agr is changing,what was your longest,strangest or best redemption?

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as many of us are expecting big changes for how agr redemptions will work after the first of the year, what have been some of your longest, strangest or best redemptions. i have always tried to maximize train miles so i guess my longest was a 2 zone spokane to atlanta where we were routed spk-chi-nol-atl and on the return atl-nol-lax-pdx-spk. longest 1 zone was probably spokane to trinidad, co. to see the raton and the semaphores. spk-pdx-lax-tri. one of the best was when we went spk-atl but were routed, as a 2-zone, through dc and had a several hour layover there each way. have a 2 zone sea-sac-chi-nol in early october. looks like that could be it. it has been a good run
 
Haven't been traveling by train for very long (started in 2011). My longest was to last year's gathering and my first time ever having gone to the west coast, by any mode of transportation.

WIL - NYP - CHI - LAX -SJC

NER - LSL - SWC - CS

Then back home

EMY - CHI - WAS - WIL

CZ - CL - NER

Pd for the WIL-TOL & TOL-WIL portions.
 
A few years ago we did a Cleveland to Merced, CA via CL-TE-SSL-Bus to Bakersfield and then SJ up to Merced. Also did a CLE to SEA via CL-SWC-CS. It was always interesting getting the zone things to work out of Toledo. I guess there may be no more Toledo Shuffles for us :p
 
Most of my trips (as most of you know) are epic LLLOOONNNGGG rides! :p

One of them was for the LA Gathering, doing part of the SDL loophole. I went from BHM to LAX via WAS, CHI and PDX - for a 2 zone roomette award of 20K! I also did the CBS loophole from STL (after the STL Gathering) via KCY, LAX and PDX - for a 1 zone bedroom award of 20K!
 
No loopholes, unfortunately dd not learn of AGR in time. :p

Longest redemption was the 2012 cross-country trip HFX-MTR-TWO-BUF-CUS-PDX-SAC in bedroom for a cool 50,000 points. And you know what, every singe one of our trains were EARLY into the destination!!!!!!!
 
Wow - I've done only a single coach redemption - SEA-EMY and only because I didn't want to pay for a flight home. Some would say it wasn't a very effective use of 5500 points for a ride that was $130 (before discounts) at the time of the redemption.

I guess I'm kind of a practical guy. Sure I've gotten a few points from car rentals and hotel stays, but the bulk of my points came from good old fashioned commuting to work. I mostly accumulated points to get status - just barely 5000 points and then 10,000 points the next year. With Double Days, Fast Track to Status (which seemed to double points), Select/Select+ bonuses, some partner points, and lots of little trips, somehow I managed to collect about 36,000 points in less than 3 years without buying a single point and without transferring a point from my Chase SP card.

You know - it didn't really make that much sense for me to redeem points. I couldn't seem to manage the time nor a reason for the long trips that seem to be discussed here. Maybe one of these days, although who knows how this is going to work out.

I'm just kind of hoping for some sort of hybrid, like the special routes remaining a flat redemption amount since they're generally short, and the LD trains with redemption amounts proportional to revenue pricing. And I just hope that minimum points are maintained. They make train travel more fun for me.
 
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As a relative newbie to AGR, my longest was last year: from MRC-LAX-PDX-WFH. Nowhere near a loop but a nice "c" shaped 1 zone redemption.
 
Last summer, I did CHI to NOL, paid for coach to Slidell, then Slidell to WAS and then back to CHI. (Is this the "Slidell Loophole"?) It was a fun trip. :) I would say that was my best redemption as far as point values are concerned.

As for my favorite redemption, that had to be CHI to SEA, SEA to EMY, and EMY to CHI. I spent two nights in SEA and one night in EMY (technically, San Francisco), so I spent lots of points, but it was totally worth it. That was a great vacation.

Also, in a rare stroke of luck, we were 45 minutes early into Seattle, and that was with the loss of one hour due to the Daylight Saving time change. So, technically, we were 1:45 early. Even the crew was amazed. :)
 
Only have done two LD redemptions. LAX/PDX/MSP on CS and EB (two zone roomette) and DAL/CHI/NYP on TE and LSL (two zone roomette). Both were excellent trips.
 
The Slidell Loophole I took, in 2009, was a 2 zone trip Slidell-Los Angeles by way of Washington DC, Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles, starting off as Sarah did with a coach ticket from New Orleans. I'm glad I got to do that trip before that loophole closed.
 
My three favorite AGR trips, all with Mrs. Ispolkom and all in bedroom:

2010 A one-zone award: Minot-Chicago-Washington-Slidell-New Orleans (the last leg booked in coach, of course). We checked a bag from Minot, which traveled directly on the City of New Orleans and arrived a day early.

2013 Another one-zone award: Houston-LA-Portland-St. Paul. This trip was booked years after the loophole trips were supposedly banned. I guess one agent didn't get the memo. Actually, this trip was too much of a good thing. Five straight nights in a bedroom is a night more than my back enjoys.

2015 A two zone award: San Diego-LA-Portland-St. Paul. You can still book this trip today, but when we did it there was a derailment on the UP line between Redding and Dunsmuir, so our train detoured through the Feather River Canyon and up the Inside Gateway. We got to see the Feather River Canyon from a Pacific Parlour Car. A private varnish train had made the trip the month before. Those people paid thousands of dollars, while it only cost us 40k points.
 
Since joining AGR many years ago I've always found the best bang for the buck in redemptions, usually choosing Toledo as my origination point for some really long trips. Two months ago we did TOL-CHI-LAX on 29 and 421 and on the return LAX-PDX-CHI-TOL- on 14,28 and 30. Two two zone awards in a sleeper for 40,000 points. I've done many similar trips. Until the news of this change came up, I was looking forward to another 40,000 point award in the future. I'm up to 10,000 points now. Have to wait until the end of the month for all the details. Sure hope Double Days are back next month. I take a lot of point runs. Hope that will still be economical for me.
 
NOL-CHI-(swc)LAX-OKJ-LAX-(te)CHI-CVS-NOL,was my longest!

DEN-SAC-PDX-CHI-WAS-STP,in February(to see snow) was my favorite!!!
 
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A trip we did in October 2013 for our 1st wedding anniversary... round-the-country loop in a bedroom for just 55K points... made up of 2 redemptions and generous sleeping car attendants.

We did Fort Madison, IA to Wolf Point, MT in a bedroom (40K points)... #3 FMD-LAX... #14 LAX-PDX... and #28 PDX-WPT.... we had a coach ticket from Chicago to Fort Madison... but the sleeping car attendant gave us our bedroom right out of the gate at Union Station.

Then we did Wolf Point to Milwaukee in a roomette (15K points)... but the sleeping car attendant on #28 said no one was booked in our bedroom and we could just stay in it to Milwaukee. We never had to move to the roomette we had booked.

Not too shabby... it was 6 days and 5 nights in a bedroom... the most time off the train was about 90 minutes in LAX going between #3 and #14.
 
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As for my favorite redemption, that had to be CHI to SEA, SEA to EMY, and EMY to CHI. I spent two nights in SEA and one night in EMY (technically, San Francisco), so I spent lots of points, but it was totally worth it. That was a great vacation.
That was my first big redemption too, but clockwise from CHI to EMY, EMY to PDX, PDX to SEA, and SEA to CHI. Spent two nights in San Fran, 7 nights in Portland for a conference, and 2 nights in Seattle. Lots of points, but great trip. Going that direction was suggested on these boards and the advice was right!

Best part of the redemption? I got to take my 13 year old daughter the whole way for no extra charge. Bang for the buck!
 
I had a good redemption in March. Chemult Oregon (CMO) via SAC to Galesburg IL (GBB). I rented a car in GBB and had a 1 week car rental and earned more AGR points.

I drove the rental car in 20 states and returned it in GBB and took the SWC via LAX and the CS back to CMO.

On the SWC I had breakfast with Mark Murphy (Amtrak VP - LD trains). Two two zone trips in roomettes.
 
EMY-NOL once before (and once again in early 2016), EMY-AUS once before, and perhaps EMY-TOL or EMY-CIN in the future to burn remaining points.
 
Earlier this summer, we did Emeryville to Boston on the California Zephyr and Lake Shore limited.

Awesome trip!

We booked the trip with about 6 weeks notice, glad we got that in before the AGR changes!
 
My best redemption was VAC to ALY on Cascades; 1500 pts for $122 valued ticket!

BTW, will the AGR change include the special routes?
 
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