Cross country trip in 2020

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Man! That is great news! Thank you. I was starting to think I wouldn’t be able to use any of the points and I was going to have to plan a second trip to use them in the future. But it’s taken me 5-6 years to get this one off the ground and 5-6 years from now my daughters probably won’t want to take a trip like this with their old man!
 
F900ElCapitan said:
So this post also got me thinking about the one same day connection I have in Chicago from #4 to #305 on my upcoming trip. For the first leg I paid with points but the second with dollars. The more I thought about it and reading that separate reservation numbers aren’t guaranteed, I called to see what Amtrak said and to see if I needed to add a 305 leg to the first reservation and then just cancel the current 305 ticket. What I was told is my reservations were cross referenced. Doing so will enact the guaranteed connection and its protections. So if you do need/want to combine points and dollars on a connected trip there is a way. Just make sure to talk to an AGR 1 (800) 307-5000 agent and they should be able to set you up.
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This is definitely a flaw about Amtrak's reservation system, if you want to use points for one segment of your trip and dollars/card for another part of your trip. Where essentially, you can't pay half and half of your Amtrak trip split between points, and dollars. And for sure yes, make the choice to either ONLY use dollars or points when connecting between trains somewhere(i.e. Chicago, DC, LA, Portland, etc) and NEVER as separate reservations when going one way(i.e. train 4 as one reservation, and 305 in another one), to ensure that Amtrak guarantees your connection if you aren't able by some weird chance to make your same day connection in Chicago.

The only workaround I can see, is to use your AGR points in one direction(i.e. going east to south on 4 to 305), and dollars/credit card to pay the fare going the other way(i.e. train 300 to train 3, north to west). Keep in mind this is just a theoretical example, here.
 
dogbert617 said:
This is definitely a flaw about Amtrak's reservation system, if you want to use points for one segment of your trip and dollars/card for another part of your trip. Where essentially, you can't pay half and half of your Amtrak trip split between points, and dollars. And for sure yes, make the choice to either ONLY use dollars or points when connecting between trains somewhere(i.e. Chicago, DC, LA, Portland, etc) and NEVER as separate reservations when going one way(i.e. train 4 as one reservation, and 305 in another one), to ensure that Amtrak guarantees your connection if you aren't able by some weird chance to make your same day connection in Chicago.

The only workaround I can see, is to use your AGR points in one direction(i.e. going east to south on 4 to 305), and dollars/credit card to pay the fare going the other way(i.e. train 300 to train 3, north to west). Keep in mind this is just a theoretical example, here.
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Yes, I've read this many times here, which is what got me concerned. But according to the AGR agent, if you “cross-reference” your two reservations they will be treated as a guaranteed connection. She said there was even an additional note in my reservation that says “Guaranteed connection”, of which she didn’t know why somebody would put that in there. Maybe this there way of correcting the deficiency of not being able to do points and dollars on one reservation?

Has anyone else had this where two reservations were “cross-referenced” and what was your experience?
 
Another thought is you and your wife applies for a card each and when booking the outbound trip you call and ask the agent to split the payment so each card has $1000. If the price is low and you are still short I am sure there are other travel expenses you can use to reach $1000 on each card. ;)

That way you will each have 20000 points and you can try the 2 roomette approach on the way back. Each of you can book a roomette with one child and book the coach leg with companion.
 
F900ElCapitan said:
Yes, I've read this many times here, which is what got me concerned. But according to the AGR agent, if you “cross-reference” your two reservations they will be treated as a guaranteed connection. She said there was even an additional note in my reservation that says “Guaranteed connection”, of which she didn’t know why somebody would put that in there. Maybe this there way of correcting the deficiency of not being able to do points and dollars on one reservation?

Has anyone else had this where two reservations were “cross-referenced” and what was your experience?
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Interesting to know. So by doing this, you call the 800 number and talk to a live agent, and note this to whatever agent you talked to on the phone that you want both trip reservations to be treated as a guaranteed connection? That's good to know, for reference purposes.
 
That’s an interesting idea, about my wife and I both applying for a card. I’m not sure whether we would both get approved as my wife technically has no income. We both work together, but I am the only one of us that gets a paycheck. But that’s perhaps an option we could explore.

I think what I will do is book the return trip first (EMY to HFY) because it is the more expensive trip and most likely to get delayed (heading east). I will see if the companion coupon will help at all, but if not I’m thinking the booking will be around $2300-$2500 for the four of us. Then see what I can do with points for the outbound trip (HFY to PDX) at least being able to pay for the first leg (HFY to CHI). That trip seems less likely to get delayed until the point I miss the next leg (CHI to PDX). Hopefully I can get those trips connected together by calling Amtrak when I make the booking.

I will probably use the AGR card to book my rental car, and I should see some discounts there as well as a nice points multiplier.

I have decided that I will focus on trying to get the Family Bedroom booked over the 2 Roomettes now, but I know that will make availability/price less flexible. Being on the lower level, as far as I have heard, is better for motion sickness and my oldest daughter suffers a bit from time to time. Plus I think I will appreciate the extra space.
 
OP, Amtrak is currently offering 40,000 points for signing up the World MasterCard. There is an annual fee of $79 and you have to meet some spending requirement. But still a good deal and you might want to check it out.
 
Man. I hope that offer keeps going for a few months! I can’t apply yet because my booking is still over 11months away!
 
zephyr17 said:
NO. Doing that without the connection guarantee is not something I would do. It would be very unwise if you have a same day connection.

Late on Amtrak long distance services can mean VERY late, and 4 hours is not a great amount of time, especially when connecting from a western transcon at Chicago. On the ASMAD site ( https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/home.php ) you can research how often a connection is made, it shows that since March 1, that connection has been missed 34 out of 111 times, or 31%.

Personally, more times than not, I build an overnight layover when connecting at Chicago eastbound, so as not miss sleeper accommodations the next day. If you do build in an overnight layover in Chicago, then yes, breaking the reservation at Chicago is safe. If you are making a same day connection, under no circumstances do it under two different reservations.

If you miss your train with both under the same reservation to Harpers Ferry (served only by the Capitol Limited...if you were going to DC, they might do things differently, like put you on the Lakeshore Limited later that night), Amtrak will:
1. Provide you with a hotel at their cost, billed to their account.
2. Provide cash for taxi transfer and meal costs
3. Provide transportation on the next day's Capitol. If you had sleeping accommodations, you might be put in coach if the sleepers are full. Amtrak will refund the sleeping car accommodation charge in that case.

If you miss your train with them under separate reservations, Amtrak will:
1. Show you as a no show, no refund of your fare.
2. Demand a new ticket be purchased at current prices on the next day's Capitol Limited.
3. Leave you to your own devices to stay the night in Chicago.

If you are breaking the trip into multiple reservations, do it at a point where you do NOT have a same day connection.
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I only recently found out (through this forum-THANKS!) about this single reservation thing. I had been booking my trips "back east" on separate reservations (SWC and LSL) and had apparently gotten lucky, but after reading your post and the subsequent thread, I called Amtrak AGR and got my reservations cross-referenced too. While doing that, the agent informed me of a saver fare that was now available on 1 of the segments that I either didn't see or wasn't available at the time I made the reservation. So I also got $40 back which is the exact amount that I am going to have to pay Greyhound to change a reservation error that I made. Yay!
 
Nickolas Jackson said:
Man. I hope that offer keeps going for a few months! I can’t apply yet because my booking is still over 11months away!
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Just FYI, you can, and if you want the points by the time you book you should, apply of the card now. In other words you don’t have to be ready to book in order to apply. In fact you have to make somewhere around $2500 worth of purchases before the points are credited to your account. So if you want the points you need to do this soon.
 
My plan was to spend the $2500 on one of the trips to get points for the other. So until I can book at least one of the trips or I am at least within 90days of the booking I think I have to wait. I plan to use this card for this trip, pay it off, and then probably cancel it.
 
I gotcha. I was just saying that if you can spend the 2500 prior to that, then you’ll have the 40,000 earlier and you can be more flexible that way. If not, then it sounds like you’ve got a good plan too. You probably know, but your bill will have to turn over and you have to make some sort of payment for the points to credit, and it can also take a couple of weeks at that. I did something similar to this last year with the card and will be heading out on my trip next month. I can’t wait and I hope you have a great trip too!
 
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