New member from Washington with questions about routing

[zephyr17]

I have worked up a schedule as follows: Depart OLY on Starlight to Sacramento; Zephyr to Galesburg; Galesburg to LAX; LAX to OLY. Should be a seamless ride except for the LAX connection to the Starlight.
How does one book these trains so that Amtrak is aware of my connections?

Actually they are all legal, guaranteed connections, even Galesburg, which I verified by trying a OMA-ABQ trip and 6 to 3 at GBB is the routing it came up with. Your selected routes show up as options OLW-GBB and GBB-OLW on the website.

You could just do a simple round trip OLW (not OLY) - GBB, choosing the 11-6 OLW-SAC- GBB outbound routing and the 3-14 GBB-LAX-OLW routing on the return. With that said, I would still use Multi-City for the booking entering 2 segments, OLW-GBB and GBB-OLW rather than the simplified round trip option. The reason is that Multi-City just seems to have fewer weird glitches (like being unable to successfully mix accommodation types) and it also still gives you accommodation charge/rail fare breakdowns. You will generally want to enter the longest segments that will come up with a valid routing that you want.

Either method will give you one reservation number with all connections, which is the important thing when it comes to ensuring that your guaranteed connections are actually guaranteed.

The SAC connection is pretty safe. The GBB one is less so with the recent performance of 6. LAX 3-14 is risky these days. I do not know how Amtrak protects at Galesburg in case of a miss. Likely a hotel and a ticket on the next day's train. However they may not have a direct billing arrangement with hotels at Galesburg as they do at Chicago. You might have to pay for it yourself and send them the bill or they might just hand you enough cash at the ticket counter that they think should cover a hotel and send you on your way.

3-14 is typically protected by putting you on the much faster San Joaquin bus/train connection and catching you up to the Starlight at EMY, MTZ or SAC. Only if the SW Chief is so late that that option won't work will they lay you over for the next day's train.

Bear in mind that if you are laid over due to a missed connection and you are booked in a sleeper, a sleeper accommodation is not guaranteed for the next day's train. If no sleepers are available on your revised itinerary you will be downgraded to coach with your accommodation charge refunded.

Finally, while you are new to this forum, I have to ask how new are you to overnight Amtrak travel. Since you are looking for same day connections I assume you intend one continuous journey. If so, that is one ambitious itinerary, 6 nights and most of 7 days onboard continuously. If you haven't traveled overnight previously, that is one hell of a start. I have traveled extensively on Amtrak and VIA cross country for years and personally I've found 4 nights, 5 days is about my limit for an unbroken journey. Shortly before COVID, I returned from New York on a continuous NYP-CHI-LAX-SEA journey and I didn't enjoy the last leg on the Starlight all that much. I found myself wishing I had laid over in LA. Part of that was probably having to change trains twice. I find I tolerate 4 nights on the Canadian better, probably partly because the beds are better and partly because it is one through trip. But I am always still glad to get to Toronto, even if I am pushing off early the next morning for a long day's ride on the Maple Leaf.

Honestly, if you have not done multiple night Amtrak journeys before, consider building in a layover. I think you'll find you'll enjoy the trip more, as it might start feeling like a grind.

 

[willieweed]

The multicity did the job. Got all the way through the process to review purchase and have been kicked back to "select payment credit card. Can't find that check box. Suggestions???

 

[willieweed]

Finally stumbled on the payment thing and booked the trip. I've overnighted from Seattle on the Empire Builder many times as well as the Starlight and Sunset Limited. I want to ride these routes while I still can and am interested in the scenery, not the cities.
Thanks for the input.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Actually they are all legal, guaranteed connections, even Galesburg, which I verified by trying a OMA-ABQ trip and 6 to 3 at GBB is the routing it came up with. Your selected routes show up as options OLW-GBB and GBB-OLW on the website.

You could just do a simple round trip OLW (not OLY) - GBB, choosing the 11-6 OLW-SAC- GBB outbound routing and the 3-14 GBB-LAX-OLW routing on the return. With that said, I would still use Multi-City for the booking entering 2 segments, OLW-GBB and GBB-OLW rather than the simplified round trip option. The reason is that Multi-City just seems to have fewer weird glitches (like being unable to successfully mix accommodation types) and it also still gives you accommodation charge/rail fare breakdowns. You will generally want to enter the longest segments that will come up with a valid routing that you want.

Either method will give you one reservation number with all connections, which is the important thing when it comes to ensuring that your guaranteed connections are actually guaranteed.

The SAC connection is pretty safe. The GBB one is less so with the recent performance of 6. LAX 3-14 is risky these days. I do not know how Amtrak protects at Galesburg in case of a miss. Likely a hotel and a ticket on the next day's train. However they may not have a direct billing arrangement with hotels at Galesburg as they do at Chicago. You might have to pay for it yourself and send them the bill or they might just hand you enough cash at the ticket counter that they think should cover a hotel and send you on your way.

3-14 is typically protected by putting you on the much faster San Joaquin bus/train connection and catching you up to the Starlight at EMY, MTZ or SAC. Only if the SW Chief is so late that that option won't work will they lay you over for the next day's train.

Bear in mind that if you are laid over due to a missed connection and you are booked in a sleeper, a sleeper accommodation is not guaranteed for the next day's train. If no sleepers are available on your revised itinerary you will be downgraded to coach with your accommodation charge refunded.

Finally, while you are new to this forum, I have to ask how new are you to overnight Amtrak travel. Since you are looking for same day connections I assume you intend one continuous journey. If so, that is one ambitious itinerary, 6 nights and most of 7 days onboard continuously. If you haven't traveled overnight previously, that is one hell of a start. I have traveled extensively on Amtrak and VIA cross country for years and personally I've found 4 nights, 5 days is about my limit for an unbroken journey. Shortly before COVID, I returned from New York on a continuous NYP-CHI-LAX-SEA journey and I didn't enjoy the last leg on the Starlight all that much. I found myself wishing I had laid over in LA. Part of that was probably having to change trains twice. I find I tolerate 4 nights on the Canadian better, probably partly because the beds are better and partly because it is one through trip. But I am always still glad to get to Toronto, even if I am pushing off early the next morning for a long day's ride on the Maple Leaf.

Honestly, if you have not done multiple night Amtrak journeys before, consider building in a layover. I think you'll find you'll enjoy the trip more, as it might start feeling like a grind.

Once I had a Rez to connect from #6 to #3 @ GBB, and when #6 missed the Connection we were carried by to Chicago, put up in a Hotel, ( Lucky to get the Hyatt) given Taxi and Food $$$ by Customer Service, and booked on the next days #5 in a Roomete since all the Bedrooms were Sold Out.( was refunded the difference which was like $500)

Great point about breaking up such Long trips with a Night in a Hotel, I too have a limit now of about 3 continous nights, but as you said, the Canadian is the exception to this!

 

[zephyr17]

@Bob Dylan good to hear a field report about how they handle misconnects in Galesburg and that it is the same as Chicago (where I been put up at various quite nice Amtrak Misconnect Inns many times over the years).

 

[Bob Dylan]

@Bob Dylan good to hear a field report about how they handle misconnects in Galesburg and that it is the same as Chicago (where I been put up at various quite nice Amtrak Misconnect Inns many times over the years).

Thanks, I also had the same expierence when #6 was late in GBB and we missed the Van to Springfield to connect with #21.

 

[willieweed]

One last glitch. They took my money and then no confirmation or E ticket. Is it usual for a 5 hour delay between taking the $$$ and confirmation?

 

[zephyr17]

No, it is usually seconds. Did you note your reservation number? That should have been displayed on the confirmation page that displays once payment processing is done. If the confirmation screen never displayed, your reservation was likely not completed.

Are you an AGR member?

If an AGR member, your reservation should show under "My Trips". If not an AGR member, you can look up your reservation by entering the reservation number and your last name.

Check your credit card online or call your bank and see if there is a pending charge from Amtrak. The pending charge hold should be there as soon as Amtrak gets the approval code. And the Amtrak confirmation screen will not display until and unless the charge is approved. Amtrak won't complete a reservation until it gets credit card approval. There is always the possibility that process got hung up and the Amtrak UI did not handle it gracefully and hung.

 

[joelkfla]

One last glitch. They took my money and then no confirmation or E ticket. Is it usual for a 5 hour delay between taking the $$$ and confirmation?

Check your email's spam folder, too. Yahoo sends random emails, from legitimate senders that regularly go thru, to my spam folder occasionally.

 

[zephyr17]

Check your email's spam folder, too. Yahoo sends random emails, from legitimate senders that regularly go thru, to my spam folder occasionally.

Ah, that is a possibility, too. Didn't think of that because I have had any email from an amtrak.com domain whitelisted for years.

 

[willieweed]

Earlier attempt wasn't in the spam folder so I considered it a failure and tried again. Success!!! Leaving 09/22/2022.