One reservation for multi-city trip

[Lazy Z]

I made our reservations a couple of weeks ago. It is all on one reservation.

We are going:

FUL-ORL

ORL-SAV

SAV-WAS

WAS-NYP

NYP-FUL

The total price I paid was $4,312.90

I called in today because I wanted to break it up into separate reservations for each segment, for 3 reasons:

(1) to make changes easier

(2) to use AGR as they become available

(3) to be able to print tickets as we go along, instead of all at once

The agent I spoke with acted like this made no sense. She also told me it would cost more ($4,838.35) because they are booked as thru fares. She also said it would be fine to cancel parts of it and make changes and use the rewards when I need to. I have posted here about this before, and have read posts that say it is better to book it in segments, and also there is a slim chance I could lose our room while the changes are being made, which would be not so good.

Any thoughts? It will be awhile before I will have the points I need, and I am nervous to wait and break it up and maybe lose our rooms!

 

[rrdude]

I made our reservations a couple of weeks ago. It is all on one reservation.

We are going:

FUL-ORL

ORL-SAV

SAV-WAS

WAS-NYP

NYP-FUL

The total price I paid was $4,312.90

I called in today because I wanted to break it up into separate reservations for each segment, for 3 reasons:

(1) to make changes easier Should be able to do whether it's ONE rezzie or SEP rezzies. (rrdude)

(2) to use AGR as they become available. This might take a little more "effort" but should still be able to do even if all on one rezzie (rrdude)

(3) to be able to print tickets as we go along, instead of all at once. That's really the only "advantage" I can see to doing this, and, if you are connecting at any of these points, and the train is late, and you HAVEN'T printed your tickets, you could be in a real pickle. (rrdude)

The agent I spoke with acted like this made no sense. She also told me it would cost more ($4,838.35) because they are booked as thru fares. She also said it would be fine to cancel parts of it and make changes and use the rewards when I need to. I have posted here about this before, and have read posts that say it is better to book it in segments, and also there is a slim chance I could lose our room while the changes are being made, which would be not so good.

Any thoughts? It will be awhile before I will have the points I need, and I am nervous to wait and break it up and maybe lose our rooms!

 

[Lazy Z]

I made our reservations a couple of weeks ago. It is all on one reservation.

We are going:

FUL-ORL

ORL-SAV

SAV-WAS

WAS-NYP

NYP-FUL

The total price I paid was $4,312.90

I called in today because I wanted to break it up into separate reservations for each segment, for 3 reasons:

(1) to make changes easier Should be able to do whether it's ONE rezzie or SEP rezzies. (rrdude)

(2) to use AGR as they become available. This might take a little more "effort" but should still be able to do even if all on one rezzie (rrdude)

(3) to be able to print tickets as we go along, instead of all at once. That's really the only "advantage" I can see to doing this, and, if you are connecting at any of these points, and the train is late, and you HAVEN'T printed your tickets, you could be in a real pickle. (rrdude)

The agent I spoke with acted like this made no sense. She also told me it would cost more ($4,838.35) because they are booked as thru fares. She also said it would be fine to cancel parts of it and make changes and use the rewards when I need to. I have posted here about this before, and have read posts that say it is better to book it in segments, and also there is a slim chance I could lose our room while the changes are being made, which would be not so good.

Any thoughts? It will be awhile before I will have the points I need, and I am nervous to wait and break it up and maybe lose our rooms!

Thank you, RRdude! Typical of me to over think (and I equally under-think things!!) So I will not worry about it and try to get those points going!!

 

[AlanB]

Lazy Z,

Let's start with the first run, FUL-ORL. I'm assuming that this is a through run, meaning that you are not spending a night in Chicago. If that is indeed correct, then you cannot break up that leg into multiple segments without getting hit with a much higher price. Amtrak prices the through trip at one rate, but would price FUL-CHI, CHI-WAS, WAS-ORL as three individual trips killing that through discount. I'm not aware of any way around that. The same would apply NYP-FUL.

The next segment in your list, ORL-SAV should be able to be separated out to one reservation. Of course if the bucket has gone up since you booked that, you would loose that lower bucket price since you want the changes. Moving onto the SAV-WAS reservation, assuming that it is your intent to spend at least one night in DC and again to spend at least 1 night in NY, then those segments could be booked separately and for the same price, again assuming that the buckets haven't increased.

I'm also not sure just what will happen to the prices of things should you acquire enough points to say do CHI-FUL, but not enough to do NYP-CHI. A good agent should be able to hold the bucket, but again the price could change since you're no longer going all the way through Chicago based upon the paid reservation. The AGR reservation must be under a separate number, it cannot have the same PNR as the paid reservation. So the agent must release the room from the paid reservation and then rebook it as an AGR reservation. Doing so could alter the through fare that you have by going through Chicago with no stops. Shouldn't be a huge jump, but it still could be a jump.

So you would do best to try to get enough points for the entire trip and do it in one shot, rather than piecemeal.

The Orlando, Savanah, DC, NY segments this is not a concern, again provided that you are overnighting in those places.

 

[Lazy Z]

Lazy Z,

Let's start with the first run, FUL-ORL. I'm assuming that this is a through run, meaning that you are not spending a night in Chicago. If that is indeed correct, then you cannot break up that leg into multiple segments without getting hit with a much higher price. Amtrak prices the through trip at one rate, but would price FUL-CHI, CHI-WAS, WAS-ORL as three individual trips killing that through discount. I'm not aware of any way around that. The same would apply NYP-FUL.

The next segment in your list, ORL-SAV should be able to be separated out to one reservation. Of course if the bucket has gone up since you booked that, you would loose that lower bucket price since you want the changes. Moving onto the SAV-WAS reservation, assuming that it is your intent to spend at least one night in DC and again to spend at least 1 night in NY, then those segments could be booked separately and for the same price, again assuming that the buckets haven't increased.

I'm also not sure just what will happen to the prices of things should you acquire enough points to say do CHI-FUL, but not enough to do NYP-CHI. A good agent should be able to hold the bucket, but again the price could change since you're no longer going all the way through Chicago based upon the paid reservation. The AGR reservation must be under a separate number, it cannot have the same PNR as the paid reservation. So the agent must release the room from the paid reservation and then rebook it as an AGR reservation. Doing so could alter the through fare that you have by going through Chicago with no stops. Shouldn't be a huge jump, but it still could be a jump.

So you would do best to try to get enough points for the entire trip and do it in one shot, rather than piecemeal.

The Orlando, Savanah, DC, NY segments this is not a concern, again provided that you are overnighting in those places.

hi, Alan - thank you for helping me break it out a bit. The "most important" segment is the FUL-ORL, as we want to arrive on that specific day (hopefully will work out fine). We ARE spending nights on the other segments. Originally, planned to go direct from NYP-FUL on the trip home, but now am really leaning towards spending time in CHI, too. I think maybe it will be best to break that up NYP-CHI and CHI-FUl, because as you stated, they can go up. Even if I get the points for CHI-FUL (which is my goal) I could pay a lot for the NYP-CHI after all.

It would not cause any problems with the rest of my reservation if I break that up now? I guess the rail fare will go up since it is not through anymore, but the "bucket" price hopefully can be held for me for the roomette and bedroom? At what $ amt should I just leave it be? If it gets up to the price for 15,000 AGR right now ($285), then just leave it as is, I imagine. I do not even know how much I paid for each segment since it was all done at once-if I call in, can they tell me each the price for each segment? I know that the bedroom prices have gone up on the CHI-FUL, but once again, I will get the points for that. My biggest goal is AGR for ABQ-CHI and CHI-FUL And by separating the NYP-FUL, that would set it up for the points purchase and hopefully retain a fair price for the NYP-CHI in case I do not get enough points.

I think I have figured I need about 120,000 for this whole trip I am working hard on it. I have some points from the M/C and now the Sapphire card and have some other points to move and I can buy the 15,000 for $285 (and do the same for my child). I imagine as it gets closer, I can still keep doing it.