List of loopholes

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PatrickG

PatrickG

Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
3
Has anyone compiled a list of 1 zone loopholes?

I think I read that most of them are in the central zone, and only a few in the east. (I'm in WAS).
 
Slidell-Hammond

Omaha-Columbus

Kirkwood/Kansas City-Columbus

Palm Springs-Truckee
 
PatrickG said:
I think I read that most of them are in the central zone, and only a few in the east. (I'm in WAS).
Click to expand...
There really are none in the east, because none of the east routes cross into the midwest zone (with an easy turn). The best you could do from WAS is buy (or redeem a coach award) to ATL - the zone border - and get a 2 zone loophole trip to the west coast!

That's what I do - because it cost less points! I redeem a 1 zone coach award to ATL for 5,500 points, (then actually buy an <$30 coach ticket to BHM - because it allows a 3 hour turn instead of 12 hours), then redeem a 2 zone loophole award to the west coast for 20,000 points (for a roomette) or 30,000 points (for a bedroom). This way, it costs 25,500 points for a roomette instead of 35,000 points! Or for a bedroom, it costs 35,500 points instead of 50,000 points! :D

And it can go back thru WAS! :p
 
Anything in the eastern zone to Port Huron is one zone. Use the old one stop after Chicago trick pretty much make your destination Chicago.
 
Add SPI-NOL Springfield, IL to New Orleans via Texas Eagle to CHI, Capitol Limited to WAS and Crescent to NOL

Edit to add: Alton, IL to NOL & Carlinville, IL to NOL gives the same routing as above.
 
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BeckysBarn said:
Add SPI-NOL Springfield, IL to New Orleans via Texas Eagle to CHI, Capitol Limited to WAS and Crescent to NOL
Edit to add: Alton, IL to NOL & Carlinville, IL to NOL gives the same routing as above.
Click to expand...
Oh, come on now, that is just the Slidell Loophole and can be done with a ton of cities in the central zone. Does every city that can get the Slidell routing really need to be listed?
 
Guest said:
BeckysBarn said:
Add SPI-NOL Springfield, IL to New Orleans via Texas Eagle to CHI, Capitol Limited to WAS and Crescent to NOL
Edit to add: Alton, IL to NOL & Carlinville, IL to NOL gives the same routing as above.
Click to expand...
Oh, come on now, that is just the Slidell Loophole and can be done with a ton of cities in the central zone. Does every city that can get the Slidell routing really need to be listed?
Click to expand...
Mmm - no Slidell & New Orleans are not the same.
 
BeckysBarn said:
Guest said:
BeckysBarn said:
Add SPI-NOL Springfield, IL to New Orleans via Texas Eagle to CHI, Capitol Limited to WAS and Crescent to NOL
Edit to add: Alton, IL to NOL & Carlinville, IL to NOL gives the same routing as above.
Click to expand...
Oh, come on now, that is just the Slidell Loophole and can be done with a ton of cities in the central zone. Does every city that can get the Slidell routing really need to be listed?
Click to expand...
Mmm - no Slidell & New Orleans are not the same.
Click to expand...
but they function the same in these situations.
 
West Coast to SDL. Its funny when you list several cities in SoCal, and get totally different routes. Like SLO to SDL gives you Surfliner to Texas Eagle to Capitol to Crescent. But SBA to SDL will give you SWC to Cardinal to Crescent. Some cities will only let you ride on the Eagle. Some only the SWC, and some only the Cardinal but not the Capitol. And the Cardinal is the one that runs only 3 days a week!
 
the_traveler said:
PatrickG said:
I think I read that most of them are in the central zone, and only a few in the east. (I'm in WAS).
Click to expand...
There really are none in the east, because none of the east routes cross into the midwest zone (with an easy turn). The best you could do from WAS is buy (or redeem a coach award) to ATL - the zone border - and get a 2 zone loophole trip to the west coast!

That's what I do - because it cost less points! I redeem a 1 zone coach award to ATL for 5,500 points, (then actually buy an <$30 coach ticket to BHM - because it allows a 3 hour turn instead of 12 hours), then redeem a 2 zone loophole award to the west coast for 20,000 points (for a roomette) or 30,000 points (for a bedroom). This way, it costs 25,500 points for a roomette instead of 35,000 points! Or for a bedroom, it costs 35,500 points instead of 50,000 points! :D

And it can go back thru WAS! :p
Click to expand...
Since I was first told about the atlanta loophole it has become my favorite :) . However I can only use it coming back to the eastcoast ;) . You can get off in washington. I'm hoping when I get enough points again maybe I'll ride down to atl in coach and then get the full use of it :cool: .
 
Hey all you "loophole pros", would Raton, NM to Columbus, WI be considered a one zone ride? Looks to me like it is, but hard to believe AGR would book it that way.
 
rrdude said:
Hey all you "loophole pros", would Raton, NM to Columbus, WI be considered a one zone ride? Looks to me like it is, but hard to believe AGR would book it that way.
Click to expand...
Mrs. Ispolkom booked a 1-zone AGR trip ABQ-LAX-PDX-MOT last November, so Raton - Columbus shouldn't be any problem. It took a little work with the clerk, but they eventually saw it our way. On the other hand, the clerk positively wouldn't book MSP-CHI-ABQ, because of the required layover in Chicago.
 
I went back through a lot of the old posts and copied down all the loophole routings I found, then checked them on Amtrak.com to get the total trip hours. (The times include stopovers, not just train time, because I was lazy and didn't feel like doing the extra math).

Note: I am not taking credit for discovering any of these loopholes. Everything on this list has been previously posted somewhere else on the AU forum.

1 Zone:

POS-SPI-GBB-EMY (120 hours)

KWD-KCY-LAX-PDX-CBS (116)

OMA-SAC-PDX-CBS (110)

CBS-PDX-SAC-DEN (99)

ELP-CHI-CVS-SDL or ELP-CHI-WAS-SDL (95)

ABQ-LAX-PDX-CBS (91)

SCH-LAX-DDG (83)

SDL-WAS-CHI-HMD (77)

ABQ-CHI-CVS-NOL (69)

ATL-WAS-CHI-DEN (61)

PTH-CHI-PGH-PHL-MIA (61)

WPT-CHI-CVS-ATL or WPT-CHI-WAS-ATL (61)

2 Zone:

SDL-WAS-CHI-SAC-SEA (135)

PDX-SAC-CHI-CVS-SDL (108) or PDX-SEA-CHI-WAS-SDL (91) or PDX-CHI-WAS-SDL (87)

AUS-SPI-GBB-SAC-PDX (104)

SDL-WAS-CHI-LAX (98)

ATL-WAS-CHI-LAX (87)

POR-BON-BBY-CHI-ELP (82)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@Roadfool,

Just for the sake of completeness, the KCY-CBS loophole has bCBSeen extended to be KWD-CBS (116 hrs)
 
Roadfool said:
I went back through a lot of the old posts and copied down all the loophole routings I found, then checked them on Amtrak.com to get the total trip hours. (The times include stopovers, not just train time, because I was lazy and didn't feel like doing the extra math).
Note: I am not taking credit for discovering any of these loopholes. Everything on this list has been previously posted somewhere else on the AU forum.

1 Zone:

POS-SPI-GBB-EMY (120 hours)

OMA-SAC-PDX-CBS (110)

KCY-LAX-PDX-CBS (110)

CBS-PDX-SAC-DEN (99)

ELP-CHI-CVS-SDL or ELP-CHI-WAS-SDL (95)

ABQ-LAX-PDX-CBS (91)

SCH-LAX-DDG (83)

SDL-WAS-CHI-HMD (77)

ABQ-CHI-CVS-NOL (69)

ATL-WAS-CHI-DEN (61)

PTH-CHI-PGH-PHL-MIA (61)

WPT-CHI-CVS-ATL or WPT-CHI-WAS-ATL (61)

2 Zone:

SDL-WAS-CHI-SAC-SEA (135)

PDX-SAC-CHI-CVS-SDL (108) or PDX-SEA-CHI-WAS-SDL (91) or PDX-CHI-WAS-SDL (87)

AUS-SPI-GBB-SAC-PDX (104)

SDL-WAS-CHI-LAX (98)

ATL-WAS-CHI-LAX (87)

POR-BON-BBY-CHI-ELP (82)
Click to expand...
Who's got a list of 3-Zone loopholes? Oh wait, lemmie think. Hmmmmm.

 
I'm a copy and paste fiend right now! These routings make me drool. Hope they stay around awhile. I can't be greedy though, my loophole trip is 53 days away, but whose counting?! :lol: Which leads me to my $0.02. I made my reservations for the Slidell loophole to PDX on November 12th of '09. I immediately posted thanking those that clued me in at that time. Routings (at that time) were many, I think 4-5 options were present. Obviously wanting the most hours for my points I chose and was able to book the Crescent/Capitol Limited/SW Chief/Coast Starlight (SDL/WAS/CHI/LAX/PDX) routing. Just a week or two later (after booking) the routing with the SW Chief disappeared and I have yet to see it appear again. So routings come and go, jump on a good one when the opportunity presents itself! We then added (my dear wife and I) a leg or two at a time the "getting there and rolling home" portion. We had all legs wrapped up by early last month. I won't bore you with the gory details but lets just say we have a stack of 10 Amtrak tickets(each) worth 9 nights/11 days, 29 diner meals, 155 station stops (not counting flag stops), 209 hours, 9557 rail miles, countless friends and family and many priceless memories. Thanks to all of you, AGAIN! Mark
 
Tuesday, March 09, 2010

From: Omaha, NE (OMA)

To: Columbus, WI (CBS)

Morning Afternoon Evening $447.00 110 hr, 18 min$447.00

From Arrow
 
RRrich said:
Tuesday, March 09, 2010From: Omaha, NE (OMA)

To: Columbus, WI (CBS)

Morning Afternoon Evening $447.00 110 hr, 18 min$447.00

From Arrow
Click to expand...
I was adding up the time on the train, not the total time between departure and arrival. That's the difference.

For OMA - CBS, there is about 10.5 hours of connection time.

My bad.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

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