Two Trips - one AGR 1.0; one AGR 2.0 - Best of both worlds

Back in January for travel in August/September, I booked bedroom for 2 people under AGR 1.0: Portland, OR to LA overnight then to Albuquerque. Then Albuquerque to Greenville, SC via Chicago and D.C. Cost me 25K + 40K for a total of 65K points. Would have been a zillion points with 2.0.

Recently booked Greenville to NYP round trip a few weeks after first trip is over with 2 roomettes for two people total. Bedroom was out of this world pricing. Total about 43K points. Under 1.0 it would have been 50K for bedroom, 30K for roomette and 60K for 2 roomettes. Since she said no to single roomette, it was still cheaper under 2.0. Then again, it is only one train and I had to select the cheapest travel days.

No more long trips across country. First class airfare to Portland was $950 for 2 vs $500 in coach. I'll stick with NYP for points and first class plane for cross country. The latter doesn't happen very often.

Just booked Washington D.C. to Kansas City, MO all bedrooms for 25,703 it would have been 40,000 points on the old system.

The return trip in a roomette however, cost me 22,391 compare to 20,000 under the former method.

1.0 was great for parties of two in a roomette from Midwest to West Coast in summer, which the wife and I will do next month after booking last autumn. Expect EB and CS both to be nearly sold out in the sleepers on our travel days.

I just booked roomettes in April 2017 on Crescent New Orleans to DC, Capitol Limited DC to Chicago, and California Zephyr Chicago to Emeryville for just over 46,000 points in AGR 2.0. I'm happy. I did use Amsnag to snag the low buckets on all trains. I requested and received roomettes 003 on all the Superliners and 002 on the ViewLiner. It pays to call AGR instead of Amtrak.com agents for all your reservations. The agents are friendly helpful and willing to work with you. In almost all cases on Superliners roomette 005 or 002 was automatically offered. Agents had to specifically pull up the open rooms to reserve roomette 003. Only one told me she did not know how to do it but in the end she came through just as all the agents did. I should let you know in addition to the above trip I booked additional trips in this October, January 2017 and April 2017 some of which I used points and others I paid for but all were at Amsnag low bucket fares.

Tennessee Traveler said:

I just booked roomettes in April 2017 on Crescent New Orleans to DC, Capitol Limited DC to Chicago, and California Zephyr Chicago to Emeryville for just over 46,000 points in AGR 2.0. I'm happy.

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From Franklin, TN? Wouldn't the CONO been closer than getting to NOL?

Being a native of Louisiana, I prefer to spend time in the city(New Orleans) before or/after trip instead of driving to Memphis or even Birmingham. I fly SWA to New Orleans and stay a couple days. This trip is specifically to ride the Crescent. I have ridden the CONO multiple times in recent years. In fact, I rode it end point to end point four times this year 2016 so I am a little tired of it. Mississippi daytime scenery isn't much and food service in the diner has declined without a chef and only one attendant.