traveling 2 zones but entering third zone

[Rachel]

We are trying to plan a trip using our reward points. We want to go from Tacoma wa to New Orleans. When you put the destinations in it takes you from Tacoma to Sacramento to Chicago to Charlottesville to New Orleans. This would take you through all 3 zones even though the final destination is only 2 zones. Do they charge you point wise for 3 zones or would it still only be 2 zones?

 

[the_traveler]

If you take the Cardinal, yes then it would be 3 zones. But if you take the City of New Orleans and stay in the Midwest zone, it's 2 zones only.

 

[Ispolkom]

We are trying to plan a trip using our reward points. We want to go from Tacoma wa to New Orleans. When you put the destinations in it takes you from Tacoma to Sacramento to Chicago to Charlottesville to New Orleans. This would take you through all 3 zones even though the final destination is only 2 zones. Do they charge you point wise for 3 zones or would it still only be 2 zones?

According to the Rules as Written, you won't be able to book that trip, because it leaves the Central Zone, enters the Eastern Zone, and then returns into the Central Zone, making it a "circle trip."

I doubt that you could book that trip anyway, since a legal routing (Tacoma-Sacramento-Chicago-New Orleans) also appears on days when there's a connection to the Cardinal. On days without a Cardinal connection, you also can travel Tacoma-LA-New Orleans, except for Sundays, when the California Zephyr routing is the only published route.

I'm not saying that you can't book your routing, just that it is against the Rules as Written. AGR agents often make stuff up.

ETA: back in the good old days when circuitous routes were hunky dory (that's before April 1, 2010), Tacoma-Sacramento-Chicago-New Orleans wouldn't have been legal. You would have had to book it to the stop on the Crescent before New Orleans, thus the Slidell Shuffle.

 

[Ryan]

Technically the routing on the Cardinal is a circle trip and may not be allowed, pending how tightly the agent holds to the rules.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

If you go by the letter of the law, you are actually dealing with 4 Zones since you travel across all 3 and then backtrack into the Central Zone. If you want to do this, book it as 2-2 Zone runs with a break at Toldeo or Cincinnati (Zone Border Cities).

 

[jtoddander]

Do you have specific routes that you are trying to experience or are you trying to rack up maximum train time? You looking for shortest route?people choose their routings based on lot of criteria . You can do N awfully nice trip within 2 zones

 

[Rachel]

Do you have specific routes that you are trying to experience or are you trying to rack up maximum train time? You looking for shortest route?people choose their routings based on lot of criteria . You can do N awfully nice trip within 2 zones

We are trying to get the most travel time for the points. we are 2k points away from being able to travel 3 zones in a bedroom. We were thinking Orlando but we have already been to Orlando once before so we were trying to find somewhere else to travel to. We have never been on the California zephyr and have been told it is very scenic so we were hoping to include it in the trip.

 

[Ryan]

You may find this discussion of interest:

http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/61519-longest-routing/

 

[jtoddander]

One super long routing that I have learned about is NOL to CHI to LAX on SWC and them LAX to SEA. I think it is 100+ hours but it would require you to start I'm NOL. Still it is a 2 zone trip. All three train routes are great. Also you do get a few hours to wander around Chicago if trains are on time

 

[Ryan]

That's an excellent route, too. If I mathed correctly, it's about 97 hours.

 

[crescent2]

This may or may not pertain to the OP's trip, but just to clarify, AGR does allow central-eastern-central sometimes. We did that as a 2-zone award on our trip, but it was the only allowable (published) routing between our departure station (ATN) and destination station (CHI). (Well, the Cardinal routing was also allowed on the days it runs, but that's still central-eastern-central.)

As to the OP's question of how many zones it would be, extrapolating from my experience, theirs should be a 3-zone award (western-central-eastern-central).

AGR let us travel ATN(AL)-WAS-CHI on a 2-zone award, and then CHI-CVS-ATN on the return as another 2-zone award. So, they charged for both zones, but not for re-entering a zone. Of course, we all know it can sometimes depend on which agent you get. However, when I phoned on two other days (re adding a passenger, then inquiring about guaranteed connections), the other agents made no mention of its being a strange or disallowed booking. Therefore, I don't think it was anything iffy.

The 1-zone routing of ATN-NOL-CHI was not a published route, presumably because an overnight in NOL is required. So the central-eastern-central routing was the only (published) way to get there from here. I don't know if that made a difference. It was my understanding that if a routing is a published one without using the Multi-city feature, AGR will allow it.