Combined points / cash travel

[pointswithacrew]

So last summer my family of 8 traveled in 2 family bedrooms on the California Zephyr from Toledo to Denver (100,000 AGR transferred from Chase for 2 1 zone family bedrooms round trip)

We had a good time, but the Zephyr was 13 hours late into Denver, and eventually after complaining, they gave us about $1100 in vouchers

I swore I'd never ride the train again but.... I'm thinking about it (gotta use that voucher, right? :-D )

Anyways, I'm looking at the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle or Portland. Currently, there are several dates listed at around $1100-1200 for 1 family bedroom, and they list "only 1 room at this price"

My thought was to use our voucher for 1 family bedroom, and then use 40,000 points to book the other room.

Does anyone know if I can book the cash price (pay with my voucher) for the first family bedroom, and then have there still be availability on the train (even though it's now more expensive) to book the 2nd room with points?

Or, alternatively, anyone have other suggestions for a trip?

 

[PaulM]

I don't see why not. We've been told here that AGR agents can now book both reward and paid trips. The usual need for this is when a trip is part reward and part paid; e.g.; Miami to Toledo reward, and Toledo to Chi paid.

On second thought, the voucher, technically a "transportation certificate" could complicate matters since you have to deal with Customer Relations, the same people who issued you the certificate. They may say that AGR redemptions are above their pay grade, or they may facilitate matters for you.

PS Please don't let one bad trip dissuade you from further long distant rides if you have the time and funds. I would estimate, based on many, many trips that the chances of a repeat experience would be less than 1 in 10.

 

[SarahZ]

"Only 1 room at this price" usually means that's the last room left in the bucket.

Try putting in two family rooms to see if it gives you the "sold out" message. If it lets you book two rooms, then you should be ok, providing nobody books the other room before you call Amtrak.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

Also note that there will only be one sleeper car that goes to Portland thus only one family bedroom available. However, there are two sleeping cars to Seattle thus two family bedrooms on one in each sleeper.

 

[pointswithacrew]

Thanks for the feedback so far, and especially thanks for the tip about only one sleeper car going to Portland. I knew that they detached part of the train in Spokane, but I couldn't find any documentation for how many of which cars went where.

On most of the dates, when I change the drop down from 1 family BR to 2 family BR, it does still show as available, it just jumps the price up from ~1100 to 3100.

Right after the trip, I was sworn off Amtrak due to the delays, but now, with half a year in between, I'm more willing to think about it, just keeping in mind the delays and planning to account for them

 

[pdxjim]

Since I just talked with customer relations today about using a voucher, I can confirm you will need to book the voucher section with customer relations and then they will transfer your to an AGR agent to complete the points travel.

Enjoy your trip!

Jim

 

[pointswithacrew]

Is it generally known how many different "fare buckets" there are for roomette / sleepers?

 

[willem]

The accepted wisdom is five buckets, but Amtrak might not utilize all of them on every train.