between when my eastbound train (CZ) arrives in Chicago and when my final leg (Capitol Limited) departs back to Harpers Ferry. 

If I end up booking those two legs separately, is that a safe enough cushion in case the CZ is running late? I don’t have a reference for exactly what “late” means.


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## zephyr17 (Jul 8, 2019)

*NO*. Doing that without the connection guarantee is not something I would do. It would be very unwise if you have a same day connection.

Late on Amtrak long distance services can mean VERY late, and 4 hours is not a great amount of time, especially when connecting from a western transcon at Chicago. On the ASMAD site ( https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/home.php ) you can research how often a connection is made, it shows that since March 1, that connection has been missed _*34 out of 111 times, or 31%*_.

Personally, more times than not, I build an overnight layover when connecting at Chicago eastbound, so as not miss sleeper accommodations the next day. If you do build in an overnight layover in Chicago, then yes, breaking the reservation at Chicago is safe. If you are making a same day connection, under no circumstances do it under two different reservations.

If you miss your train with both under the same reservation to Harpers Ferry (served only by the Capitol Limited...if you were going to DC, they might do things differently, like put you on the Lakeshore Limited later that night), Amtrak will:
1. Provide you with a hotel at their cost, billed to their account.
2. Provide cash for taxi transfer and meal costs
3. Provide transportation on the next day's Capitol. If you had sleeping accommodations, you might be put in coach if the sleepers are full. Amtrak will refund the sleeping car accommodation charge in that case.

If you miss your train with them under separate reservations, Amtrak will:
1. Show you as a no show, no refund of your fare.
2. Demand a new ticket be purchased at current prices on the next day's Capitol Limited.
3. Leave you to your own devices to stay the night in Chicago.

If you are breaking the trip into multiple reservations, do it at a point where you do NOT have a same day connection.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 8, 2019)

Thank you for that. That makes me rethink even bothering to use my points for train travel, honestly. I won’t have enough for the entire booking, and I need to weigh the cost of spending the night with my family in Chicago (hotel, food, travel) against the savings of using the points. Hmm.


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## Sauve850 (Jul 8, 2019)

I always do an overnight in Chicago from any west coast train.


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## dogbert617 (Jul 9, 2019)

Sauve850 said:


> I always do an overnight in Chicago from any west coast train.



Whenever I check juckins.net and just for fun look at arrival times of westbound Amtrak trains into Chicago, the only trains where I trust one would have high odds of making a same day connection would either be City of New Orleans(this doesn't leave till 8:05pm), or Lake Shore Limited(9:30pm). And as for trains arriving from the west, the train most likely to be extremely late getting into Chicago is the California Zephyr, followed by to a lesser extent Empire Builder, and Southwest Chief(least likely to be super late arriving into Chicago). For the latter 2, I've always suspected BNSF probably does a better job ensuring trains run on time(or at least less late) on their tracks, vs. Union Pacific(where CA Zephyr runs mostly over). As for Capitol Limited, unfortunately this train does often run into freight train delays, albeit a tad less often vs. California Zephyr. I remember in 2018, that when I took it west that it was over 3 hours late, and interestingly enough that allowed me to have a rare look at the portion west of Cleveland all in daylight! And that I started to notice hints of daylight, around when the #29 westbound Cap hit Alliance, OH.

Also as you're only getting an AGR account for the first time, I'm not so sure I'd try to use points this soon for a train trip. Like another person said you should pay for both directions of your train trip via some sort of card, and don't worry about AGR points for now. I think those will come in handy, for a future trip for sure! And of course sign up for an AGR account, just before you book this trip. As an earlier poster did, book both connecting trains on the SAME reservation, to ensure Amtrak will uphold honoring your connecting reservation for both trains. Meaning that in a worse case scenario, they will have to ensure they allow you to stay in some sort of Chicago hotel for free, before you take your connecting train the other day in case you can't do your same day train connection after arriving in Chicago because of a major delay from the first train. Hopefully fingers crossed, that doesn't occur to you though!


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## F900ElCapitan (Jul 9, 2019)

I went through these very same thoughts last year for my upcoming trip this September. So here are a few things I learned and my thoughts.

I went ahead and got the card and used it for daily spending to get to over the amount required for the 20000 point bonus. That got me the points sooner so I was able to use them for booking when I wanted and I was able to use as many points as possible for the trip. The biggest difference is we will have very few same day connections so having a through reservation wasn’t as important as those connections have a lot of time in between trains.

On the roomettes/family bedroom question, there have been a number of threads on this. The advantages of the roomettes are having large windows and being able to be on the upper level. Also, since you’re booking early you can request to get two rooms directly across the hall from each other so you can go room to room and see the sites on either side of the train (just like being in the family room). In addition, since there are so many more roomettes, you can continue to monitor the price of the remaining rooms and if it goes down you can call and get either a 75% cash refund or 100% voucher for the difference. Of course the best thing about the family room is having all the space across the car and being able to close the door for privacy. There also seems to be a split of people who prefer downstairs vs upstairs for noise and quality of ride. But depending on the train, with only 2 or 3 family rooms, price monitoring can be difficult since the rooms are more easily sold out and, from what Ive seen, Amtrak doesn’t seem as worried about lowering the price of the family rooms to make sure they fill up. 

As for getting out in each state, the opportunity is usually there, but some states are traversed in the middle of the night and you might not want to wake everyone up just to step foot outside. Plus, you’ll want the stop to be either a scheduled long stop or a smoke/stretch break, and those don’t get scheduled as often during sleep hours.


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## F900ElCapitan (Jul 10, 2019)

So this post also got me thinking about the one same day connection I have in Chicago from #4 to #305 on my upcoming trip. For the first leg I paid with points but the second with dollars. The more I thought about it and reading that separate reservation numbers aren’t guaranteed, I called to see what Amtrak said and to see if I needed to add a 305 leg to the first reservation and then just cancel the current 305 ticket. What I was told is my reservations were cross referenced. Doing so will enact the guaranteed connection and its protections. So if you do need/want to combine points and dollars on a connected trip there is a way. Just make sure to talk to an AGR 1 (800) 307-5000 agent and they should be able to set you up.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 10, 2019)

Man! That is great news! Thank you. I was starting to think I wouldn’t be able to use any of the points and I was going to have to plan a second trip to use them in the future. But it’s taken me 5-6 years to get this one off the ground and 5-6 years from now my daughters probably won’t want to take a trip like this with their old man!


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## dogbert617 (Jul 11, 2019)

F900ElCapitan said:


> So this post also got me thinking about the one same day connection I have in Chicago from #4 to #305 on my upcoming trip. For the first leg I paid with points but the second with dollars. The more I thought about it and reading that separate reservation numbers aren’t guaranteed, I called to see what Amtrak said and to see if I needed to add a 305 leg to the first reservation and then just cancel the current 305 ticket. What I was told is my reservations were cross referenced. Doing so will enact the guaranteed connection and its protections. So if you do need/want to combine points and dollars on a connected trip there is a way. Just make sure to talk to an AGR 1 (800) 307-5000 agent and they should be able to set you up.



This is definitely a flaw about Amtrak's reservation system, if you want to use points for one segment of your trip and dollars/card for another part of your trip. Where essentially, you can't pay half and half of your Amtrak trip split between points, and dollars. And for sure yes, make the choice to either ONLY use dollars or points when connecting between trains somewhere(i.e. Chicago, DC, LA, Portland, etc) and NEVER as separate reservations when going one way(i.e. train 4 as one reservation, and 305 in another one), to ensure that Amtrak guarantees your connection if you aren't able by some weird chance to make your same day connection in Chicago.

The only workaround I can see, is to use your AGR points in one direction(i.e. going east to south on 4 to 305), and dollars/credit card to pay the fare going the other way(i.e. train 300 to train 3, north to west). Keep in mind this is just a theoretical example, here.


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## F900ElCapitan (Jul 12, 2019)

dogbert617 said:


> This is definitely a flaw about Amtrak's reservation system, if you want to use points for one segment of your trip and dollars/card for another part of your trip. Where essentially, you can't pay half and half of your Amtrak trip split between points, and dollars. And for sure yes, make the choice to either ONLY use dollars or points when connecting between trains somewhere(i.e. Chicago, DC, LA, Portland, etc) and NEVER as separate reservations when going one way(i.e. train 4 as one reservation, and 305 in another one), to ensure that Amtrak guarantees your connection if you aren't able by some weird chance to make your same day connection in Chicago.
> 
> The only workaround I can see, is to use your AGR points in one direction(i.e. going east to south on 4 to 305), and dollars/credit card to pay the fare going the other way(i.e. train 300 to train 3, north to west). Keep in mind this is just a theoretical example, here.



Yes, I've read this many times here, which is what got me concerned. But according to the AGR agent, if you “cross-reference” your two reservations they will be treated as a guaranteed connection. She said there was even an additional note in my reservation that says “Guaranteed connection”, of which she didn’t know why somebody would put that in there. Maybe this there way of correcting the deficiency of not being able to do points and dollars on one reservation?

Has anyone else had this where two reservations were “cross-referenced” and what was your experience?


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## Chessie (Jul 12, 2019)

Another thought is you and your wife applies for a card each and when booking the outbound trip you call and ask the agent to split the payment so each card has $1000. If the price is low and you are still short I am sure there are other travel expenses you can use to reach $1000 on each card. 

That way you will each have 20000 points and you can try the 2 roomette approach on the way back. Each of you can book a roomette with one child and book the coach leg with companion.


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## dogbert617 (Jul 12, 2019)

F900ElCapitan said:


> Yes, I've read this many times here, which is what got me concerned. But according to the AGR agent, if you “cross-reference” your two reservations they will be treated as a guaranteed connection. She said there was even an additional note in my reservation that says “Guaranteed connection”, of which she didn’t know why somebody would put that in there. Maybe this there way of correcting the deficiency of not being able to do points and dollars on one reservation?
> 
> Has anyone else had this where two reservations were “cross-referenced” and what was your experience?



Interesting to know. So by doing this, you call the 800 number and talk to a live agent, and note this to whatever agent you talked to on the phone that you want both trip reservations to be treated as a guaranteed connection? That's good to know, for reference purposes.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Jul 12, 2019)

That’s an interesting idea, about my wife and I both applying for a card. I’m not sure whether we would both get approved as my wife technically has no income. We both work together, but I am the only one of us that gets a paycheck. But that’s perhaps an option we could explore. 

I think what I will do is book the return trip first (EMY to HFY) because it is the more expensive trip and most likely to get delayed (heading east). I will see if the companion coupon will help at all, but if not I’m thinking the booking will be around $2300-$2500 for the four of us. Then see what I can do with points for the outbound trip (HFY to PDX) at least being able to pay for the first leg (HFY to CHI). That trip seems less likely to get delayed until the point I miss the next leg (CHI to PDX). Hopefully I can get those trips connected together by calling Amtrak when I make the booking. 

I will probably use the AGR card to book my rental car, and I should see some discounts there as well as a nice points multiplier. 

I have decided that I will focus on trying to get the Family Bedroom booked over the 2 Roomettes now, but I know that will make availability/price less flexible. Being on the lower level, as far as I have heard, is better for motion sickness and my oldest daughter suffers a bit from time to time. Plus I think I will appreciate the extra space.


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## Chessie (Jul 30, 2019)

OP, Amtrak is currently offering 40,000 points for signing up the World MasterCard. There is an annual fee of $79 and you have to meet some spending requirement. But still a good deal and you might want to check it out.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Aug 6, 2019)

Man. I hope that offer keeps going for a few months! I can’t apply yet because my booking is still over 11months away!


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## Barb Stout (Aug 7, 2019)

zephyr17 said:


> *NO*. Doing that without the connection guarantee is not something I would do. It would be very unwise if you have a same day connection.
> 
> Late on Amtrak long distance services can mean VERY late, and 4 hours is not a great amount of time, especially when connecting from a western transcon at Chicago. On the ASMAD site ( https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/home.php ) you can research how often a connection is made, it shows that since March 1, that connection has been missed _*34 out of 111 times, or 31%*_.
> 
> ...


I only recently found out (through this forum-THANKS!) about this single reservation thing. I had been booking my trips "back east" on separate reservations (SWC and LSL) and had apparently gotten lucky, but after reading your post and the subsequent thread, I called Amtrak AGR and got my reservations cross-referenced too. While doing that, the agent informed me of a saver fare that was now available on 1 of the segments that I either didn't see or wasn't available at the time I made the reservation. So I also got $40 back which is the exact amount that I am going to have to pay Greyhound to change a reservation error that I made. Yay!


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## F900ElCapitan (Aug 7, 2019)

Nickolas Jackson said:


> Man. I hope that offer keeps going for a few months! I can’t apply yet because my booking is still over 11months away!



Just FYI, you can, and if you want the points by the time you book you should, apply of the card now. In other words you don’t have to be ready to book in order to apply. In fact you have to make somewhere around $2500 worth of purchases before the points are credited to your account. So if you want the points you need to do this soon.


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## Nickolas Jackson (Aug 7, 2019)

My plan was to spend the $2500 on one of the trips to get points for the other. So until I can book at least one of the trips or I am at least within 90days of the booking I think I have to wait. I plan to use this card for this trip, pay it off, and then probably cancel it.


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## F900ElCapitan (Aug 7, 2019)

I gotcha. I was just saying that if you can spend the 2500 prior to that, then you’ll have the 40,000 earlier and you can be more flexible that way. If not, then it sounds like you’ve got a good plan too. You probably know, but your bill will have to turn over and you have to make some sort of payment for the points to credit, and it can also take a couple of weeks at that. I did something similar to this last year with the card and will be heading out on my trip next month. I can’t wait and I hope you have a great trip too!


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