Hello all! Great forum!
We had a family bedroom on the CZ from CHI to SF a few years ago and other than a few hiccups (5 hours late and running out of pretty much every menu item) we really enjoyed it. Since then we have been slowly but steadily accumulating AGR points hoping to use them for either the SWC or EB from Chicago for our family of four. We ended up with 68K points. After figuring what dates would work for us next summer we were more than pleasantly surprised to find two bedrooms available on the SWC for 69K points in early August. I ended up buying 1K points for $37 which posted almost immediately and spent less than five minutes on the phone booking the trip. The phone rep gave us bedrooms D and E in car 0330. She said the SCA should have them in suite format when we arrive. From what I understand under AGR 1.0 it would have been 80K miles for a bedroom suite? If so then I'm a big fan of AGR 2.0.
Some questions:
1. We plan on heading to San Diego on the day we arrive. I could not add rail travel using AGR points because it was another 6K points. I can buy 4 coach seats for $129 on the Pacific Surfliner. Is that train ride worth it or should we just rent a car? I'm worried that kids and wife will be all "trained out" by the time we arrive. We will be in SD for 4 days but will probably be staying where a car won't be needed. I'm also worried about the SWC being late and missing the connection. When we took the CZ a few years ago it was 5 hours late so we pretty much lost a whole day of vacation by the time we got to our SF hotel. It looks like there are multiple PS trains. Would they just put us on the next PS train if we missed our scheduled train?
2. How does the abbreviated breakfast work on the morning of arrival since the arrival time is 8:15AM? Will they bring us breakfast to our room on that morning? I'd rather not eat breakfast at 5AM but 7AM would be great.
3. I brought some beer on the last trip which worked out well considering how much they charge on the train. This time I would like to bring a couple of bottles of wine. Do they allow you to bring your own wine to dinner?
4. In case we do rent a car are there rental locations near LA Union Station? We will be flying home a week later from LAX so it might be best if we just uber it over there to rent a car.
Thanks in advance!
We had a family bedroom on the CZ from CHI to SF a few years ago and other than a few hiccups (5 hours late and running out of pretty much every menu item) we really enjoyed it. Since then we have been slowly but steadily accumulating AGR points hoping to use them for either the SWC or EB from Chicago for our family of four. We ended up with 68K points. After figuring what dates would work for us next summer we were more than pleasantly surprised to find two bedrooms available on the SWC for 69K points in early August. I ended up buying 1K points for $37 which posted almost immediately and spent less than five minutes on the phone booking the trip. The phone rep gave us bedrooms D and E in car 0330. She said the SCA should have them in suite format when we arrive. From what I understand under AGR 1.0 it would have been 80K miles for a bedroom suite? If so then I'm a big fan of AGR 2.0.
Some questions:
1. We plan on heading to San Diego on the day we arrive. I could not add rail travel using AGR points because it was another 6K points. I can buy 4 coach seats for $129 on the Pacific Surfliner. Is that train ride worth it or should we just rent a car? I'm worried that kids and wife will be all "trained out" by the time we arrive. We will be in SD for 4 days but will probably be staying where a car won't be needed. I'm also worried about the SWC being late and missing the connection. When we took the CZ a few years ago it was 5 hours late so we pretty much lost a whole day of vacation by the time we got to our SF hotel. It looks like there are multiple PS trains. Would they just put us on the next PS train if we missed our scheduled train?
2. How does the abbreviated breakfast work on the morning of arrival since the arrival time is 8:15AM? Will they bring us breakfast to our room on that morning? I'd rather not eat breakfast at 5AM but 7AM would be great.
3. I brought some beer on the last trip which worked out well considering how much they charge on the train. This time I would like to bring a couple of bottles of wine. Do they allow you to bring your own wine to dinner?
4. In case we do rent a car are there rental locations near LA Union Station? We will be flying home a week later from LAX so it might be best if we just uber it over there to rent a car.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by a moderator: