BIG NEWS: WAS now in both Central & Eastern Zones!

[Ispolkom]

Thanks, Ryan.
So, say if one were to book ATL-EMY, the amtrak site gives ATL-WAS-Chicago-EMY (or Charlottesville instead of WAS on some days) without using "Multicity." So, I'm assuming that would be only one AGR redemption. But would it be a 3-zone redemption because it routes you through WAS or Charlottesville? (ATL can be eastern or central, so that would be 2 zones using only the departure and destination cities.) It doesn't give you any other routes other than the Crescent/CL or Cardinal/CZ.

I cannot get the Sunset Limited/CS route to show as an option on any day, even departing from as far west as Slidell.

You have a 85% chance of it being charged as three zones, and a 15% chance of getting it for 2 zones. Maybe closer to 90-10. We know that agents give different answers, and we guess that that is because of the agent not knowing the rules, the rules changing, the phase of the moon, or the agent rolling percentile dice to choose an answer. No one can give you a better answer. It's just the way AGR is.

So frustrating that the agents AND supervisors don't know the correct rules of AGR!!!!!

Well, it isn't as though we know the correct rules, either.

[Edited to decrease repetitiveness]

 

[Ryan]

That said, if you live in Atlanta you've got a slightly better chance at getting it booked as a two zone, I think. You can make a compelling argument to the agent that you live in ATL and shouldn't be penalized for Amtrak's poor connectivity that forces you to go east before you can go west.

If you really want the Coast Starlight between LAX and EMY, you can do a 2 zone from NOL-EMY via the CONO, SWC and CS. That's a pretty good 2 zone redemption and you can get from ATL to NOL pretty cheap (have to overnight on your own dime, though).

 

[yarrow]

Like all things on the internet, take this thread with a grain of salt. One person's purported experience does not mean anything has changed.

our trip spk-chi-was-atl as a 2 zone redemption in september was not a purported trip. dc is obviously not in the central zone as the title of the thread states it to be. that being said i have noticed a loosening of the rigid policy of "no travel through a zone without paying for it" in our last few redemptions. the main agr rule of "if you don't like the answer from the first agent, call back" continues to apply

 

[crescent2]

Thanks, Ryan.

Last night I asked about "best train combos" on the regular forum. I was fooling around with entering different trips on the website and was rather amazed at all the choices offered on some days for EMY-NOL!

I don't recall the option you mentioned being a choice, though, for NOL-EMY. I will check again, but I think only the SL/CS was shown last night. Maybe the other option is shown for days the SL isn't running? Perhaps I didn't check for those days. Thanks!

 

[Ryan]

It's waaaay down at the bottom:

 

[Ispolkom]

You can actually push that trip past Emeryville to at least Eugene, Oregon.

 

[crescent2]

Wow, thanks guys!

 

[roadman3313]

Not to change the subject... but do regular E-Tickets actually say Select Plus on them? Didn't realize they ever mentioned "status" per say on the ticket itself. I use Passbook so I haven't actually ever seen/used a paper/printed/Quik Trak/Agent E-Ticket.

As for this... I chalk it up to a lot of luck on your side!

 

[KrazyKoala]

Not to change the subject... but do regular E-Tickets actually say Select Plus on them? Didn't realize they ever mentioned "status" per say on the ticket itself. I use Passbook so I haven't actually ever seen/used a paper/printed/Quik Trak/Agent E-Ticket.
As for this... I chalk it up to a lot of luck on your side!

Yes they do, it shows right on this ticket, this is the same for an AGR trip or a standard paid ticket. It helps get into Metro Lounge and Club Acela without needing my card on me.

 

[roadman3313]

Good to know! Thanks! I'm on the West Coast so I don't really think it makes a difference and most station agents don't know a difference between AGR tiers anyway besides for the Sarcastic "Aren't you special." Not like airlines where "elites" have universal benefits throughout their travel experience... (extra points are always nice though!)

But that makes sense in terms of lounge access

 

[jis]

The Passbook E-ticket for Amtrak does not mention Select status, nor does it mention accommodation details for sleepers, the latter of which definitely needs fixing.

United Airline's Passbook boarding pass has both the seat information as well as "Premier Access" information, together with boarding group info and checkin sequence info. It has every piece of info that a paper boarding pass has, unlike Amtrak.

 

[AlanB]

Not to change the subject... but do regular E-Tickets actually say Select Plus on them? Didn't realize they ever mentioned "status" per say on the ticket itself. I use Passbook so I haven't actually ever seen/used a paper/printed/Quik Trak/Agent E-Ticket.

As for this... I chalk it up to a lot of luck on your side!

Yes they do, it shows right on this ticket, this is the same for an AGR trip or a standard paid ticket. It helps get into Metro Lounge and Club Acela without needing my card on me.

I just pulled up my paid eTicket PDF from a trip this past Thursday and it most certainly does not show my status! Perhaps a reservation paid with points shows the status, I don't know as I don't have such a reservation handy.

I'll have to check later today when I get back home to see if the eTicket printed on Amtrak ticket stock shows my status. But again, the PDF only shows my AGR number, it makes no mention of my status.

 

[amamba]

I have never had a ticket that showed my AGR status on it. I just looked through some e-ticket .pdfs, some paper tickets stubs, and checked the app and the passbook. There is no mention of AGR status anywhere on any of them.

 

[Anthony]

The status usually only shows on the travel document if a human agent on the AGR phone line books your trip for you.

 

[KrazyKoala]

They are for sure working on something though. Pulling up all the tickets still in my email, each one is different in one way or the other. It looks kinda silly once I have them all in one place like this.

 

[Matt]

I just tried this and had no luck.

I'm soon taking a cross country trip from PHL to SEA. What I wanted to do was take the Cardinal PHL-CHI, Zephyr CHI-SAC(or EMY), and the Starlight SAC-SEA, and then possibly the Builder SEA-Essex and spend a couple days in glacier.

I know the zone boundry on Cardinal is CIN, so I was resigned to paying for a ticket PHL-CIN and then starting the award in CIN to save the points. I jumped when I saw this thread! I called AGR and requested WAS-SEA, but the agent said it would be 3 zones. I had to bump my dept back to CIN and buy a ticket PHL-CIN.

The other issue was that the agent said you can only take the most direct routing, even if others show on the amtrak.com regular one way booking screen. She refuesed to allow Card/Zeph/Star and said the only option is Card/Builder straight into SEA. I said thanks but no thanks and ended the call.

I called back and got a different agent. I just requested CIN-Tacoma, WA as the builder doesn't serve TAC. He was very kind and extremely helpful and booked me the routing I wanted. I had to pay for a ticket TAC-SEA, but I guess that's the best I could hope for, so I ate that cost.

 

[amamba]

I just tried this and had no luck.
I'm soon taking a cross country trip from PHL to SEA. What I wanted to do was take the Cardinal PHL-CHI, Zephyr CHI-SAC(or EMY), and the Starlight SAC-SEA, and then possibly the Builder SEA-Essex and spend a couple days in glacier.

I know the zone boundry on Cardinal is CIN, so I was resigned to paying for a ticket PHL-CIN and then starting the award in CIN to save the points. I jumped when I saw this thread! I called AGR and requested WAS-SEA, but the agent said it would be 3 zones. I had to bump my dept back to CIN and buy a ticket PHL-CIN.

The other issue was that the agent said you can only take the most direct routing, even if others show on the amtrak.com regular one way booking screen. She refuesed to allow Card/Zeph/Star and said the only option is Card/Builder straight into SEA. I said thanks but no thanks and ended the call.

I called back and got a different agent. I just requested CIN-Tacoma, WA as the builder doesn't serve TAC. He was very kind and extremely helpful and booked me the routing I wanted. I had to pay for a ticket TAC-SEA, but I guess that's the best I could hope for, so I ate that cost.

You should try calling back and editing your trip to go to SEA. I bet you won't have to buy that TAC -SEA ticket.

 

[Matt]

I just tried this and had no luck.
I'm soon taking a cross country trip from PHL to SEA. What I wanted to do was take the Cardinal PHL-CHI, Zephyr CHI-SAC(or EMY), and the Starlight SAC-SEA, and then possibly the Builder SEA-Essex and spend a couple days in glacier.

I know the zone boundry on Cardinal is CIN, so I was resigned to paying for a ticket PHL-CIN and then starting the award in CIN to save the points. I jumped when I saw this thread! I called AGR and requested WAS-SEA, but the agent said it would be 3 zones. I had to bump my dept back to CIN and buy a ticket PHL-CIN.

The other issue was that the agent said you can only take the most direct routing, even if others show on the amtrak.com regular one way booking screen. She refuesed to allow Card/Zeph/Star and said the only option is Card/Builder straight into SEA. I said thanks but no thanks and ended the call.

I called back and got a different agent. I just requested CIN-Tacoma, WA as the builder doesn't serve TAC. He was very kind and extremely helpful and booked me the routing I wanted. I had to pay for a ticket TAC-SEA, but I guess that's the best I could hope for, so I ate that cost.

You should try calling back and editing your trip to go to SEA. I bet you won't have to buy that TAC -SEA ticket.

I just called back and got it extended to SEA, so I should be all set now. First LD train trip since the Autotrain 17 years ago!

 

[amamba]

YAY!!!!!