Prologue
Last year and right after we’d booked our May 2024 trip to Ohio, we made the decision to schedule two long distance Amtrak trips a year for as long as we’re still able to travel. (We’d tried for a second trip in 2023 but then weren’t able to obtain Southwest Chief bedrooms for the dates we’d wanted. To make sure that we’d be able to obtain bedrooms for our September 2024 trip, we’d made our reservations the previous October.)
Our May trip worked out so well that, even before we’d returned home, we were looking forward to this second trip. (For those who missed our May trip report, it can be found at https://www.amtraktrains.com/thread...trip-report-san-diego-toledo-san-diego.87370/.) But first, we had to see about making the reservations for the first of our two long-distance train trips for 2025.
We decided to once again travel in May when the trains and the stations wouldn’t be as crowded and there would be less likelihood of our trains being delayed due to heat-related speed restrictions and equipment failures.
Last year, we applied for an Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card which we’d used to pay for our September 2024 trip. By doing so, we’d received a generous number of Amtrak Guest Reward points as part of some special promotion. Once the AGR points from our May 2024 trip were added to these, we had, what was for us, a substantial number of points available to use.
We like to make our reservations as early as possible to be sure of obtaining bedrooms in the first or (to use zephyr17’s designation) the “base” sleeping cars; the ones that aren’t removed from the consist if there is shortage of sleepers with bedrooms. (On the Southwest Chief, the “line numbers” of these first or base sleepers are cars 330 westbound and 430 eastbound.) Since the earliest that one can make Amtrak reservations is eleven months in advance, in June, we called the Amtrak Guest Rewards number and arranged the following:
-Two Pacific Surfliner Business Class seats from San Diego to Los Angeles, paid for using 4125 of our AGR points.
-A Southwest Chief bedroom from Los Angeles to Chicago and two Capitol Limited coach seats from Chicago to Toledo, paid for using our Guest Rewards Card.
-Two Capitol Limited coach seats from Toledo to Chicago, paid for using 4725 of our AGR points.
-A Southwest Chief bedroom from Chicago to Los Angeles, paid for using our Guest Rewards Card.
-Two Pacific Surfliner Business Class seats from Los Angeles to San Diego, paid for using 4125 of our AGR points.
By making our Southwest Chief reservations eleven months ahead of time, we were not only able to request and obtain bedrooms in the 330 and 430 cars but were also able to request and obtain Bedroom E’s on both our east and westbound trains. (Located near the center of the car, Bedroom E is considered the most desirable since it is supposed to give the smoothest ride.) And by using our Amtrak Guest Rewards card, we received some additional “Spend-Earn” AGR points. As Nero Wolfe would say, “Satisfactory. Highly satisfactory.”
Having received and printed out the e-tickets for our May 2025 trip, we could now devote our full attention to our upcoming September trip.
On June 13th, we received an automated phone message and an e-mail from Amtrak regarding changes to the departure and arrival times of our Southwest Chief trains Nos. 4 and 3: No. 4 would now be departing from LAX at 5:22 p.m. (33 minutes earlier) and arriving in CHI at 2:42 p.m. (8 minutes earlier.) No. 3 would now be departing from CHI at 2:25 p.m. (25 minutes earlier) and arriving in LAX at 7:57 a.m. (3 minutes earlier). zephyr17 posted that the new schedule, which would go into effect on Monday July 8th was most likely part of an agreement between Amtrak and host railroad BNSF so that a better effort could be made to give SWC trains priority over freight traffic. On June 27th, joelkfla posted the new timetables for SWC Nos. 3 and 4, and we printed out copies to take along with us.
For our last few trips, everything we’ve taken with us was distributed among our carry-on items. (Since some of our trains weren’t accepting checked luggage, this made things a lot less complicated for us.) After returning home from our May trip, we’d revised our packing lists, organizing everything into four different categories: (1) things that we wanted to have with us in our bedroom while traveling; (2) things that we felt comfortable leaving in our carry-on bags downstairs in the luggage rack; (3) things that we wouldn’t need until we were actually back in Ohio; and (4) things that we’d left behind in Ohio with the family on our last trip and which they were storing for us. For this trip, we decided to mail back most of the items that were in the “things that we wouldn’t need until we were actually back in Ohio” category. This ended up reducing the total number of carry-on bags we’d have to deal with, a benefit that more than justified the cost of the postage.
One month out from our departure, we printed out and started working on our checklist of items that needed to be done before we left home: reserving a space for our car with San Diego Airport Parking, rescheduling our monthly appointments to dates after we’d returned home, paying closer attention to the on-time performances of our trains, etc.
We also prepared and printed out detailed Amtrak Vacation Goals which covered all aspects of our trip. All of these goals supported our primary Vacation Goal, mainly that our trip would be safe, enjoyable, and highly successful. Following the recommended procedure for writing up goals, these were written in the past tense as if our trip had already been completed. We then read these goals aloud together every night just before we went to sleep. To ensure that we weren’t unintentionally putting limitations on any aspect of our trip, we concluded the reading of our goals with “This or something better.”
Having taught classes in goal setting & goal achieving, I’m a firm believer in having specific, written goals and then reading them aloud. Over the years, all the important things that Pat and I wanted to accomplish were first written out as goals, which we then read aloud together. Our success rate with our written goals has convinced us beyond a doubt that there is some power at work here that goes far beyond that of just mere chance.
One week out from our departure, we started packing. (Since we already knew what we’d be taking with us and into which carry-on bag it would be going, this only takes us a day or two.) We then printed out and filed away a complete inventory of everything that we’d have with us in the unlikely event that we’d have to put in a claim for lost or stolen items.
Two items that we always have along with us (and which we consider to be indispensable) are our GPS device and our scanner.
Our GPS device is a Garmin nuvi 2797 intended for automotive use, but which can run off AC power by using an adapter. We use it primarily to determine our train’s speed and direction of travel, and to identify the small towns that we pass by. We also set our watches by its time display, which automatically readjusts itself whenever we enter a new time zone.
Our scanner is a little Uniden SC230 which can also be used with AC power. We have it programmed so that the American Association of Railroads (AAR) frequencies used by our Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, and Capitol Limited trains – a total of twenty-five frequencies in all, each identified by its AAR Channel number – are in their own separate Channel Group. Since this is the only Channel Group that will be scanned, missing a transmission is highly unlikely.
Five days before our departure, we received an e-mail from Amtrak with the subject line “Your Train Leaves the Station in 5 Days.” This was the first time that we’d ever received such an e-mail and weren’t sure what we’d discover when we opened it. Fortunately, it turned out to be a benign “Welcome Aboard” message with travel information about our trip on Southwest Chief No. 4: available amenities, carry-on luggage allowances, pertinent station information, etc.
The remainder of the week was spent completing the last few items on our pre departure check list: letting our bank know that we’d be using our credit card in Ohio, picking up any last-minute items that we still needed for the trip, obtaining a sufficient number of small bills to use for tips, arranging with a neighbor to keep an eye on our house and property while we were gone, etc.
We spent the last day before our departure vacuuming and straightening up since it’s always nice to return home from a trip to a house that is neat and tidy.
Last year and right after we’d booked our May 2024 trip to Ohio, we made the decision to schedule two long distance Amtrak trips a year for as long as we’re still able to travel. (We’d tried for a second trip in 2023 but then weren’t able to obtain Southwest Chief bedrooms for the dates we’d wanted. To make sure that we’d be able to obtain bedrooms for our September 2024 trip, we’d made our reservations the previous October.)
Our May trip worked out so well that, even before we’d returned home, we were looking forward to this second trip. (For those who missed our May trip report, it can be found at https://www.amtraktrains.com/thread...trip-report-san-diego-toledo-san-diego.87370/.) But first, we had to see about making the reservations for the first of our two long-distance train trips for 2025.
We decided to once again travel in May when the trains and the stations wouldn’t be as crowded and there would be less likelihood of our trains being delayed due to heat-related speed restrictions and equipment failures.
Last year, we applied for an Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card which we’d used to pay for our September 2024 trip. By doing so, we’d received a generous number of Amtrak Guest Reward points as part of some special promotion. Once the AGR points from our May 2024 trip were added to these, we had, what was for us, a substantial number of points available to use.
We like to make our reservations as early as possible to be sure of obtaining bedrooms in the first or (to use zephyr17’s designation) the “base” sleeping cars; the ones that aren’t removed from the consist if there is shortage of sleepers with bedrooms. (On the Southwest Chief, the “line numbers” of these first or base sleepers are cars 330 westbound and 430 eastbound.) Since the earliest that one can make Amtrak reservations is eleven months in advance, in June, we called the Amtrak Guest Rewards number and arranged the following:
-Two Pacific Surfliner Business Class seats from San Diego to Los Angeles, paid for using 4125 of our AGR points.
-A Southwest Chief bedroom from Los Angeles to Chicago and two Capitol Limited coach seats from Chicago to Toledo, paid for using our Guest Rewards Card.
-Two Capitol Limited coach seats from Toledo to Chicago, paid for using 4725 of our AGR points.
-A Southwest Chief bedroom from Chicago to Los Angeles, paid for using our Guest Rewards Card.
-Two Pacific Surfliner Business Class seats from Los Angeles to San Diego, paid for using 4125 of our AGR points.
By making our Southwest Chief reservations eleven months ahead of time, we were not only able to request and obtain bedrooms in the 330 and 430 cars but were also able to request and obtain Bedroom E’s on both our east and westbound trains. (Located near the center of the car, Bedroom E is considered the most desirable since it is supposed to give the smoothest ride.) And by using our Amtrak Guest Rewards card, we received some additional “Spend-Earn” AGR points. As Nero Wolfe would say, “Satisfactory. Highly satisfactory.”
Having received and printed out the e-tickets for our May 2025 trip, we could now devote our full attention to our upcoming September trip.
On June 13th, we received an automated phone message and an e-mail from Amtrak regarding changes to the departure and arrival times of our Southwest Chief trains Nos. 4 and 3: No. 4 would now be departing from LAX at 5:22 p.m. (33 minutes earlier) and arriving in CHI at 2:42 p.m. (8 minutes earlier.) No. 3 would now be departing from CHI at 2:25 p.m. (25 minutes earlier) and arriving in LAX at 7:57 a.m. (3 minutes earlier). zephyr17 posted that the new schedule, which would go into effect on Monday July 8th was most likely part of an agreement between Amtrak and host railroad BNSF so that a better effort could be made to give SWC trains priority over freight traffic. On June 27th, joelkfla posted the new timetables for SWC Nos. 3 and 4, and we printed out copies to take along with us.
For our last few trips, everything we’ve taken with us was distributed among our carry-on items. (Since some of our trains weren’t accepting checked luggage, this made things a lot less complicated for us.) After returning home from our May trip, we’d revised our packing lists, organizing everything into four different categories: (1) things that we wanted to have with us in our bedroom while traveling; (2) things that we felt comfortable leaving in our carry-on bags downstairs in the luggage rack; (3) things that we wouldn’t need until we were actually back in Ohio; and (4) things that we’d left behind in Ohio with the family on our last trip and which they were storing for us. For this trip, we decided to mail back most of the items that were in the “things that we wouldn’t need until we were actually back in Ohio” category. This ended up reducing the total number of carry-on bags we’d have to deal with, a benefit that more than justified the cost of the postage.
One month out from our departure, we printed out and started working on our checklist of items that needed to be done before we left home: reserving a space for our car with San Diego Airport Parking, rescheduling our monthly appointments to dates after we’d returned home, paying closer attention to the on-time performances of our trains, etc.
We also prepared and printed out detailed Amtrak Vacation Goals which covered all aspects of our trip. All of these goals supported our primary Vacation Goal, mainly that our trip would be safe, enjoyable, and highly successful. Following the recommended procedure for writing up goals, these were written in the past tense as if our trip had already been completed. We then read these goals aloud together every night just before we went to sleep. To ensure that we weren’t unintentionally putting limitations on any aspect of our trip, we concluded the reading of our goals with “This or something better.”
Having taught classes in goal setting & goal achieving, I’m a firm believer in having specific, written goals and then reading them aloud. Over the years, all the important things that Pat and I wanted to accomplish were first written out as goals, which we then read aloud together. Our success rate with our written goals has convinced us beyond a doubt that there is some power at work here that goes far beyond that of just mere chance.
One week out from our departure, we started packing. (Since we already knew what we’d be taking with us and into which carry-on bag it would be going, this only takes us a day or two.) We then printed out and filed away a complete inventory of everything that we’d have with us in the unlikely event that we’d have to put in a claim for lost or stolen items.
Two items that we always have along with us (and which we consider to be indispensable) are our GPS device and our scanner.
Our GPS device is a Garmin nuvi 2797 intended for automotive use, but which can run off AC power by using an adapter. We use it primarily to determine our train’s speed and direction of travel, and to identify the small towns that we pass by. We also set our watches by its time display, which automatically readjusts itself whenever we enter a new time zone.
Our scanner is a little Uniden SC230 which can also be used with AC power. We have it programmed so that the American Association of Railroads (AAR) frequencies used by our Pacific Surfliner, Southwest Chief, and Capitol Limited trains – a total of twenty-five frequencies in all, each identified by its AAR Channel number – are in their own separate Channel Group. Since this is the only Channel Group that will be scanned, missing a transmission is highly unlikely.
Five days before our departure, we received an e-mail from Amtrak with the subject line “Your Train Leaves the Station in 5 Days.” This was the first time that we’d ever received such an e-mail and weren’t sure what we’d discover when we opened it. Fortunately, it turned out to be a benign “Welcome Aboard” message with travel information about our trip on Southwest Chief No. 4: available amenities, carry-on luggage allowances, pertinent station information, etc.
The remainder of the week was spent completing the last few items on our pre departure check list: letting our bank know that we’d be using our credit card in Ohio, picking up any last-minute items that we still needed for the trip, obtaining a sufficient number of small bills to use for tips, arranging with a neighbor to keep an eye on our house and property while we were gone, etc.
We spent the last day before our departure vacuuming and straightening up since it’s always nice to return home from a trip to a house that is neat and tidy.