Wow. Not bad then. I can get to El Paso from Seattle with 1 zone! Thanks for the help guys.
Yup--you could do SEA-ELP with three people in a bedroom for the same number of points as one person in a bedroom SEA-PDX. Make sure you know this so you know how to maximize the value of your points! (A SEA-PDX bedroom for one person would be an absolute waste on many, many levels...) Of course, it's not a terribly useful thing to book to ELP and get stranded there (I'm sure it's a nice town, but when I drove through many years ago, there wasn't much memorable except for the
GIANT Mexican flag flying across the valley in Ciudad Juarez--biggest flag I've ever seen), which would sort of diminish the value of the points... :lol:
Now, time for Advanced AGR Routings 301 class (make sure you're ready): the zones are solely based on the originating and terminating stations, even if the train travels outside of the zone!
For example, Lincoln, NE and Fargo, ND are both in the midwest zone. So any booking between that city pair would only take a one-zone. However, the only booking option shown for that city pair is westbound on the California Zephyr to Sacramento, northbound on the Coast Starlight to Klamath Falls, then a bus connection to Pasco, and then the eastbound Empire Builder to Fargo. It's
still a one-zone award, even though the train travels in two zones (midwest and west)!
The granddaddy "loophole" of them all is the famous (around here, anyway) Slidell, Louisiana trick, which basically allows you to cross the entire country but only paying for a two-zone award. If you were to book a trip from New Orleans to any point north or west, you'd have a more or less straight shot from NOL to your destination (or connecting train). Slidell is one stop east of New Orleans on the Crescent. But if you start a trip in Slidell and book to a destination west of New Orleans, the only connecting trains out of New Orleans leave the following morning after the Crescent arrives (i.e. they all leave before the Crescent arrives, so any connections would require you to overnight in NOL). Per Amtrak's policies, because Amtrak is forcing you to overnight in New Orleans, they'd have to pay for a hotel. They don't want to do that, so instead, they send you
east to Washington, DC, where same-day connections to westbound trains to Chicago (and onward) are available. (This is the same reason why LNK-FAR sends you to Sacramento, since the connection between the California Zephyr and Empire Builder in Chicago would be a forced overnight.) Becaeuse SDL is in the midwest zone and LAX/SEA/etc. are in the western zone, you can book SDL-LAX or SDL-SEA and basically cover the entire country, from the south to the east coast to the midwest and the west coast for the cost of a two-zone award! Now that's a great deal!
OK, a break before Advanced AGR Routings 401. (I have to write the curriculum first!)