Chessie Hokie
Train Attendant
I booked my first AGR trip for July a few days ago and just got the tickets in the mail...I'm psyched!
My AGR booked portion is as follows: Leaving Chicago on a Sunday on the California Zephyr to Sacramento, where I connect to the Coast Starlight to Portland, arriving on Wednesday. I'll layover in Portland for a night before taking the Empire Builder back on Thursday, arriving in Chicago on Saturday.
This is the AGR portion and I think I got lucky with the routing...this is the way I wanted to do it (using PDX as my destination), but the AGR agent seemed to say that I would have to take the Builder from Chicago in both directions as it is the most direct route. Luckily, though, there were no more roomettes on the westbound Builder, so that opened the door for the Zephyr/Starlight routing! I feel I got lucky on this!
I only used a two zone booking and elected to just buy a round trip coach ticket between CVS and CHI (only $118.80 with a NARP discount!)...an extra 15,000 points each way for the third zone (roomette) didn't seeem worth it for three zone travel, plus I would have worried about a same day connection between the Cardinal and Zephyr. So I chose to arrive in Chicago a day before my AGR booked CZ departure so as not to have the connection worries. I plan to rent a car and visit the Rochelle Railroad Park (UP and BNSF mainlines cross with 120 trains per day), spending the night in Rochelle before returning to CHI for the westbound CZ.
I am curious about my return connection in Chicago from the Builder to the eastbound Cardinal. Will Amtrak honor this as a "guaranteed connection"...even though they are under separate booking numbers (one with redeemed AGR points and the other with cash)? If this connection is missed due to a late arriving Builder hopefully I could still make the Capitol Limited departure and connect with the Crescent in WAS to get back to CVS, and I'm pretty sure Amtrak would accept that...but if I miss that will they consider me a true "guaranteed connection" type and put me up for the night, etc?
154 hours 44 minutes of solid train travel (6.45 days...not including layovers!), 19 states and covering 6,866 miles!
My AGR booked portion is as follows: Leaving Chicago on a Sunday on the California Zephyr to Sacramento, where I connect to the Coast Starlight to Portland, arriving on Wednesday. I'll layover in Portland for a night before taking the Empire Builder back on Thursday, arriving in Chicago on Saturday.
This is the AGR portion and I think I got lucky with the routing...this is the way I wanted to do it (using PDX as my destination), but the AGR agent seemed to say that I would have to take the Builder from Chicago in both directions as it is the most direct route. Luckily, though, there were no more roomettes on the westbound Builder, so that opened the door for the Zephyr/Starlight routing! I feel I got lucky on this!
I only used a two zone booking and elected to just buy a round trip coach ticket between CVS and CHI (only $118.80 with a NARP discount!)...an extra 15,000 points each way for the third zone (roomette) didn't seeem worth it for three zone travel, plus I would have worried about a same day connection between the Cardinal and Zephyr. So I chose to arrive in Chicago a day before my AGR booked CZ departure so as not to have the connection worries. I plan to rent a car and visit the Rochelle Railroad Park (UP and BNSF mainlines cross with 120 trains per day), spending the night in Rochelle before returning to CHI for the westbound CZ.
I am curious about my return connection in Chicago from the Builder to the eastbound Cardinal. Will Amtrak honor this as a "guaranteed connection"...even though they are under separate booking numbers (one with redeemed AGR points and the other with cash)? If this connection is missed due to a late arriving Builder hopefully I could still make the Capitol Limited departure and connect with the Crescent in WAS to get back to CVS, and I'm pretty sure Amtrak would accept that...but if I miss that will they consider me a true "guaranteed connection" type and put me up for the night, etc?
154 hours 44 minutes of solid train travel (6.45 days...not including layovers!), 19 states and covering 6,866 miles!